My experience at NITA was life changing: Bhanu Verma

National Institute of Technology - Agartala

I was in class Xth when my dad’s friend suggested about coaching classes in Kota. Like every student, I joined an elite coaching class - ALLEN. The experience in Kota was sort of life-changing.

As a guy, I was an introvert who never travelled alone. To be honest, I had never left my mom and dad before. It was hard, but it was rewarding. The experiences I went through had an immense effect on my thinking as well as personality, and my perception regarding the world changed.

I always wanted to follow my dad’s footsteps, so I joined classes for IIT-JEE, and with 2 years of consistency and hard work, I appeared for JEE Main just like 14 lakh other students. I got shortlisted among 1.5 lakh students, which means I qualified for NITs. Unfortunately, I missed the cut-off for IITs by 8 marks. I was devastated and heartbroken, and I was left with NITs, VIT as I scored 6000 rank in VITEEE and 295 marks in BITSAT. But the marks for BITS was not sufficient enough to get me in Pilani with the desired branch.

For me, the best way to prepare was self-studies and solving the examination papers again and again of elite coaching classes. Most of the time, it solely depends on the student. Coaching classes just give you the torch, while the rest is left to you for reaching the destination.

Finally, I applied for JoSAA seat allocation and got NIT Agartala in the spot round, with the desired branch being civil engineering. At that time, my college was not so well-reputed among other NITs, but now, I can proudly say that I am a part of NITA family.

The first day of the college was tough. We were not allowed to wear shorts; only tracksuits or lowers were allowed so that they (seniors) can spot us from the crowd and punish us of course. As part of ragging, we had to introduce ourselves with every detail. If you are from Hindi medium, your introduction must be in Hindi and I mean pure Hindi. The same happened with us. As a part of ragging, sometimes our seniors made us dance in the middle of the market. Overall, life in the first year was fun. There was no stress regarding projects, seminars and placements.

For civil engineers, the second year of the college was decent in terms of difficulty of the branch. I would suggest all guys who are pursuing civil to learn as much as possible during the 3^rd and 4^th semester. If you ask me, I would suggest courses like AUTOCAD, STADDPRO, and intermediate level of C and C++ programming, because the moment you enter the 3^rd year of the college, especially for civil guys, this is when the real difficulty of the branch starts to show up with 6 core subjects, in both semesters.

The third year is one of the most important years for students preparing for competitive exams (IES, GATE) as well, because the majority of the syllabus for these competitive exams are derived from core subjects.

As of today, I am in the 7^th semester, preparing for placements as well as UPSC side by side. While focusing on studies, do work on yourself, in the sense on your personality and your communication skills, which is paramount for job interviews and for life too. Because most of the students, especially Hindi medium guys, only work on their CGPA part.

About the Author

Bhanu Prakash Verma

My name is Kunwar Bhanu Prakash Verma and I am pursuing BTech in Civil Engineering from National Institute of Technology, Agartala. My hobbies include playing football, gaming and reading.