My formal education

Little Jewels Nursery Infant and Junior School 
Government Laboratory High School
National Bank Public School and College
Dhaka City College (DCC)
North South University (NSU)

I have studied in the top ranked (some will call best) schools, colleges and universities in my country. My education life is a surprising contrast - doing seriously brilliant sometimes, and also even failing and losing academic years. However I consistently have done surprisingly good comparing to the unbelievably small time I employ in studying.

I was the first boy of a local English medium school before 1990 when I could have myself admitted into the standard one of the reputed Govt Lab High School, considered to be the #1 ranked native language medium school for decades. There I had been doing great, but at last I had a bad break and was forced to rout to NBL Public school in early 2000. Two years later, I took my Secondary School Certificate (SSC) Exam with core science subjects and got A+ in all subjects except Bengali literature. This result (GPA 4.88 / 5) could be termed, "Star Marks, Eight Letters" in the older system. Then after quickly switching to Business Studies Group, I got into Dhaka City College (DCC) with a full-fledged scholarship like paying only 800 bucks instead of 10,000 on admission and no tuition fees etc. I also was accepted at Notre Dame College (NDC) but DCC is better and is the #1 ranked college for business education. But soon I found that wearing the uniform, ie white shirt, was harmful for me like ever before. So wasting no time, I left DCC and came back to NBL college, again provided with scholarship with other facilities.

 

In May 2004 I took my Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) exam from business studies group and came up with a GPA 4.6. For unknown reason I was very poorly marked in Computer Studies (A- grade) and the English question paper was also stupid (Got A grade) otherwise I would be getting GPA 4.9, almost the highest GPA. Still, 4.6 is not bad for business studies. Still, it was a total about three months preparation and right about one month before the exam, I became lazy again because right that time I decided to study at NSU, so I did not need any serious performance at HSC exam.

Then since 2005, I started my Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) at North South University (NSU). It is the first private university in our country and is still considered to be the best. It is undoubtedly the best for Business Admin and it is the most expensive one, too. It was founded in 1993 by a group of philanthropists, industrialists, bureaucrats and academics etc. Many of the founder members of NSU are chairman, managing director, etc. of well known industries of our country.

North South University (NSU) is totally different from all other universities / private universities for several reasons. For education standard, highest tuition etc., it is a very prestigious institution. It has an international advisory board having professors from Harvard, Uni of Pennsylvania, Stanford, Brown, Uni of Illinois etc. who monitor the activities and standard and suggest and advice on curriculum and other things. It employs top quality faculties having degree from the US or other standard universities from abroad. NSU has the facility to transfer credits and affiliation with some of the best ranked university of the USA and world, like Indiana University, Uni of Illinois etc. In summer foreign faculties from USA and other countries take classes and foreign students also attend.

NSU graduates are generally expected to get the best jobs in the business sector. As further studies is concerned, they often go abroad to very well known universities in the USA, Canada, UK, Australia etc. NSU maintains a strict US standard and system in literally it's everything. It even parallels it's academic calendar to those universities in the US.

That's why studying here is a matter of status and prestige for all.



Facts about my student life those are a bit hard to believe:

1. Contrast of performance: At Govt Lab, I had shown a great contrast of brilliancy and poor performance. While I have scored top scores with other good students, I also have records of failing at four subjects.

2. Class attendance: In the last year at Govt Lab, I have attended a total of six classes in the two-third of the whole academic year. I also missed one major exam among all three.

3. Math condition: When I was at NBL school, in the whole class nine I have never answered more than 50% of the math question in any exams. It was because I never even practiced any math at home, but my math knowledge was based on only what I used to listen to the teacher while he used to lecture at the classes. I finished my math syllabus (Of both papers - General Math and Pure Math) in about 2-3 months right before the exam in March 2002.

4. Result in the preparatory exam: In the final SSC preparatory test of NBL school, I scored only 737 / 1100. Then in the last 3 months, I raised my standard and got about 950 / 1100 in the real exam (SSC).

5. Very uncommon math question: In our time, the SSC math question was very uncommon - all really unexpected questions were given. Such uncommon math question had not been seen in the last 20-25 years in the board exam. Many female students came out crying after the exam. There were strong criticizes in the newspapers, and education board once said that it will show-cause the teachers who prepared the question sheet. There was a mass failing in math that time. Incidentally, I took the preparation of 92 / 100 for math as I did not prepare for a small section of geometry weighing 8 marks out of 100. If something goes wrong, I can surely miss the A+ grade (80% and above) answering 92%, as some teachers cut marks out of a perfect answer just for nothing. So it was a risk. Surprisingly, with this very uncommon style of question, I still could answer exact 92 marks, leaving actually nothing I prepared myself for. I was very nervous at the math exam for the risk I took, and I had a call of nature right when the question sheet was given. I had to suppress it for long three hours as I struggled to perfectly answer the totally uncommon, unexpected math questions one after another.

6. Social science: We had a subject called social science, very descriptive and boring. It also included a big part of history in it. I hated to memorize and to remember complicated things like historic dates and stuff, and always used to get poor marks there at school. In the SSC preparatory test I got only 50 out of 100 in it. However, in SSC exam, I got A+ - the highest grade, which means 80% or above, and it was not so easy to get it. I had correctly answered all the 50 MCQs (Multiple choice questions) of the question paper.

7. Highest score that time: When I got 4.88 in SSC, it was the highest score in SSC in the history of my school.

8. Praise of teachers: Both the English teachers at NBL school were my serious admirers all the time, as other students were weak in English.

9. No preparation for college admission test: To get allowed to Notre Dame College and Dhaka City College, I took no kind of preparation. (Not even touching books.)

10. First year at NBL college: After coming back to NBL college, the whole first year of the two year college I attended zero classes. Did not attend any exams too - not even the final exam to be promoted to the second year. But as I was the first boy, I was forgiven.

11. The second year: In the second year, I attended not more than six-seven classes in the whole year. Same way I attended no exams. Pre-test, test exams are given to see if a student is prepared enough to face the real board exam (HSC). I did not even attend them. I was allowed to fill up HSC form with others with condition that I would attend the mock tests of college. But I did not even attend that.

12. HSC preparation: About four months prior to HSC exam I started studying for a two-year syllabus.

13. Waking all nights: Before all the exams except English, I was awake for all the night and studied whole night and also the whole morning, and took the exam at 1 o'clock noon.

14. University admission: I tried for no other universities than NSU. I let my effort for Dhaka Uni go for it's relatively poor standard. But I could try for IBA which is very good and costs no tuition fee (as it is Govt owned) but I did not even try that.

15. NSU admission test: For NSU admission test I took no preparation at all, I talked to Bushra over cell phone all the night, in the morning I just took a bath, and went to take the admission test. I was sure I would not pass. But God saved me again.