Being an architecture student does come along with many challenges and for us to face them every day. Although many of these are actual challenges or probably difficulties we are actually getting used to; but when we look back, all of these become humorous memories.
Packing your lifelong belongings to college, balancing all of it with your bodyweight does sound a bit harsh, which I’m not going to lie, it is. But you would laugh about it after five years. This case, on the other hand, is something novel, which many of us haven’t experienced yet, but are definitely about to. It is obviously something which is the need of the hour, but the sudden coping has definitely made it weird and maybe humorous when we look from a distance.
What Studying Architecture Online Is Really Like
This particular profession, obviously, does have a lot of pros and cons and we are basically claimed to have a less social life because of our submissions and this was a bitter one this quarantine. We as architecture students saw a lot during this quarantine period. From online education to making drawings/ sketches, with online vivas or maybe no vivas. Where we could learn practical details, we were told to make sheets and study theory. But that’s not even the funny part.
The funny part comes around when they are calling us to give our exams offline and expect us to excel in them in this very situation. Sitting in a hotel room, on a cold and foggy night of December 29th, flying from almost 1000 km, I came to the city, Amritsar, to give my offline examinations, when I received this message in the main class group of mine. It tells me something, which I wanted to hear, but not at this point of time exactly.
The message tells me that I have my winter vacation from 28th December to 13th January and I received this on the night of 29th December. And as funny and weird this was, the cribbing of the two students who had to board their flight the next day, made this even funnier or should I say, remorseful? People are laughing at their own misery and I thought that makes it even worse.
How Architecture Went for 2020
Studying architecture online is easy and maybe getting through it too, but coming down to give offline examinations can be quite tricky. Students, let’s be a little honest right here and accept the fact that sometimes we do doze off while keeping the google meets/zoom meetings on. But also, architecture is a practical subject, and studying online could easily be compared to those memes or jokes where people call out themselves as architects by following a few youtube tutorials, and then we see them designing a balcony without a door or maybe a junction of the staircase without a landing.
Anyway, after much exaggeration of what happened on the night of 29th December, I was a little bit relieved from the stress of the exams and then slept soundly. The next morning was a quick dramatic one. Quick, because I had to check out from the hotel and we architects never miss a deep, sound sleep which can keep us awake late, but waking up early is a lot for us.
Now coming to the dramatic one, as soon as I woke up, I received this message that told us that there were no vacations happening and we did have our exams like this literally happened overnight. As shook and disappointed I was for a second, my little sleepy brain couldn’t absorb all of this, so I let it go. Anyway, later I met with my friends and had a deep discussion about this and yes, it was true, exams were happening.
How the Architecture Department authorities reacted
Our authorities, on the other hand, got extremely defensive and dodged all the questions away like home runs. They said they wouldn’t take any responsibility for the same and that our safety is in our own hands. Diplomatic, isn’t it? Our authorities also mentioned that our studio paper, Building construction has to be held in the university itself, and we have to attend that with a face mask, face shield, and everything.
I really appreciate the fact that they are advising us to take the necessary precautions while coming to give the examinations but giving the studio paper with so much on and I am a person who wears spectacles and I know it’s not going to be pretty by the experience I had while travelling and felt like I would pass out any moment. But, this is going to be another humorous experience I think I would like to narrate later.
As I’m going to conclude this article, I would highlight that this is a tough time for all of us, and we students should get an equal say in how our exams should be conducted and such messes could be avoided if they want them to. The teachers are at a higher risk rate than the students and the well-being of all should be kept in mind. And obviously, notices should reach us on time.
