A comprehensive guide to

the courses at IIT-B

COURSE
INFORMATION
BOOKLET
2022-23

INDIAN INSTITUTE
OF TECHNOLOGY,
BOMBAY
 CONTENTS
1. REGISTRATION 6
1.1. COURSE ADJUSTMENT 6
1.2. DROPPING OF COURSES 6
1.3. SEMESTER WISE REGISTRATION 6

2. CATEGORY OF COURSES 8
2.1. CORE COURSES 8
2.2. MINOR COURSES 8
2.3. HONOR COURSES 9
2.4. ELECTIVES 10
2.5. ADDITIONAL LEARNING COURSES 11
2.6. AUDIT COURSES 11
2.7. SIT THROUGH 12
2.8. SUPERVISED LEARNING PROJECT (SLP) 12
2.9. IR LANGUAGE COURSES 12

3. WHY SHOULD ONE TAKE UP A MINOR 14

4. WHY SHOULD ONE TAKE UP HONORS 18

5. TAGGING RULES 19

6. PREVIOUS YEAR MINOR CUTOFFS 22

6.1. 2021-22 AUTUMN SEMESTER CUTOFFS 22
6.2. 2021-22 SPRING SEMESTER CUTOFFS 23

7. REVIEWS: RESOBIN 25

8. IR LANGUAGE REVIEWS 27
8.1. JAPANESE 27
8.2. GERMAN 29

9. EQUIVALENT COURSES FOR CLEARING BACKLOG 32

10. FAQs 33

11. SOME USEFUL NOTES 34

12. SOME USEFUL LINKS 35

13. REACHING THE ACADEMIC COUNCIL 36

1
 DISCLAIMER

The information written in the booklet is only a guideline to the students to help
them with their choices in the courses they make and also in the various
important features of the Institute academic system.

It may happen that the actual details of courses or rules mentioned in the
booklet may face an amendment during the course of time. Please confirm the
rules/details from relevant authorities before making any decisions.

The Undergraduate Academic Council members can be contacted for this

purpose (details shared on the last page of the booklet). You may also refer to
the Undergraduate Rule book.

2
 PREFACE

Dear Students,

As a vertical of UGAC, it is our duty to bring you the right kind of resources and
provide you with an intricately researched array of both old and new curricula
that prevail in the institute. The Course Information Booklet, a product of the
same ideology, shall open doors in the field of academics and help you make a
choice beyond your core curriculum.

This booklet includes information about various courses, like minors, electives,
etc, that you can choose from, after the first year. We believe that since learning
is a vital part of our lives as students, it is imperative that you opt for courses
that will make the entire process of learning more affable. This booklet,
therefore, strives to give you the information and exposure that you need to
decide on taking any particular course.

In today’s world of cutting-edge competition, where no single expertise is

enough, we believe that this booklet is a complete guide to unearthing the
interdisciplinary field and following a passion you couldn’t otherwise.

We are open to suggestions and ideas from your side to improve this booklet.

Hope you have a nice time reading it!

Prapti Sao
Institute Secretary of Academic Affairs
Head – Student Support Services (2022-2023)

3
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We would like to thank Adit Akarsh, Ali Asgar Saifee, Aneesh Milind Bapat,
Aryan Gupta, Bhavya Jain, Immanuel Williams, Jai Joabanputra, Khushi Gosalia,
Prakriti Shetty, Puja Maitra, Rahul Shanbhag, Rwitaban Goswami, Sanjay
Kareer, Shashank Inamdar, Siddhant Kolke, Tanul Gupta, Tanyut Sharma,
Unnatee Pawar and Vatsal for writing the minor reviews.

We are grateful to Abu Zubair, Aditya Iyengar, Ananya Burli, Aryaman

Maithani, Aryan Gupta, Himansh Rathore, M Vishnu Sarkar, Mihir Vahanwala,
Priyanka Beta and Suraj Sarvesha Samaga for writing the honors reviews.

We express our gratitude to Aarushi Chaudhary, Aastha Kapoor, Bhuvan

Agarwal and Tanirika Roy for giving their reviews on the HSS Electives. We
would also like to mention Advaith Suresh, Divyashree Tambade, Namra Shah,
Shivangi Sharma and Shreedhar Malpani for their contribution to
Unconventional Course Reviews.

We are pleased to have Sakshi Priya and Darade Vaibhav Vinayakrao sharing
their valuable reviews on IR Languages.

We would like to thank DevCom IITB for their immense support in shaping up
ResoBin in its current form,

In addition to this, we thank the UGAC Design team for bringing up this booklet
in this amazing form. We would like to express our gratitude to all the
department officials for their suggestions, efforts, and assistance. We also
apologize to those in case we forgot to mention their name.

Lastly, we are indebted to all the readers of this booklet for their constant
support and motivation. Any suggestions for the further improvement of this
booklet are always welcome!

