This is my 3rd blog post regarding CDAC ACTS Panchawati Pune and probably the most detailed one as I have spent almost 2 months in Pune, pursuing PGDAC (Diploma in Advanced Computing). Here is what I wrote regarding the CCAT for admissions to their courses and here is what I wrote during the first week of my CDAC journey in Pune. Though I wrote last post almost 45 days ago, it feels like it was just yesterday for me when I landed in Pune. So here comes the first takeaway - The course is really FAST PACED. Note the emphasis on the words in capital and bold. You may find it hard to kill time while sitting idle at home but here Time Travels really really fast here. It's like 'Blink N U Miss'. Ok ok, let's save these tips for the <body>.....</body> 
I am writing this post while on my way home to delhi for the Diwali break (15OCT-22OCT). This might he the first time that CDAC ACTS has granted a week for holidays. Not sure about it. Let's skip to the contents of this post :
The Faculty -
- So let us start with the first subject that is taught for the DAC course - CPP Programming. This subject was taught by Praful Kolte sir and he is already the best teacher ever for me. He also taught Data Structures and Algorithms to us. The best thing about him is that he makes you understand the concepts in the easiest of the language with heavy doses of examples from the real life blended with humor. This makes you enjoy his lectures as well as understand the concepts like never before. I wish every teacher was like him. I remember him saying to students in first or second class that he won't let us sleep in the class. This sentence has 2 interpretations - "Either he will pin point to students sleeping to wake them up/send them outside" or "he will teach you so well that you won't feel like sleeping". Here it was the later case. For this to be followed, there are some prerequisites that one should follow. Follow along what he is teaching and you need to have some pre-knowledge about the programming otherwise you will find it difficult to follow and in the end, blame it on the teacher. He would tell you stories from his life, previous batches and IT industry and correlate the with what he is teaching which would make his class, a treat for the ears and mind. The more doubts you ask him, the more you will gain from him. The class would be there for no more than 4 hours (mostly 3 hour classes). The only downside was that due to less time, he has skipped Searching,Sorting techniques. I wish the management allotted him more time. and here's a bad news(hopefully false) for the CDAC ACTS Pune hopefuls. This was the last batch that Praful sir taught (said by him) due to time constraints between his job, personal life and his teaching hobby. That means we were the lucky ones. I hope this will not be true and he would rethink this decision. These 2 subjects would be completed in one go, that is no break of a week or days in between.
- Second subject which started during the first week was Software Engineering taught by Dinesh Anantwar sir who also teaches at Sunbeam Pune. He would start with one and half hour introduction of himself which includes his work experience, early retirement at age 39, his hobbies - trekking and his social profiles and his social work. He is one of the most friendliest, well learned, soft spoken teachers around. His presentation skills are excellent and there is no one close to him. One thing which works against him is that the subject Software engineering is a theoretical one and has a lot less to cover for the time allotted relative to subjects like CPP Programming or Web Programming. The ones who have studied this subject in college would agree to this. To compensate, he would often extend a topic for hours. But he would try to make them interesting with a lot of examples, role-plays, activities etc. At times you will feel like sleeping in his class. However, it is OK to sleep and he also won't disturb anybody. A lot of things will seem obvious when he would explain the concepts but the point is that only a handful will think of these obvious things before he explains. These classes would take 3.5-4 hours with a few 5 hour classes (Don't worry, there will be breaks in between). He would always try to make the sessions interactive which is a plus point. This subject will be completed in around total of 10-12 classes. For us, it started in August and there was a long break in between before it's completion in 1st week of october.
- Aptitude and Effective communication (2 different classes) also started during the initial weeks. These are the 2 most important things which you will need to get a job. Aptitude will clear your first hurdle while the English will help you in the interviews to explain your technical understanding. From our batch, they have also include a test for aptitude for the final exams along with the main technical subjects. Aptitude is being taught by Vikrant Sir. He won't waste much time to explain the basics as it is a given that most of the students know some of the aptitude as they have cleared the CCAT exam. So he will prepare you for the worst case scenario with all the questions that aren't generally asked in a normal aptitude test but considering he is working closer to the industry and knows the current situations well, I would rather listen for what he has to say. He would also give you advice for like 20 minutes in every class which will motivate you. The point he makes is that almost everyone thinks of preparing for the aptitude during the end time, that is, near the placements, one should do it consistently over the course of 6 months. Even if you do just 2-3 questions a day, it would hardly take an hour. and after you get a job, aptitude is the last thing anybody is going to care about (unless you plan to give government job exams side by side). Coming to effective communication taught by Eileen ma'am- these classes will make you feel relieved and lighter in your head after all the technical stuff you see everyday. The point is that the more you speak in English, the more you will get comfortable with it. Even if you know only a few words, you should at least try. The first class will require each student's introduction in front of the class of around 50-60 (DAC -240 Students - 4 batches of 60). You need to prepare presentations in groups of 10 on any topic for the internals. Make sure you don't speak in Hindi during this class as you might have to sing or dance in front of everyone, if she catches you. You will be provided a booklet for the exercises regarding English grammar which will be done only during the class, and the answers will be read out aloud by each student turn wise. YEAH!! School Like.😂
- Then started the Operating Systems taught by Rajesh Sola sir. This subject felt like a whirlwind. There is always one such subject which comes and goes and mostly no one knows what is going on.😋 This is rather an overstatement. It wasn't that bad but it felt like one relative to the high bar set by Praful Sir and Dinesh Sir. Adding to the misery, the labs were not scheduled along with the theory classes, so there was a large void between what he taught and what we understood. Even till Diwali, there are no lab sessions held for this subject.
