Graduating as a Mechanical Engineer from Mumbai University (with distinction) was one of the best things that happened to me. Although I haven’t retained the trend I chose to graduate, I will continue to be a chauvinist. Here are some tips for fairing good and good books to refer to develop ilm that can never be taken down, no matter which industry you move to.

Engineering is almost free from the rat-race that prevails in pre-graduation education. Engg is all about aptitude & self-study. One cannot rely upon a teacher, class or tuition and has to find his own way out. Although enough resource is available, sticking to reference books is the best option.

At least for the first two months of the semester, one should only focus on reading reference books, merely as a novel and preparing their own notes in the shortest possible way. Later, one can turn attention to the ready-reckoners that are tailor-made as per the syllabus and highly exam-oriented. Too much extremity in either case, reference books or ready-reckoners, can be harmful, although each one has their own distinct advantage.

Reference books take you to the depth of the subject and tell you enough that you should know about it. It makes the viva-voce highly easy as you are aware of most the conceptual problems. It makes problem solving & analysis very easy as is the case of most of the subjects related to Mechanical Engg. The concrete concepts developed using these books will prove of great help all through life.

Ready-reckoners, on the other hand, explain only those topics that are mentioned in the syllabus. However, a few other concepts related to the topics may not be covered simply because they are not part of the course. This may cause ‘absolute dumbness’ during the viva-voce. But on the contrary, they give you a complete idea of how questions are framed in the papers, their weight-age, frequency & also solutions to problems. It avoids the use of more than one book as the entire content is available in a single copy. But they do not focus on concept & their application.

 When using reference books, one has to take aid of the syllabus to avoid unnecessary topics or entering too much detail. Reference of previous question papers helps to judge the importance, weight-age, occurrence & form of a particular question. Using ready-reckoners from the beginning of the semester can seldom help you learn the subject. If your prime objective is scoring 40 marks, one can actually do it in the last few days. But if the paper, even slightly, deviates from the normal pattern, then you are bound to be struck. I personally do not recommend using Fanatics or TechMax/TechNova (except for subjects that are vast, or a compilation of 2 or more subjects or for subjects whose books are not readily available)

Note: This post comes out my old website, writen in my final year, hence the jazzy colors.