4
CONTRIBUTORS

UG ACADEMIC COUNCIL
2022-23

ISAA, Student Support Services

Prapti Sao

SSS Coordinators:

Akshat Singh Ashwin Abraham

Shravya Suresh Tushaar Jhamtani

5
 1. REGISTRATION
IIT Bombay follows a specialized credit-based semester system, therefore
registration at the beginning of each semester is mandatory for you till you
complete your program (lookout for the dates in the Academic Calendar).
Without registration, any academic activity (course/seminar/project, etc.) that
you undergo will not be counted towards the requirements of your degree.

1.1. COURSE ADJUSTMENT

A student has the freedom of deletion/addition of one or more courses (after
discussing and taking permission from the Fac-Ad) provided the total credits do
not exceed the overload rule (discussed in Section 3) or fall below 18 credits by
such adjustments. The last date for doing so is about 1 week after the
commencement of the semester.

1.2. DROPPING OF COURSES

If a student finds their academic load too heavy, even after the date for course
adjustment has passed, they may drop some courses out of the registered ones
provided the minimum credit limit (18 credits) hold, after taking permission
from the Fac-Ad. The last date for doing so is generally 20-30 days after the end
of the mid-semester examination and is set in the academic calendar. Such
dropping of courses results in a W grade in the transcript for that particular
course.

1.3. SEMESTER WISE REGISTRATION

You can register for the courses you intend to take during a given semester on
the basis of the program for your discipline as given in your curriculum and as
per the advice given by your Faculty Advisor (Fac-Ad). The Faculty Adviser is
expected to discuss with the student their academic performance during the
previous semester and decide the number and nature of the courses for which
they can register during the semester within the framework of the guidelines as

6
 1. REGISTRATION

approved by the Institute. You can check a particular semester’s curriculum on

ASC. Follow the path: Academic --> All about courses --> Curriculum.
Kindly note: From the third semester onwards, registration is dependent on
the Academic Standing of the student.
The registration process (which is online) involves filling up an Online Course
Registration Form (CRF) stating the courses and project/seminar etc, that the
student proposes to complete during that semester as per the prescribed
curriculum. All students having outstanding dues to the institute or a hostel
shall not be permitted to register online.
You can find a detailed guide on ASC and the registeration process in the ASC
Video Series.

7
 2. CATEGORY OF COURSES

2.1. CORE COURSES

Core courses are those courses which you have to do compulsorily for obtaining
your degree. These courses count towards your final degree in all respects and
count in your CPI (Cumulative Performance Index). These courses are NOT
optional and have to be completed within the stipulated duration of your
coursework (4 or 5 years). They give you a lot of exposure to your own
departmental subjects and research; They also have an elective component,
details regarding which are explained in the section on electives.

2.2. MINOR COURSES

A Minor is an additional credential a student will earn if they do minimum 30
credits worth of additional learning in a discipline other than their major
discipline. Many academic units in the Institute offer minors in their disciplines
and prescribe a specific set of courses and/ or other activities like projects for
earning a minor in that discipline. Note that courses equivalent in content to any
of these specified courses from the same department can be taken as a minor
course with the approval of the concerned HOD. After the completion of credits
under the stipulated time period, a minor degree is awarded to the student. It is
mentioned in the Degree Certificate "Bachelor of Technology in xxx with Minor
in yyy.” The fact will also be reflected in the transcript, along with the list of
courses taken.

Minor courses are allocated to students only through a pre-registration process

before the start of every semester and the allocation for every minor course is
done on the basis of the CPI of the student as the seats are limited in every
minor course. You can opt for as many courses of your choice during the process
of pre-registration (in particular preference order). You will be allotted the
minor course based on your CPI and preference order after the pre-registration
window closes. The waitlist that is maintained for the minor courses (for
students who have missed out on the course of their choice) is also sorted on the
basis of the CPI of the students, such that if any student who has got the minor

8
 2. CATEGORY OF COURSES

course drops it during the process of registration, the next student in the
waitlist will get the minor course.
Note - The only way to get a minor is through the pre-registration window. It
would not be possible to register for a minor on the main registration window.
Please refer to the UG Rulebook to check the eligibility criteria to register for
minor courses.
The pre-registration process for minors is explained in this video.

2.3. HONOR COURSES

Honor is an additional credential a student will earn if they opt for the extra 24
credits (in some cases, 30) needed for this in their own discipline. The concerned
department specifies the course requirements for earning the honors. An honor
is like a specialization in your own discipline.
Honor courses are either advanced-level courses in your discipline or are
courses designed to give you more exposure to different areas of your
discipline.
This will be mentioned in the Degree Certificate as “Bachelor of Technology in
xxx, with honors” on the successful accumulation of credits at the end of the
program. The fact will also be reflected in the transcript, along with the list of
courses, etc., taken.
Dual Degree students have to do the honors courses by default. They are
considered as their core courses. honor courses do not count in your CPI other
than for dual degree students.
Please refer to the UG Rulebook to check the eligibility criteria to register for
honor courses.

