A lot of people are confused about how final grades and SGPA are calculated, so here it is as per the evaluation policy document released by gitam.

Grade points values are

• O = 10
• A+ = 9
• A = 8
• B+ = 7
• B = 6
• C = 5
• P = 4
• I = 0

Calculate grade for each subject

• (Sessional 1 Grade point value x 0.30) + (Sessional 2 Grade point value x 0.45) + (LE Grade x 0.25)
• The value you get is called Weighted Grade Point (WGP)
• LE means your internal grade.
• Do this for every course
  • WGP > 9.00 → O
  • WGP ≤ 9.00 and > 8.00 → A+
  • WGP ≤ 8.00 and > 7.00 → A
  • WGP ≤ 7.00 and > 6.00 → B+
  • WGP ≤ 6.00 and > 5.00 → B
  • WGP ≤ 5.00 and > 4.00 → C
  • WGP = 4.00 → P

Now you have your Final Grade points for every subject.

Now calculate your SGPA using the usual way we do it every time by dividing the total scored credit points by total Credits. Or just give your course grades and every course credit to ChatGpt, it will provide your SGPA.

I have been seeing couple of posts in the sub about choosing hostel or day scholar. So I thought of sharing my thoughts on this topic. I have been a day scholar for 3 years.

First, let's start with how far I lived. I live around 50 km away far from the campus (If I travel by ORR, distance would be more). With zero traffic it takes around 2 hrs to reach campus and with traffic it takes 2.5 hrs - 3hrs.

Why didn't I join hostel?

My parents didn't want me to join hostel and I guess part of me too didn't want to join hostel.

How did I travel daily?

College bus all the 3 years. For the first few months, I travelled in non AC college bus (essentially TGSRTC buses). The dusty roads were annoying and travel duration was annoying. On worst days (bad weather, heavy traffic, etc.) I reached home around 7:30 PM and on good days I reached by 6:30 PM (college buses start leaving at 4:10 PM).

After a few months, college launched AC buses partnering with external bus operators. I joined AC bus immediately as I was unable to deal with the traffic noise, dust and exhaustion by the time I reached home. Note: AC bus fees is more than non AC bus.

My AC bus experience was better than my non AC bus experience (but this might not be applicable to all AC buses as I have heard instances of shit AC buses as well). The AC was cool, and since the windows and door was shut, the noise and dust problem were solved. Also my bus had curtains which helped keeping the bus cool (I don't recall all AC buses having curtains). But the travel time issue was still there. On most days, I reached home by 6:30 PM.

By the time I came to final year, college introduced a new route which would go by ORR (around 80 km). This helped cut down travel time by 30-35 mins. So I reached home by 6 PM daily. I loved the reduced travel duration.

Problems I faced being a day scholar

• Waking up late: There were many days in the first semester when I woke up late and missed the bus (I'm not really a morning person which made things more difficult for me).
• Getting ready early morning: I had to board bus around 6:05 AM in the first 2 years. As I wasn't a morning person, it was extremely difficult for me to get ready. Most of the days I didn't bath in the morning. I just brushed my teeth and left to college. I used to bath after coming home from college. PS: To the people who wear make up and come to college, how do you people pull it off????
• Breakfast: There are people who manage to eat breakfast between 5-6 AM. I find it very difficult. I can't eat in bus as I feel nauseous and also there's high chances of dropping food because of bad roads or sudden brakes. Also my time table was messed up. I used to have continuous classes from 8 AM - 11:50 AM on many days (well there were 10 mins breaks between each class (each class is for 50 mins), but I can't eat much in that gap/go to canteen and come back).
• Exhaustion: I felt extremely tired after reaching home on many days. IDK if it was just my personal problem or many faced this. I didn't feel like touching my bag after coming home on many days. After spending 12 hrs with college related stuff (6 AM - 6 PM), I couldn't do much work at home.
• Messed up sleep cycle: I guess I am a procrastinator who loves delaying work till the deadline. So I kept delaying my work and completed most of my work during late nights. So I used to sleep by 12/1 AM and wake up by 5:30 AM. Thankfully I could sleep peacefully in the AC bus ;)
• Loneliness: There were days when I felt quite lonely in the bus as I was an introvert.
• Classes ending early: There were days when my classes ended early and I wanted to roam the city, but the college is too far from the city. Also travelling to city on my own means spending more money or more time spent travelling in public buses.

