Vidyamandir classes
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Vidyamandir Classes (VMC for short) is a for-profit coaching institute in Delhi for the all-India examination IIT-JEE through which people enter the IITs. The training provided at Vidyamandir is also considered good for other engineering entrance examinations.
There are other institutes for training in IIT-JEE and this artical is just an other spanning effort
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[edit] Courses
[edit] For people finishing tenth standard
Vidyamandir offers a Regular Classroom Course (RCC for short) that goes on for two years, beginning in the April after the tenth standard board examinations and proceeding until the April of the IIT-JEE. The course is split into modules, with regular testing, in the form of:
- Test Series: These are conducted at Test Centers in Delhi with a real-time testing flavour. The Test Series are corrected either by the teachers or by some of the ex-students. Altogether, 10 tests are held in this series.
- Class Tests: Several surprise class tests are held during the lecture hours.
- Module Tests: These are given along with the Study Package to be tried at the end of each Module. Students are supposed to evaluate themselves.
The Regular Classroom Course is taught by the three brothers running Vidyamandir, namely:
- Brijmohan Gupta, also known as bade bhaiyya: Chemistry
- Shyammohan Gupta, also known as chhote bhaiyya: Physics
- Manmohan Gupta, also known as munna bhaiyya: Mathematics
All of them are IIT passouts.
The administrative in charge, Mr. Sandeep Mehta, also takes close interest in the performance of the students.
More than 10,000 students from Delhi and neighbouring regions sit for the Admission Test to the course and less than 200 are selected.
The new pattern is quite different from the old pattern wherein there was Phase I (April to October of the first year) and Phase II (November of the first year to December of the next year) and a Final Step (January to April). In the earlier system, there was an Admission Test for Phase I with over 10,000 students sitting the test. Admission to Phase II was based on an Admission Test to Phase II as well as the performance during Phase I. Through this test, students doing the Correspondence courses and giving the Test Series of VMC had an opportunity to join.
All students from Phase II received direct admission to the Final Step, and some additional batches were also taken.
Recently, Vidyamandir has also introduced an Extended Classroom Course (ECC for short) for the students who just miss making it to the RCC. These classes are taught by VMC passouts who have made it to IIT and the course is run in a similar way to the RCC.
The teachers for the ECC are continually changing. At a certain point of time, they were:
- Subham Mittal (AIR 6 and IChO Gold Medalist), Akshay (IITD), Palvinder (2nd Year, IIT Delhi) : Physics , Aditya Bhalla ( IITD Elec. Engg. 4th Yr )
- Vivek (Working full time at VMC): Mathematics
- Kulwinder (IITD Passout) : Chemistry
[edit] Courses for younger students
With the market for coaching for +2 getting saturated, coaching institutes are now trying to target students from junior classes. Vidymamandir has introduced a course with the purpose of bridging the gap between the level of difficulty of the class ten examinations and the rigours of the IIT-JEE examination. This course is called MathGenii and comprises ten classes in mathematics for students of tenth standard.
[edit] Courses for twelfth standard passouts
Vidyamandir has also introduced a one-year course for twelfth pass students. This course is usually attended by students doing engineering or science courses at other colleges, who want to attempt the JEE again. The batch is thus often called the B.Sc. batch or buddhon waala batch (batch of old people).
[edit] Venue, timing etc.
[edit] Venue
The Vidyamandir Classrooms are located in the West Punjabi Bagh, Central market located in West Delhi. The classrooms are in an office complex. They are well-lit with air conditioning and white boards to facilitate easy viewing. Earlier, the classrooms were located in a house in Punjabi Bagh, where the classrooms were somewhat cramped.
The location is somewhat far, especially for people living in South or East Delhi.
[edit] Duration and content
Each class at Vidyamandir is of one subject and is officially meant to take three hours. However, the classes often overshoot this time limit and can be expected to, on the average, finish four hours from the time of official starting.
The typical way a class proceeds:
- Students arrive by about fifteen minutes before the class begins. Attendance is taken.
- Study materials, class tests and other things are distributed.
- The lecture begins. The lecture usually begins within half an hour of the scheduled time.