9
 2. CATEGORY OF COURSES

2.4. ELECTIVES
Every program (B.Tech/Dual degree/BS) in IIT Bombay will have its own
curriculum defined, which will define your core courses and the total credit
requirement for the award degree. According to your curriculum, your course
completion may require doing courses of your own choice, wish and interest
from:

Dept. of Humanities and Social Sciences

All undergraduates are required to do a Humanities elective from the HSS
department in a particular semester, depending on the department, and
have to choose this elective from the following set:

HS 301 Philosophy

HS 303 Psychology

HS 305 Reading Literature

HS 307 Sociology

Your own department - Department Elective

As per your curriculum, you may be required to choose a few courses
(number varying across programs) of higher-level (Say 4xx or 5xx) from
your department across a pool of courses put forward by your department.
In some cases (varying across departments), you might be allowed to take
up courses from other departments and tag them as a department elective.
It is best to check up with your departments regarding the same.

10
 2. CATEGORY OF COURSES
A department other than yours - Institute Elective
As per your curriculum, you may be required to choose a few courses
(number varying across programs) from a foreign department. Generally,
you are free to choose any course out of your department as Institute
electives. Departmental-based restrictions may be there for a few courses.
Note: 1xx courses are generally not allowed to be taken as institute
electives (except for some departments).
For IDC and SJMSOM courses, you can ask the Department General
Secretary/ Department Undergraduate Committee of your department
if they will allow a particular IDC / SJMSOM course to be tagged as
an institute elective. All these electives are a part of the core curriculum
and will count in your CPI.

2.5. ADDITIONAL LEARNING COURSES

Based on the academic standing of a student, there is an upper cap on the number
of credits they can take. You can find details about academic standing in the UG
Rulebook.
Apart from core courses, a student can take some extra courses. Additional
learning courses (ALCs) can be credited or audited. These ALC courses don’t
constitute the core CPI/SPI of a student. The tag of such a course can be changed
during the retagging period, which is explained later.
Note: Exceeding any of the criteria for credits is NOT admissible under any
circumstances.

2.6. AUDIT COURSES

Audit courses refer to the courses for which there are no credits; you want to
complete the course simply for knowledge with no concern about a grade.
Registrations for such courses are done along with the main registrations, with
prior permission from the instructor. Only students belonging to categories I
and II are permitted to ‘Audit’ a course during regular semesters and summer
terms, and on can audit a maximum of two courses during their entire program.

11
 2. CATEGORY OF COURSES
If completed, the course will be mentioned in the transcript as an ‘Audit.’ The
instructor will award the ‘AU’ grade if the attendance is satisfactory and
additional requirements as set out by the instructor are met. If the attendance
and performance are not satisfactory, the instructor will NOT award any grade,
and the student would be deregistered from the course. The “AU” grade doesn’t
carry any grade point and is not included in the SPI/CPI calculations.

2.7. SIT THROUGH

There may be a case where you are really interested in a particular course but are
unable to register for the same due to some constraints (generally happens with
popular minor courses). However, you may be willing to sit in that course just for
knowledge, without any privilege for credits or mention in the transcript. In that
case, you can ask the faculty in charge’s for permission to 'sit through' that course.
Note that there are no registrations for a Sit-Through.

2.8. SUPERVISED LEARNING PROJECT (SLP)

Supervised Learning Project (SLP), also known as RnD in some departments, is a
project-based course - generally for 6 credits, where a student can work for one
entire semester on a project under a professor. It is not always necessary to do a
project under a professor in your department. The professor you choose can be
from a different department, but it is subject to rules and conditions laid down by
your department.

2.9. IR LANGUAGE COURSES

International Relations (IR) language courses are the courses that are offered for
the benefit of students as well as staff of IIT Bombay. These courses are offered in
many languages such as Japanese, French, Italian and German.
You can contact the Institute Secretary International Relations (ISIR - UG) for
more details about the IR language courses.

12
 2. CATEGORY OF COURSES
To summarise the above:

Type of Course Description Effect on CPI

30 credits worth of additional learning in a Don't count towards

Minors
discipline other than your own major. CPI

30 credits worth of additional learning in a Don't count towards

Honors Electives
discipline other than your own major. CPI

Extra courses taken in any department

Count towards your
Institute Electives other than your own given you fulfil the
CPI
prerequisites.

HSS Electives HS3xx courses, Humanities and Social Count towards your

Sciences department. CPI

Department Additional courses in your own Count towards your 

Electives department.  CPI

Additional Learning Any extra course, in any department, by Don’t count towards
Courses (ALCs) your choice, taken up for extra learning. CPI

Wanting just an exposure to a course -

without obtaining a good grade - Don’t count towards
Audit Courses
maximum of 2 audit courses in the entire CPI
period of study.

Sitting through a course only for exposure Don’t count towards

Sit through
without registering for it CPI

NOTE: All courses which count towards major CPI are compulsory to complete the
minimum requirement for a degree.

13
 3. WHY SHOULD ONE TAKE UP A
MINOR

Minor courses allow you to officially explore a department other than yours while
at the same time getting credit for it. It adds value to your major degree and can
be a gateway to get opportunities in the field you have completed your minor in.
Your minor degree can give you sufficient knowledge to enable you to take part in
interdisciplinary research and even pursue your higher studies in such fields.
Though a minor degree can be pursued simply out of genuine and deep interest in
a particular department without any specific end goal in view, for the general
majority, you should select it in such a way that it either suits your major degree in
a research-oriented interdisciplinary manner or in a generic way to any engineer
or scientist.

