BENGALURU: After serious mental preparations for about a month, 53 students on Sunday attended a marathon Calculus class of six hours and 15 minutes conducted by their math teacher, at Deeksha Centre for Learning. This, for many, covered a big portion of their class 12 and competitive exam preparations.
Vadlamani Shyam, the lecturer from the college, is known for his enthusiasm for what he calls the “toughest subject in mathematics”, and took it on himself to carve a name for the subject in the Guinness World Records.
Shyam told CE that he has solved one-and-a-half lakh integrals in his life. “Of the 28 books I have written, three are on calculus,” he said. With the six-hour exercise, he put into practice his motto of patience with concentration, which he recommends to all.
“At first I thought it would be difficult but one could not get enough till the end. Difficulty levels were upped over time, and the exercise started with very basic questions displayed by Powerpoint, with sums solved on the board,” said Ananya, who had volunteered for the class due to the enthusiasm the teacher has for the subject. Through the session, only six students excused themselves to go to the washroom, she added.
For students like Prajwal, the six- hour class in continuum was a useful method for JEE preparations. “Concepts that are taught across months being concentrated in a six-hour class frees up time to study other aspects,” he said. Prajval prepared for the class by increasing the duration spent in solving sums at home.
Now the team, with the four teachers who observed the episode, wait for the formal announcement of the world record. “I applied for the Guinness record a month ago, and will send them the lecture’s streaming on Monday. The scrutiny will take another month,” Shyam eagerly added.