- The lectures goes on for about 3 to 3.5 hours. There are no official breaks, though the lecturers may give short breaks. Sometimes, to break the monotony, and also to prepare the students psychologically, the lecturers may start discussions not directly pertinent to the subject, but related to life and JEE preparation in general.
- The lecture ends, and students ask the lecturer their doubts (this is usually informal, outside the class).
[edit] Frequency, timing and schedule
There is no general weekly schedule (as of 2004). The following guidelines are typically followed:
- Classes on working days, during periods when school is open, are usually held at 3:30 p.m. This is unless all students are willing to forgo attending school to have a morning class.
- Classes on other days are held in the morning, starting somewhere ebtween 9:30 and 11:00.
- Each class is of only one subject.
- Clases are held approximately once a week.
[edit] Performance and locus standi
[edit] Percentage success
Vidyamandir has a high success rate ranging between 60% and 80%. The recent trend, however, indicates that their percentage success rate is declining somewhat.
Figures:
- 2006: 63.27% in RCC i.e. 174/275
- 2005: 68.9% in RCC i.e. 178/258
- 2004: 74.4% in RCC i.e. 191/258
While looking at the percentage success rate and its slight decline, we must keep in mind the following:
- The number of people appearing for the IIT-JEE examination, as well as the number of coaching institutes, is rising steadily. Thus, percentage success rates are bound to decline.
- A large number (over 10,000) of people sit the entrance test at VMC, and the top 200 are selected. Most of the selected students join the institute. This indicates that to a large extent, their success depends on the quality of student intake.
- The percentage success rate is only indicative of the total number of people who make it through the JEE. Many of these students may have ranks that do not leave them with the flexibility of joining good courses at IIT.
[edit] Positions in the top ranks
Vidyamandir has about 9–10 students in the all-India top 100 every year, with a significant dominance in the Delhi region. Its result at IIT-JEE varies from 50 - 75 % which is a staggering achievement looking at the number of students getting through JEE are only 2% of the lot that takes the exam. It is this ratio that makes JEE arguably the toughest exam at the under-graduate level in the whole world. At the same time, a large number of VMC students score ranks in the range of 3000-4000, which bars them from taking up good options at IIT. As far as Delhi is concerned, Vidyamandir Classrs dominates the CEE (combined engineering exam for DCE and NSIT, the two engineering colleges under Delhi University) result. Out of the 1000 odd student that get through out of around 150,000 candidates around 200 are from VMC. Hence almost all the VMC students get through the prestigious CEE Delhi state level pre-engineering test.
[edit] Pros and cons of Vidyamandir
[edit] Psychological training
One of the areas where Vidyamandir claims to stand out is in psychologically preparing its students for the IIT-JEE. Students from VMC feel it is one of the few coaching institutes that continue to command their respect even after they move on in life. The psychological training may include:
- General advice on why to prepare for IIT, or leave it if not required
- General advice on how to prepare for IIT
- Individual sessions with students who face problems. Sometimes, the teachers may themselves ask the students to meet them. At times, the students go and meet the teachers.
- Sessions with the parents, if needed.
[edit] Brainwashing
Vidyamandir has come under fire from certain quarters for some advice it gives as part of the psychological preparation. This advice includes:
- A moratorium on all books other than the preparatory material they supply: The ban on books is largely meant for students just starting their eleventh standard, so as to prevent them from overwhelming themselves with guides and other coaching materials. It is relaxed in later years. Nonetheless, it has been argued that this ban reduces the natural curiosity of a student and his or her ability to learn from books, and makes him or her a spoon-fed child.
The defence is that the primary purpose of VMC is to get students through the JEE and not to enhance their curiosity levels. They feel that JEE does not require more practice than what is provided by the VMC material and that curiosity and reading books are skills that should be developed once the students have become a little more mature.
- Criticism of parents, school teachers and other coaching classes: The rationale offered by VMC is that this criticism helps students objectively examine what their parents and school teachers tell them rather than blindly accept it. The criticism may offend the sensibilities of a few, but to others, it gives a new perspective and frees them of the pressures they may feel from their parents and others.