Before you select a minor, try to find what you are truly interested in. It is surely
not easy for everyone to be crystal clear about this, but even a vague idea will
help you enjoy the minor courses and truly enrich the experience. You can always
sample courses from various departments to find this interest, but you lose the
benefit of a minor degree in doing so.

You can select any minor course from any department, but to draw the complete
benefit out of it, you should look for overlap between them and your discipline so
that it supplements your learning. You should also look at how all the minor
courses fit in with each other for a more holistic approach; some departments
draw up a suggested schedule of when each minor course must be taken to reap
the full benefits out of the curriculum. Minor courses don’t count in your CPI, so
you should select a minor based on your interest.

Listed next is a suggested set of minor programs which may suit each branch. This
matching is done by looking at how much overlap each discipline has with respect
to other fields so that the minor programs can support the interdisciplinary
learning of each student, depending on their career plans. Use it only as a guide
and not a binding set of rules; don’t let it dissuade you from pursuing what
interests you.

14
 3. WHY SHOULD ONE TAKE UP A
MINOR
NOTE: This table is just to give you an idea about interdisciplinary research,
some minors from the table may have been discontinued.

Minor Programme Suitable Branches

Aerospace Engineering Electrical, Mechanical

Chemistry, Engineering Physics,

Biosciences and Chemical, Electrical, Metallurgical
Bioengineering Engineering and Material Sciences,
Energy

Engineering Physics, MEMS, Electrical,

Chemistry
Chemical, Energy

Chemistry, Mechanical, Electrical,

Chemical Engineering
Energy

Centre of Studies in Resources Electrical, Computer Science,

Engineering (CSRE) Engineering Physics

Centre for Machine Intelligence and

Suits all!
Data Science (C-MInDS)

Computer Science and Engineering Suits all!

15
 3. WHY SHOULD ONE TAKE UP A
MINOR

Minor Programme Suitable Branches

Engineering Physics, Chemistry,
Electrical Engineering Chemical, Mechanical, MEMS, Energy,

Aerospace, CSE

Energy Mechanical, Chemical, Aerospace

Entrepreneurship Suits all!

Environmental Sciences and

Chemistry, Chemical, Civil
Engineering

Humanities and Social Sciences Suits all!

Industrial Design Centre Suits all!

IEOR Suits all!

Koita Centre for Digital Health (KCDH) Suits all!

Mathematics Suits all!

Mechanical Engineering Civil,Electrical,Aerospace

Management Suits all!

Chemistry, Chemical, Electrical,

Physics
Mechanical, MEMS

16
3. WHY SHOULD ONE TAKE UP A
MINOR

Minor Programme Suitable Branches

Statistics and Informatics Suits all!

Engineering Physics, Electrical,

Systems and Control Engineering
Mechanical, Civil, Chemical, Aerospace

17
 4. WHY SHOULD ONE TAKE UP
HONORS
Honor courses are either advanced-level courses in your department or are
courses designed to give you more exposure to different areas in your
department. They help you get deeper knowledge in your department to prepare
you for higher studies or to take a job in a particular specialized area so that you
can compete with, say, an M.Tech who has specialized in the same area. You are
likely to develop strong subject skills by completing an honor successfully and
sincerely. Undergraduate classes introduce you to a wide breadth of topics and
challenges, and an Honors project enables you to explore one in much greater
depth. Honors research topics are varied and negotiable – if you are really
interested in a topic and want to learn more about it, you’ll be encouraged and
supported.

From a potential employer’s perspective, whatever your department, it appears

laudable to have demonstrated the ability to achieve a complex and demanding
goal and have in-depth knowledge in your department. Honor courses also help
you if you want to pursue further studies or research in the future. Honors
provide you with a deeper understanding and chance to explore sub-domains and
make an informed choice about the topic of future exploration. Also, since you
have more dedicated knowledge in your specialization, there are higher chances
that your profile will get noticed by universities for their MS/Ph.D. programs.

To complete the honor, 24 credits must be completed by tagging courses in your

department as honor electives. They don’t count in your CPI; a separate honors
CPI is maintained. This means that taking some honor courses but not being able
to complete the entire 24 credits does not harm you in any way; it, in any case,
enables you to delve further into your department.

18
 5. TAGGING RULES

Every course you do in the institute falls under one of the categories of courses as
described in section 1. Tags are given to courses to classify them. The tags of
electives can be changed as per the rules that follow.

This facility allows students to do additional courses and finally make select
courses count towards 'Core CPI' (the CPI of prescribed curriculum credits)

Rules:

Re-tagging will be available to students ONLY TWICE in their entire program

duration, the first time before placements (Second Last Semester Starting)
and second time post curriculum completion (Last Semester).

The courses that have been re-tagged during the opportunity given during the
previous window will be debarred from the re-tagging process.

NOTE: From the year 2017 onwards, the tagging window for DD (Category I)
Students will also be the same as the re-tagging window of their B.Tech
counterparts (those who are graduating). For them (Category I DD students), the
second window for re-tagging will be made available at the time of graduation.
This has been done to ensure a fair process of selection for the institute medals.

