Vishnu Dutt Sharma enjoys building & leading high-performance teams in entrepreneurial environments. VMC is expanding its national footprint and continues to raise the bar on top-quality academic delivery both in classroom and online environment, under his leadership. Vishnu has done his PGPM/MBA from IIM Bangalore. He was in the Director’s Merit List and among the toppers of his batch at IIMB, class of 2011. He did his engineering from Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi in Electronics and Communication and was Silver Medalist in the class of 2006. In an email interaction with Higher Education Digest, Vishnu Dutt Sharma talk about the Indian education system, the importance of coaching for students, and gives his top 5 tips for engineering and medical aspirants to ace their entrance exam.
India’s professional coaching industry is booming. However, most of the students prepared by the coaching institutes and placed in the elite colleges in the country are struggling to graduate with desired employability quotient. Can we blame the school system for the lack of employability of our graduates? What is your take on this?
Coaching prepares a student to crack an entrance exam which comprises of technical subjects of Physics Chemistry Mathematics & Biology. Entrance exam coaching does not train students for soft skills or hiring attitude. We can’t blame school alone for this. In some cases, students themselves are responsible, as they are not learning anything new other than curriculum. In some cases, colleges are not having proper T&P cell to train students for job-ready and few courses are obsolete in today’s industrial diaspora.
A huge part of the Indian population still resides in rural India without any attention being paid to their education system. What role do Coaching institutes like VMC play in providing quality education and coaching to students from rural and remote areas?
A large number of students who are making to various colleges belong to rural areas, which is the beauty of India. VMC is opening its centres in tier II and tier III cities. However, we cannot go to every city. We have come up with an online module of learning which has four variants, so students can take as per his need. This online course of VMC will be delivered by top faculties of India including founders of VMC. These courses are direct to the device so a student in any corner of India can learn with the uber quality of learning, tests, doubt clearing and many more.
With the emergence of Technology, how have Online Coaching Classes affected the Regular Classroom Classes?
Ed-Tech companies can become a supplement to brick and mortar companies but it’s very difficult to replace them as students from class 8th to 12th are young enough to be self-motivated to study themselves and keep the track so a human touch or teacher-student relationship is required at this moment. Also as mentioned above, it is very important to have this relationship as students have started taking a lot of mental pressure and we as teachers must act as their guiding force to help them deal with the exams fear and stress.
What are the top 5 tips every Engineering and Medical aspirant should follow to ace their Entrance Exam?
- Know your subject, syllabus and exam pattern: Physics, Chemistry and Maths/Bio form the core of JEE/NEET exams. Students must study the syllabus carefully, note the important topics, and get the books (NCERT books) for all the three subjects especially chemistry NCERT will play an important role. Besides NCERT books, students can refer to any mock test series which matches with the actual standard of the JEE/NEET. Divide your time carefully. Ensure that you comprehend all the concepts well.
- Time management: Create a time table and stick to the same. Now that there is almost a month only to the exams, students must follow a rigid time table and have ample time to solve mock tests and work on their time management. This means that they should also spend time to work on a computer to increase their speed and accuracy as they will have to give the exams in online mode. It is very important to record your time while solving questions, especially numerical questions. The students should get a fair idea of the time they spend on each question as this strategy will help while giving the exam.
- Mock Tests: As we always stress, your preparation is incomplete without solving the previous exam papers. Practice as many mock tests/sample papers/previous exam papers as you can. Do a detailed analysis after every test. Know your strengths and weaknesses topic- wise and subject-wise and resolve them with more practice.
- Revision: Revise the formulas and their derivation. Make cheat sheets for all subjects and revise them regularly. Remember the important reactions, equations and mechanisms. Focus on the revision of important formula steps, assumptions thus should be on top of the mind of the aspirant. It becomes essential that the student, basis his analysis and experience, develops a mindset and confidence of taking up which subject to start with to get maximum right answers.
- Self–care: This is an important preparation tip as you will do well, only if you feel well. Eat good food, spend time with family and take proper sleep. Study with fresh and a happy mind. Do meditation and neck exercises as studying for long hours may create discomfort and stiffness in your body.
Despite being a developing nation with a promising number of young talents, do we have appropriate skilling infrastructure in our country? What are your suggestions to improve the employability status of young Indian students?
in my opinion, India has a lot of young talent but many of them do not have the right direction. Indeed, we do not have adequate skilling infrastructure in our country. We can have multiple vocational courses at various levels in education from school to colleges to increase employability. Also, professional and skill schools should add soft skills in their curriculum. Students themselves need to be aware of what is the current requirement of the industry and make themselves fit into it.
As the country progresses into knowledge and digital economy, what are the major challenges for academicians in India?
Academicians have adequate knowledge of their subject and usually, they get themselves updated with the change in the syllabus and new methodology of teaching. The introduction of digital or tech in academics is taking it to a different level. It has made students visualise and learn faster on one hand. On the other hand, it has made students learn via direct to devise model where they can learn from the comfort of their home. The digital model is price effective as well.