PHY F110 AAP Mentorship

AAP Mentor
October 2021 - February 2022

What is AAP Mentorship?

AAP stands for Academic Assistance Program. This program is a part of the BITS culture where the second year students volunteer to help the first year students academically. It includes clarifying doubts, providing solutions to numerical exercising, providing exam tips and sometimes conducting live sessions to reiterate important concept.

My Inspiration

Due to the 2020 pandemic, classes had started even before the admission where completed. I missed the orientation and a month or so of the classes. Being newly admitted, I knew no one and having it all online made it even harder to cover up my backlogs. It was difficult to know what the instructors expected of us in class. Engineering Graphics was a subject I found difficulty because some preparation was to be done before every class. I didn't know if the best way was to use the textbook, do the important exercises, watch the recorder lectures or something else. 

As a first year I enrolled myself in the AAP for Engineering Graphics. A very dedicated senior conducted several online session explaining important concepts, made himself available on the WhatsApp groups to clear all doubts and even joined quick Google Meets to help and solve individual issues. He stressed on the parts important for the exams and also conducted mock exams. He even graded those submission with feedback. All his efforts certainly helped me cover up for all the classes I missed and place me well above average in that course.

Repaying the community

I benefitted a lot from the AAP and it was my time to give back after one year. I joined the mentorship program. I was a mentor for the course Mechanics, Waves and Oscillations by the Physics Department. Being good at this course which was considered to be one of the hardest in the semester, I tried to help others through the AAP. 

I, along with the other mentors, managed a WhatsApp group to provide solutions for the questions the first year students had. 

 The students of the batch 2021 faced similar issues like I did. I realised that helping them out was my duty because AAP needs volunteers to keep it alive and it is way too important to let the its flame flicker out.