For the rest of the categories’ DD students, the first tagging window will be
opened in the Autumn Semester before placements and the second one at the
time of their graduation.

19
 5. TAGGING RULES

Tags of courses:

1. Core Course - C
2. Department Elective - D
3. Institute Elective - I
4. Minor Course - M
5. Additional Learning Courses - T
6. Honors course - O

An approved change of tag will result in fresh calculation of SPI/ CPI from the
semester. The tag change has been made effective due to the fact that additional
learning course(s) do NOT constitute the core SPI/ CPI of a student.

Following is a table specifying the current rules about the changing of tags from
one to another and the restrictions put on the same:

CHANGEABLE
TAG CODE TAG DESCRIPTION
INTO

T Additional Learning D, I, O, E

C Core Course  Not changeable

D Department Elective O, T, E

O Honours Course D, E, T

E Honors Elective D, O, T

H Humanities Elective T

20
 5. TAGGING RULES

CHANGEABLE
TAG CODE TAG DESCRIPTION
INTO

I Institute Elective T

M Minor Course I, T

Please check for the updated retagging rules here before making any decision
as these are subject to change.

NOTE: For any special requests i.e. a change, which cannot be implemented on
the tagging interface, the student has to get approval from the HOD of the
concerned department (other department in case of minors).

21
 6. PREVIOUS YEAR MINOR
CUTOFFS
NOTE: These cutoffs have been calculated with the resources available to us.
We duly apologize in case of any discrepancy.

6.1. 2021-22 AUTUMN SEMESTER CUTOFFS

Course code Min. CPI Course code Min. CPI

AE 153 6.23 ES 401 7.22

AE 223 2.22 GNR401 6.75
AE 225 6.73 GNR405 7.56
AE 227 3.05 GNR409 7.31
AE 308 7.71 HS 490 5.79
AE 333 4.63 IE 501 8.37
AE 407 4.93 IE 503 7.83
AE 410 6.95 IE 609 7.27
BB 413 5.75 IE 621 7.37
BB 415 5.25 MA 403 8.28
BB 600 5.81 MA 419 7.6
BB 603 6.53 ME 201 3.57
BB 607 7.53 ME 219 4.21
BB 627 8.51 MG 401 8.01
CL 203 4.41 MG 403 8.23
CS 218 7.21 MM 201 7.61
CS 224 7.47 MM 209 5.70
CS 228 7.09 PH 251 5.32
CS 310 6.09 PH 253 7.72
DE 403 6.95 PS 619 5.56

22
 6. PREVIOUS YEAR MINOR
CUTOFFS
Course code Min. CPI Course code Min. CPI

DE 405 6.20 SC 301 6.87

DH 301 4.90 SC 601 6.05
DH 302 7.62 SC 617 5.20
DS 203 8.26 SC 625 4.38
EE 207 5.18 SC 629 5.59
EE 321 5.49 SC 639 7.11
EN 301 4.61 SC 643 7.55
ENT603 7.15 SC 645 5.53
ENT606 7.62 SC 648 7.12
ENT609 8.17 SC 701 6.70
ES 203 4.22 SI 424 8.32
ES 303 5.00 SI 427 8.18

6.2. 2021-22 SPRING SEMESTER CUTOFFS

Course Code Min. CPI Course Code Min. CPI

AE 234 6.11 ES 458 7.29

AE 238 5.20 GNR402 5.70
AE 240 6.67 GNR408 5.90
AE 305 7.13 GNR410 5.32
AE 332 5.95 HS 457 6.52
BB 400 6.12 IE 504 5.92
BB 404 6.72 IE 616 8.03
BB 610 7.93 IE 617 7.32
CH 224 6.96 IE 622 7.90

23
6. PREVIOUS YEAR MINOR
CUTOFFS
Course code Min. CPI Course code Min. CPI

CH 408 6.04 IE 630 4.53

CH 438 6.76 IE 683 5.25
CH 481 8.87 IE 709 5.74
CH 504 8.18 MA 412 6.23
CH 588 9.33 MA5106 5.40
CS 213 8.27 ME 206 7.11

CS 347 7.40 ME 209 7.76

CS 419 7.82 ME 316 7.61

DE 402 4.01 ME6114 8.82

DE 403 6.36 MG 402 8.15

DE 405 6.39 MG 405 7.75

DE 408 5.42 MG 406 7.86

DE 410 6.26 MM 318 7.53

DH 304 6.08 PH 252 7.08

DS 303 7.78 PH 352 7.43

EE 204 4.83 PH 353 8.24

EE 229 5.74 SC 202 7.79

EE 325 5.87 SC 602 6.08

EN 301 6.07 SC 607 5.17

EN 302 7.37 SC 618 5.73

ENT602 8.50 SC 624 5.83

ENT608 7.12 SC 627 5.05

ENT610 7.50 SC 646 5.29

ES 204 5.25 SI 422 7.01

ES 306 6.33 SI 527 8.21

24
 7. REVIEWS: RESOBIN
All the Minors and Honors reviews for this year have been collated on ResoBin.
Seperate Minor and Honor tabs have been created on ResoBin.
Developed in collaboration with DevCom, ResoBin entails several features like
searching for courses using a range of filters, and viewing all reviews and past
year resources under one head. You can not only view and request reviews and
resources but also contribute from your experiences and add them to the courses
undertaken. We have incorporated a 'Minor' and 'Honors' tab which house the
respective reviews of various departments, providing easy access to a particular
review at any moment of time. Refer to this video to get familiar with ResoBin.
Following is the list of Minor and Honors reviews uploaded on ResoBin. Click on
the program name to read the review for it!

