Maze of Electives in College
Long gone are the days when I could have considered myself a student of a particular domain. My academic drive was, sadly, piqued by only my honours subject. It was only after delving in courses by different departments, could I realize how myopic I had been.
With the infamous NEP structural changes, at times we feel we're studying obscure & material so far removed from the course we so desperately sought to be admitted to. However, as guilty as I was then of being a naive fresher with a dangerously skewed perspective, I now realize this has been one of the better changes DU could have offered to it students. Under Delhi University's New Education Policy, which was piloted with our admissions batch of 2022, is a skew of 2-credit courses included for the first 4 semesters. This dilutes the erstwhile, more domain-oriented structure before.
In fact, out of the 7 subjects we have for the first four semesters, only 3 are compulsory- the core subjects of your course- with the remaining 4 being open to your choice- perhaps more so your colleges' choice- as you can opt for them as per your interests. These 4 subjects- namely the GE (General Elective), AEC(Ability Enhancement Course), VAC(Value Addition Course) & SEC(Skill Enhancemnent Course)- in fact - serve a much more useful purpose than simply being a slew of letters. Note that all these are 2-credit courses, with the exception of GEs. More on that later.
Now, this may come across as a no-brainer. Everyone has their preferences, after all. And it certainly could be, if marks aren't your primary aim. No matter what your honours subject may be, you can opt for any discipline in your electives, as long as they're offered by your college. Some electives could simply complement well your honours subject, like how Computer Science courses pair with Math cores. Or you may be fuelled by a sense of academic hangover, as many freshers are prone to. The earlier system made it theoretically possible to slack off the entire semester, and still score well overall- given the high weightage afforded to only the end semester exams. But not anymore. In the barrage of internals for 7 subjects, countless tutorial tests, the layout demands a smarter method of dealing with your academics.
Moreover, with the change in the distribution of marking pattern between internals & the University exam, it's not as simple anymore as looking only at the final University exams in order to gauge the relative 'potential' for a subject. Some professors, and even some colleges, are notorious for lacking any semblance for leniency when it comes to grading. Your individual professor, and your college, have a much greater stake in this new system of DU. So it's generally always good practice to consult your seniors about particular courses, along with basing your decision off of the University exam papers as well.
A big complication many of you may face is that, what interests you may conventionally not be very high-scoring. It's always up to you ultimately to figure out with respect to your future plans, and how important marks are for you. Conventional arts electives like literature, philosophy, etc. may not be the most scoring, but do require less intense effort over the course of the semester than do high-scoring, 'objective' ones like Computer Science & Math, at the cost of putting in much more work.
These subjects can work really well in your favour, as they can be quite scoring & a significant cushion to your overall grades- provided you make the right choices. I could fail to understate their importance, as many of us actually owe our CGPAs more to these electives than to our own cores. Scoring high in conventionally more challenging cores, like Economics or Math, may be much harder than 'choosing' decent subjects, with a combination of interest & potential for scoring which works for you.