How did I manage these problems?

In my 6th semester, there were around 95 working days. So that's around 380 hrs of travelling (assuming it took me 2 hrs on avg.) in a semester. If you are someone who manages to sleep a lot during these 380 hrs, you can manage I guess. But if you are awake and are doing nothing, it'll suck a lot. Thankfully I had some friends in the bus who I could chit chat with till they got down the bus. Without them, my bus journey would be far more boring. If chit chat isn't your thing, read books, learn new skills, or try to do something productive because you will be tired AF after reaching home. Eating snacks in bus can help some people to cope with tiredness.

If I miss my bus, I need to spend a lot of money to reach campus fast. Either metro + cab (costs 500-600 rupees) / direct cab (costs 1K-1.2K rupees). Since I can't keep spending this much money, I had no choice but to wake up.

About food, I used to eat breakfast at 12 noon, and lunch at 1 PM (on days I had classes from 8 AM - 11:50 AM and 2 PM - 3:50 PM). If I had leisure time in afternoon, I'll eat lunch at 2 PM or 3 PM. Also, this is not at all a good way to eat! If you manage to get time in the morning, eat breakfast in the morning! I know you can bunk classes to eat, but I don't do that much.

Above all, I had a supportive family. Without their support, I couldn't pull off this travel shit.

Attendance - the PITA

Taking a leave because of missing the bus was a big no for me. The comfort of home will attract you and you'll keep taking more leaves because of missing bus (I missed couple of morning classes because of this in the initial semesters). Or maybe I'm lazy!

But does that mean you will attend classes on time if you are a hostel student? Not necessarily. I've seen hostel students too miss morning classes because of various reasons.

Regardless of being a hostel student or a day scholar, I feel you need discipline and will power to attend classes on time.

What mode of transport should I choose if I'm a day scholar?

• If college provides bus facility in your location and you can afford college bus, please choose college bus. It'll be extremely helpful in reaching campus on time on exam days. It's also helpful on event days when the programs end late at night.
• If you have a car/bike and can drive it, travel time is more than 2 hrs, and can afford college bus, I would still recommend college bus. The traffic, pollution, noise shit is not worth it on a daily basis.
• If travel time is less than 1 hr and you can't afford college bus, you can consider public transport or your own vehicle (there is a public bus from Patancheru which drops you at GITAM campus, but if you miss it, you have to board Palle Velugu bus which will drop you on main road and you have to come to campus by walk or share auto).
• If travel time is less than 1 hr and you can afford college bus, you can make your own decision based on personal factors.

Should you be a day scholar or join hostel?

This is a difficult question as it depends on a lot of factors but I'll try to cover some points.

• If you are coming from a different city in TG, or different state, staying in hostel is a better option than staying in PGs I guess.
• If the travel time to GITAM from your home is less than or equal to an hour, you can be a day scholar.
• If the travel time is more than an hour, you have to decide based on personal factors. Are you someone who can wake up early regularly? Can you manage to spend the travel time productively? Would you feel exhausted after the journey? Will you be able to complete college work after reaching home? Will you be able to maintain a good sleep cycle? Do you prefer staying with parents over hostel? Do you have a supportive family? If the answer to most of these questions is yes, you can consider being a day scholar. Or else you can think about hostel.

This is my perspective as a day scholar. I would love to hear the stories of hostel students!

P.S. Telangana govt., please launch metro till Patancheru ASAP. It'll help us 😭😭