LIST OF MINOR REVIEWS:

1. Aerospace Engineering
2. Biosciences & Bioengineering
3. Centre for Digital Health
4. Centre for Machine Intelligence and Data Science
5. Computer Science and Engineering
6. Electrical Engineering
7. Energy Science and Engineering
8. Engineering Physics
9. Humanities and Social Sciences
10. Industrial Design
11. Industrial Engineering and Operations Research
12. Mathematics
13. Mechanical Engineering
14. Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management.
15. Statistics
16. Systems and Control Engineering

25
 7. REVIEWS: RESOBIN

LIST OF HONORS REVIEWS:

1. Aerospace Engineering
2. Chemical Engineering
3. Chemistry
4. Civil Engineering
5. Computer Science and Engineering
6. Electrical Engineering
7. Engineering Physics
8. Mathematics
9. Mechanical Engineering
10. Metallurgical Engineering and Materials Science

LIST OF UNCONVENTIONAL COURSE REVIEWS:

1. HS 642 - Notation and Musical Analysis
2. SLP-IDP (CL 445) - Industry Defined Problem
3. MG 403 -Accounting and Finance
4. HS 4110 - Experimental Archaeology: An Introduction
5. BB 602 - Research Philosophy

LIST OF HSS ELECTIVE REVIEWS:

1. HS 303 - Psychology
2. HS 307 - Sociology
3. HS 305 - Reading Literature
4. HS 301 - Philosophy

26
 8. IR LANGUAGE REVIEWS

8.1. JAPANESE

Review by Sakshi Priya

INTRODUCTION
Japanese can be a very daunting language to start as it's ranked the toughest
language to learn for the native English speakers, which I think most of you would
use as the language of conversion while learning. It has sounds that aren't present
in English or even Hindi, so it can be a bit challenging in the start to grasp it but
otherwise it should be fine with practice and more classes. The sentence
structure is also quite different from English. Some phrases do not have a direct
translation in English so it could be a nice experience to understand a language in
a more intuitive sense.

WHY JAPANESE?
I have been fascinated by the language for a long time now. I used to do
calligraphy and that's where I started writing in Japanese even before I
understood what exactly they meant. I had a very personal attachment to the
Japanese culture and the place (mostly due to calligraphy and stationery), so it felt
right to take up a language course. I also am very passionate about learning
languages in general and that gave me the last push I needed.
I would suggest you take up the course only if you have some sort of "why" to
learn the language cause it can get hard to manage the academic load and give
enough attention to a non credit course.

COURSE LOAD
The course load wasn't a lot on paper but a lot in all other sense, as we didn't
really get any assignments regularly but if you really want to make some progress
in the course, it would be advisable to put extra effort in learning the language.
The class timings were like your regular classes as slots.
.

27
 8. IR LANGUAGE REVIEWS

REGISTRATION
There will be a webmail about it during the start of the autumn semester where
you would get the class slots and registration guidelines, you'd have to pay a fee
of around 1500 (at my time) for a two semester course.

INSTRUCTOR
The course instructor was one of the sweetest professors I have had and he made
it easier to gather motivation to learn the language. He is quite structured and
have enough experience in teaching. He'd give the documentation for the class
beforehand so you can go through it. He also conducts tea parties to learn about
Japanese culture but sadly I did it all online :(
Online, the course was harder to follow due to network and other constraints on
the instructor's side but I believe offline would be a wonderful experience.

MYTHS
I think the major myth about this course specifically is that you'd be able to talk
fluently by the end of the course. The instructor would say that you can but that's
a lot dependent on you and how much you can keep up the motivation till 2
semesters.

OVERALL EXPERIENCE
The major thing to keep in mind is that don't take this course if it clashes with
your core courses slot as it would be very very difficult to manage and attend
regular classes. You should also treat this as a more fun and enjoyable experience
rather than a course you have to give an exam (you have to btw) for. It would be a
good experience to gain proficiency in this language and also, with a bit of more
practice you can write the JLPT, so that's one other plus ;)

28
 8. IR LANGUAGE REVIEWS

8.2. GERMAN

Review by Darade Vaibhav Vinayakrao

INTRODUCTION
The German language is widely spoken in four European countries: Germany,
Austria, Belgium, and Luxembourg. German is also an official language in
Switzerland and Liechtenstein.
Alphabets are quite similar(except for a few - ä, ö, ü and ß) to the English language
but grammatically German and English are quite different(You must have seen
the memes!). Sometimes we used to relate the things with the Hindi(in my case I
used to relate them with Marathi as well) so that it becomes easy to break down
and understand. Formal and informal structures of speaking are very important in
the German language.

