Some FAQs and common doubts

Non-credit and additional learning courses

There are three types of non-credit courses:

1) NCC/NSO/NSS
2) Practical Training
3) Work Visits

Audit courses are the courses that are opted just for the purpose of an exposure in the course. There is grade AU associated with the course if you fulfill the minimum requirements for AU as decided by the instructor.You can opt for a maximum of two Audit courses during your degree. ( for more details go to rule book at http://gymkhana.iitb.ac.in/~academics/rules.php)

Note that a non-credit course does not contribute towards completion of pre-requisite for some other course.

Regarding additional learning courses, they may be included in the Overall CPI calculated by taking into account all the credit courses done by the student including additional learning courses. However Core CPI is unaffected by the additional learning courses.

The various CPIs

Core CPI-The CPI calculated using only your core courses which include the institute electives and department electives done by a person as per the curriculum.

Overall CPI-The CPI calculated using all the credit courses taken by a student, including minor and honor courses.

Honor CPI-CPI calculated using only Honor courses

Minor CPI-CPI calculated using only minor courses

Non credit courses do not come in any CPI. Additional learning courses count in overall CPI.

Why these different CPIs?

We need to have all sorts of measures to quantify effort put by students. It is upto the different authorities to take the decision, which measure of effort(which kind of CPI), they want to use to judge a person. eg placement cell might decide to  choose overall CPI or perhaps they might find it unfit, so may continue with core CPI and minor, honor CPI.

Sequencing of institute electives/department electives

The institute and department electives need not be always done in the semesters they are shown in the curriculum of the department. A person can do these electives beforehand and then not take these courses in the concerned semester.

e.g. A third/fourth/fifth semester chemical engineering student need not take any insti/dep elective, but if he/she takes any

elective in any of these then he/she need not take elective in 6th sem, in which they are officially supposed to the elective.

Additional procedures for people who have done elective beforehand and now registering for semester in which elective is to be done

1.If registration status of previous semester it was tagged as department/institute elective only. Then if the elective is dropped, this semester it will not be considered as backlog. however due to software issues asc will show it a backlog which needs to be manually removed by the academic office on writing an application.

2.In case your Extra Dept. elective is tagged as an additional learning course, then if you drop a dept. elective and then it will be considered a backlog. If you are a Btech then tagging will open for you in Mid Aug 2011. If you tag that course as Dept. elective then you will have to manually apply for removal of backlog.

3.An institute elective and a department elective are by definition not interchangeable, since institute elective is outside department and department elective is inside department. However for very rare case usually with very high CPI and on approval from Department HOD+Dean AP, a person may go for taking institute elective as a department elective. This is very highly discouraged though, and this is not a procedure/rule but an exception to rule.

Which courses are being offered as minor and which as electives?

The respective DUGC of each department decides and has full authority on whether to run a course as a minor or an elective or as both with limitations on seats for both tags. NO department has made public, if it is running any course as an elective, or has given any count of the no. of seats for the same to the academic office.

Hence all courses which are offered as minor are primarily minor courses and as an exception people may approach professors of these courses after taking them as minor, during the adjustment time itself to tag them as institute elective.

This procedure of tagging them as institute elective is an EXCEPTION and that's why needs manual permission from the instructor. The instructor has full authority on this.

eg. the following post from the forum:

Question-I wish to take MG 405 running in Slot 5 as an institute elective.But on registering for it,ASC says "There is no entry for this course in the current semester".No such problem is occurring with the other MG 403 course for those who want it as an institute elective.Only asks to take approval from the faculty.What is the issue with this particular course?

Answer-The MG department has offered this course (MG 405) only as minor and NOT as institute elective. Therefore you cannot take it as institute elective. Whereas MG 403 is offered as both Insti elective and minor. if the professor of MG 405 agrees to float it as elective then people can take it accordingly by a manual process however that has been declined by the professor of the course.

ASC has been informed of the wrong error message and is being corrected.

Taking PG electives

A PG elective is alloted in the following decreasing order of preference-PhD, Mtech,DD,Btech.

A Btech or a DD who is not in 5th year needs to have at least CPI of 6.5, in order to take PG electives. An instructor may however keep his/her own criterion over these conditions.

eg in HS623 the instructor has lifted the cut-off of CPI for Btech and non 5th yr DD to 8, instead from 6.5 

PG courses for DD students

DD students are supposed to complete some no. of PG courses as electives by the end of 5 years. eg in chemical engineering DD students need to do 4 PG courses by the end of 5 years.

The DD students take PG electives in any year, and are eligible to take courses floated as PG core courses in their 5th year only.  It does not mean that 5th yr DD students cannot take any UG elective or PG elective. So if someone has done a PG elective in 2nd/3rd/4th yr, then it does not mean that he will out of PG  courses by the end of 5th year to complete PG electives. Tagging PG elective as an institute elective does not mean they cannot count towards PG elective. A chemical engineering student eg needs to do 4 PG electives and 2 institute electives.

So a possible distribution could be 2 UG electives, 4 PG electives or 1 UG and 5 PG electives ,all 6 PG electives, or 2UG elective, 2 PG elective, 2PG core courses tagged as elective and done in 5th year, or 4 PG electives done till 4th year and doing remaining electives from the basket of UG electives or PG core courses.

For branch change students

In case of a branch change you can also do your DIC of the new dept. as a SELF STUDY course which has no slot. Contact your Faculty Adviser for this ASAP !! You can do other courses like PH 103/105 in the coming sem as well. 

Does a successful registration means I have definitely got the course

NO!!!!!, succesful registration does not mean you have definitely got the course. there might be seat restrictions or other criterion like CPI set by the instructors or pre-requisites which you might not have done. Make sure you talk to the instructor  to confirm your eligibility. 

People should not complain if they are told to drop some course , by the instructor even after successful registration. eg in HS 623 the instructor had a special criterion of CPI 8, hence people lost out. Last year IDC 601 instructor permitted 220 seats, even when originally seats were 120, which benefited students. This year IDC has other guidelines etc, eg it is not offering elective but only as minor.