- The next in line was DBMS (MySQL) which was taught by Rahul Bansal sir. He was also one of the most friendliest teacher to teach us, moreover he had a good rapport with the students. He would teach in Hindi and English (occasionally) and type running notes during the class, later distributed to students. He would be there for full time, so learn as much as you can from him while he's there. Praful sir was one of the lab faculty in this subject. His knowledge in every subject is worth a mention. Keep asking your doubts from them and you will get extra knowledge each time. Remember : Knowledge never goes to waste.
- The next subject which was completed just before the Diwali break was Advanced Web Programming taught by Shrilata ma'am. Some of the technologies you will learn in this subject will be HTML, CSS, Javascript, XML, JSON, AJAX, PHP. This is one of the most important subject with a lot of technologies taught in a very less time. So it might get a bit overwhelming during the classes. The key is to ....... OK, let's include these tips at the end so that I can generalize for all the subjects. W3Schools will be your go to website for this subject. That doesn't mean ma'am doesn't teach well. All you have to do is keep practicing what is taught the current day. That way you don't have backlogs to cover for later time.
How to Study
- The first and most important tip is to just revise what is taught the current day. You may complain of lack of time but you have to take out an hour or two to go through the current topics apart from the practicals. Many students would leave what they don't understand or even understand to look up at later date or during the placement preparations. Believe me, there will be no later date. All you gotta do, you have to do it today itself.
- I can vouch for the quality of teaching that is better than any other private and many government engineering colleges. Can't say about comparison with IITs or NITs . That will be like comparing apples and oranges. So all you have to do is keep asking doubts. The teachers will be there between the breaks and after the class ends for doubt solving. However that doesn't mean you ask lame or minuscule doubts or keep asking the teacher for everything that is, spoon-feeding. Just rethink what you did, ask you friends, look up on the internet and then approach the teacher (My Tip). Protip : Whether you have any doubts or not, just go near the teacher's desk where all other students are asking there doubts. There will be times when you can learn more from these doubt solving sessions than the whole class.
- Always look for extra knowledge than your peers. Each student in your class is being taught the same thing as you but to rise from the herd, you have to be a little different. That'll only happen if you have more knowledge than your peers. Always question WHY are you studying this technology??, what is it's use??, how is it better than alternatives??, what are the alternatives??, where will it fir in the bigger picture?? etc. If you don't have answers for these questions then there is no point trying to cram up stuff just for the placements.
- The above point can be followed by looking up multiple sources. Multiple sources include your Teacher, The books provided by CDAC, online forums like Stack Overflow and the most important - The documentation of the technology. Never take what you read from a source at it's face value. If most of the sources are saying the same thing, then only you can be sure that what you are studying and understanding is correct.
- Remember : Treat you teachers like God, always follow what they tell. However that doesn't mean follow them blindly or don't question them. They can be wrong too.
- Lab session are of 3-4 hours and they are there for a reason. There is no point cramming up the theory unless you put it to good use. The labs are open 24*7 for the boys and till 9 or 10pm at night for the girls. That doesn't mean you have to go to the lab during extra hours because everyone else is doing it. You can study at your accommodation on you laptop too if you don't get distracted by everything else (that may take a little more hardwork to get the required software up and running). There will be distractions in the labs too. So choose wisely.
Now the DO's and DON'Ts
- Don't get late for the class. Sometimes there will be someone from the management waiting for you outside the class. Never argue with them. Always maintain a good rapport with them. Only they will come to your help for your problems.
- There are a limited eateries around, so if you are not eating from the CDAC Canteen, you better hurry up as the seating may get full when you reach there to have your lunch. The food quality is the same everywhere, that is disappointing for someone from Delhi.😑
- Mange your time well. Take a minimum of 6 hour sleep. There is no point sleeping during the afternoon/evening and stay up late at night to study. There will be times when you will fall asleep in the class or feel sleepy. But if you just open your phone and look through some stuff then VOILA! all your sleep is just gone. That's because the stuff teacher is teaching is going over your head. It is ok to sleep in the class but remember to find a seat at the corners or the last rows.😀
- Always sit in the middle column (especially for DAC Students) as the students are around 240 and the teacher stays in the middle most of the times. Don't follow this if you plan to take a nap. 😊
- The syllabus will be over by December (August to February batch). and them exams, project and placements will follow. So prepare as you study the subjects then and there itself.
- Always maintain a good company, that is of knowledgeable students.You can always learn new things from them. Stay away from stuff which gets you high. You know what I mean to say.😋
- Get up before anyone else if you have to bath daily because after that you won't find time to go to the bathrooms.☺
- The proxies can be done (just like college) but if you are caught (low chances) then GOD BE WITH YOU. Before taking an urgent holiday, please inform your course coordinator beforehand.
- Our course coordinator told us that more companies want students proficient in .Net. So choose your project wisely.
- Always complete your assignments on time as lab evaluation may consist of viva or checking of those programs or a practical for the pair of students. This is different from the practical exam.
- There will be 2 students on a single system in the labs so choose your partner carefully.
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| Stuff provided by CDAC |
These are the books provided to us by CDAC along with a Bag. Remember : NO one will read all these books but always refer to them if you want to look up a specific topic.
Now I sign off . I don't know when will my next post come but I am sure it will come. Thanks
If you have any doubts, you can comment here. I will try and reply you.
Now I sign off . I don't know when will my next post come but I am sure it will come. Thanks
If you have any doubts, you can comment here. I will try and reply you.