WHY GERMAN?
I was interested in German culture(more from the academic point of view, I like
their educational structure a lot). Along with that Germany is the most preferred
country to work in for Mechanical engineers(which is my interest) so it was
natural for me to choose this language.
Motivation to study the language only for doing the job is necessary but won’t be
sufficient in the long run so little cultural interest will help. It will help you when
you start losing interest in it after some time and also you will have to find the
time on a regular basis for this commitment during the hectic semester
schedules(some students from my batch ditched it because of this). So if you are
interested and can assure yourself of time commitment then go for it! (Just to
note - this is not the credit course whose grade will be counted towards the CPI)
Note: It is not very easy to attain a working level proficiency in any language. At
the end of this course, you will have knowledge almost equivalent to an A1
certificate certified by CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for

29
 8. IR LANGUAGE REVIEWS

Languages). After successful completion of the course, you get a certificate which
is issued by DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst) certifying the
completion of the course with the score/grade obtained in the course. Generally,
companies demand at least a B1 level of proficiency. There are 6 levels A1 A2 B1
B2 C1 C2 (increasing order of proficiency from left to right) certified by Goethe
Institut.

COURSE LOAD
The course is for one complete academic year. There were two batches, one had
lectures on Monday and Thursday and the other one had lectures on Tuesday and
Friday. For both batches timing was 5 pm to 7 pm on these days. There are a total
of 100 hours of classes throughout the academic year (50 in each semester). After
every class, we used to get small exercises that can be completed in a max of 60
minutes. Courseload is quite manageable. One piece of advice I would like to give
is that - try to give time for the language every day however small it is like keep in
touch with the language!
Books we used to refer to are Netzwerk_A1_KURSBUCH and
Netzwerk_A1_ARBEITSBUCH for exercises.

REGISTRATION
The course is organized and conducted by the Office of the Dean of International
Relations along with the other Language courses. We had received the mail on
student notices about the IR language courses and following the instructions in it
will get you registered. We had gotten the form that needed to be filled out. It had
questions like motivation and where will you use it etc which were evaluated and
selections were made based on it(condition of small interviews was also there in
some cases)…
If any doubts you can always contact the ISIR(Insti Sec of International Relations)
or IR office or check the IR website.

INSTRUCTOR
For our batch, Mr. Samer Khader was the instructor. He conducted the course

30
 8. IR LANGUAGE REVIEWS
quite well. Classes were kept as interactive as possible. Our first semester was
online but breakout rooms were used effectively which helped us to have one-to-
one conversations which are important in learning any language. He used to ask
students as well for any improvement or activities which will help in enhancing
the overall learning. His understanding of language was really good and also could
give satisfactory explanations of the doubts(his English was also quite good).

MYTHS
‘German is spoken only in Germany’ or ‘German is a very difficult language’,
Sometimes it feels that way though! ;) or ‘German doesn’t sound nice’. Myths are
always there but if you are really interested, go for it don’t waste time thinking
about the myths. (to be honest, to write this answer I had to google the myths
(LOL) - so you should get that they don’t matter really)

OVERALL EXPERIENCE
As I said earlier, after some time it’s hard to find time for the languages but it was
the other way round for me. I used to consider them as taking my mind out of
hectic sem work and this helped me to attend almost all the classes(more than all
other batchmates for sure! ;) ). Also, a group was formed which was helpful
throughout the year to keep up with language studies. I would like to re-iterate
that finding the time on a regular basis (as it gets difficult during the semester
after midsems) will be really helpful so try to do it.
In overall it was a nice experience to learn a new language and would suggest you
as well to try it! (only if you are interested though, haha ;) )

31
 9. EQUIVALENT COURSES FOR
CLEARING BACKLOG
For the purpose of clearing backlogs, a list of equivalent courses which can be
done has been given below.

It is to be noted that these courses are not equivalent by default; but due to the
similarity in the course structure, students are allowed to take them in lieu of
the corresponding backlog courses. This is of course subject to approval from
the competent department authority. Approval needs to be taken from the
DUGC for tagging two courses as equivalent that are not given in this list.

Backlog Equivalent Course

ME 346: Heat Transfer CL 246: Heat Transfer

AE 460: Heat Transfer -

ME 346: Heat Transfer
Aerospace Applications

AE 102 - Data Analysis and MM 217 - Data Analysis and

Interpretation Interpretation

EP 219 - Data Analysis and

AE 209 - Solid Mechanics
Interpretation

AE 308 - Control Theory EE 302 - Control Systems

MM 203 - Mechanics of EN 211 - Mechanics of

Materials Materials

MM 152 - Introduction to
CL 409 - Material Science
Material Science

NOTE: Please confirm with your respective department’s General Secretary

regarding the current status of equivalent courses before making any decisions
regarding the same.

32
 10. FAQs
Q. If I get an FR Grade in a minor course, do I need to repeat the course? And will
it reflect in my final transcript?
A. No, you do not need to repeat the course. However, an 'FR' grade will reflect on
the course, under the additional courses done.

Q. What's the difference between an ALC, Audit and sitting through a course?
A. Additional Learning Courses (ALCs) do not count towards your CPI but are
involved in tagging - if you tag it later as an elective, the grade you get then counts
in your CPI. When you audit a course, you do it without obtaining a grade - you
get an ‘AU’ on successful completion of the course, which does not carry grade
points. Formal registration is required for both these, and they appear on your
transcript. But for sitting through a course, you don’t need to register for it, nor
does it appear on your transcript.

Q. If one gets an FR in Elective HS *xxx*, do they need to repeat the same course
or can they take up Elective HS *yyy* in its place?
A. Yes, they can take *yyy* as their HSS elective by changing the tag of HS *xxx* to
additional learning and registering for *yyy* in the next semester as HSS-Elective.

Q. What about the credits when one does some honor courses but not enough
for an honors degree?
A. If one has completed some honor courses but not enough to acquire an honors
degree, then those courses would be counted under Additional learning Courses.
Some departments allow to tag these as Department/other electives as well.

Q. Suppose I take up any other random subject course, but I don’t want to get a
minor; will that course show up anywhere while passing out?
A. The grade that you obtained in the course will show up in the transcript. All the
courses taken up as a minor are converted to an ALC unless you have completed
30 prescribed minor credits in a particular department.

33
 11. SOME USEFUL NOTES

If you have successfully done the pre-registration of a course (Minors/ HSS

Electives), then at the time of registration, the allott ed pre-registered course
comes under the heading “Pre Registered Courses” on your ASC interface,
and you need not register for the course again under any other heading say
Institute elective, Non-Credit Course, Additional course etc.

Course not listed - If you get a message on the interface saying that the course
is not running this semester even though it is, please check the division (‘M’,’
S1’, etc.) in the list of running courses and enter the correct division on the
interface while registering for it.

Entering the division as ‘M’ will not change your tag to a minor (All about
courses → Running Courses) e.g. CE 310 - M, MM 474 - M, CS 101 -
D1/D2/D3/D4, etc.

Prerequisites pains - If there are errors, please send a mail to

[email protected] with a screenshot using your LDAP ID only; if the grade for
the prerequisite course is not out want to take a course without clearing the
prerequisite, please get permission from the course instructor.

If your category has been mentioned wrongly on ASC, you need to mail
[email protected] to get the issue resolved.

34
 12. SOME USEFUL LINKS

Access by clicking on the following:

ResoBin

Internal ASC

External ASC

Course info booklet 2021

Course info booklet 2020

Course info booklet 2019

Pre-reg video

SSS Blog

UG Rulebook

35
 13. REACHING THE ACADEMIC
COUNCIL
The UGAC, IIT Bombay, or the Undergraduate Academic Council of IIT Bombay, is
a student body dedicated to improving the academic system and culture of the
institute by working on various policies and conducting sessions to disseminate
information. It has the following seven primary pillars on which it functions :

1. Student Support Services: SSS mainly takes care of the basic requirements of
the students like tutorials, registration, personality development, language
and communication skills, faculty-student relations, learning issues, and so on.
2. Career Cell: The Career Cell aims at equipping the students with all the
required information and insights into every single career opportunity coming
its way and provides an impartial, fair account of every possible detail about
various careers and job profi les
3. EnPoWER: Engineering-oriented Promotion of Work Experience and
Research, EnPoWER aims to promote research among the undergraduate
students of IIT Bombay and encourages them to use their skills to tackle
problems faced by the industry.
4. Finance Club: The Finance Club conducts many sessions and competitions on
various topics related to fi nance.
5. Consult Club: The Consult Club conducts sessions and workshops to help
students gain an understanding of consulting and its nuances.
6. Analytics Club: The Analytics Club organizes sessions of various kinds that
teach students various skills and software related to analytics and their
applications.
7. International Relations: International Relations coordinates international
activities of IIT Bombay, including semester exchange, scholarships, and
international programs.

36
 13. REACHING THE ACADEMIC
COUNCIL

The Academic Council strives to help the students and is always available in any
kind of problem. Feel free to contact us anytime. You can reach the Council
through :

1. UGAC website - All the information regarding the Academic Council is

available on its website.
2. Social Media - One can ask any query and clear any doubt/confusion they
have, even anonymously or through direct messages.
The social media handles of Student Support Services are:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sss.iitb/ AND Student Support

@IITB Facebook group
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/studentsupportservices_iitb/

3. Email ID - For any of your problems and doubts to you can also send an
e-mail to [email protected] or [email protected] or
[email protected]

37
 CONTACT INFORMATION

In case of any queries, please feel free to contact the UG academic

council members:

Ayush Dahale
General Secretary Academic Affairs (GSAA):
Ph: +91 7038743151
Email: [email protected]

Prapti Sao
Institute Secretary of Academic Affairs (ISAA):
Head, Student Support Services
Ph: +91 9137177164
Email: [email protected]

Devina Agarwal
Institute Secretary of Academic Affairs (ISAA):
Head, Career Cell
Ph: +91 9687812899
Email: [email protected]

Devashish Bhave
Institute Secretary of Academic Affairs (ISAA):
Head, EnPoWER
Ph: +91 7506747010
Email: [email protected]