--- title: TDS Feedback date: 2026-05-30T17:23:35+08:00 description: Things people have shared about my Tools in Data Science course keywords: [tools in data science, feedback, course] --- ## 20 May 2026 [Suhani01](https://discourse.onlinedegree.iitm.ac.in/t/tds-may-26-announcements/195073/47) I received a mail mentioning, “If you have already completed the course in the past 1 year, we encourage you to share your feedback about your experiences and what worked for you in TDS in the same Discourse thread.” So, here goes: I had taken TDS in May 2025 term ad I did not know it would be so difficult, because I had not read the guidelines before selecting it. And by the time I read the guidelines, I had already paid the registration fee. 🥲 Although I ended up with ‘C’ grade, this was the most enjoyable and unpredictable course out of all diploma courses. A lot of students might disagree with me calling this course ‘enjoyable’, but this is the only course which keeps you on your toes and challenges you every single day. You can make the maximum number of friends in TDS, because this course is not about being intelligent. It’s about the skill of ‘jugaad’ (being resourceful and smart enough to work around problems, not necessarily solve them). TDS teaches you stuff which you can never get out of conventional textbooks, like figuring out what resources to use, how to read material selectively, and how to use the system to beat the system. Most importantly, TDS teaches how to deal with real-life corporate and industry scenarios, which are also as unpredictable, and have no defined rules or syllabus. You’ll never get a textbook or steps to follow, you will have to read the documentation, watch YouTube videos, and discuss with friends to get to the solution yourself. Moreover, the satisfaction of completing a GA after hours of effort is unmatched! 😃 Most importantly, TDS has taught me consistency and resourcefulness, and given me a weird sense of confidence. Now whenever I get something difficult, like an undoable project or assignment, I just think that if I can complete TDS, then there’s practically nothing that I can’t do 😁! Also, if the course is difficult, then the course team is also very supportive and patient. They would take additional hours of live lectures just to clear the most basic doubts and explain everything all over again from scratch. TDS has the most patient and approachable professors and instructors. And I am saying that as a dual degree student who has completed almost all diploma courses. @carlton sir was patient and calm enough to solve every single student’s query, however time-taking it was. Even Anand sir took a few of our live classes. And the TAs were also very helpful, explaining every concept from the basics. I’m not sure if the TAs are the same right now, but during our term, there was Hritik sir and Jivraj sir. I will always be extremely grateful to them. Ultimately, getting a good grade in TDS is up to you. While some students failed, a few even got a perfect 100. You’ll have to give it a lot of time and consistent efforts. TDS alone takes as much time as all the rest of the courses combined. Even after that, you can never be fully prepared. There will always be a surprise waiting for you (like getting the ROE in German instead of English, which happened in our term 😂 and we ended up wasting 5-10 minutes because of the shock)! Finally, this long message was not to put anyone off or demotivate anyone from taking TDS, but to take the challenge head-on, and utilise it as your greatest learning opportunity. All the best 👻 Enjoy!!! ## 30 Aug 2023 [s.anand](https://discourse.onlinedegree.iitm.ac.in/t/roe-prep-discussion-thread-tds-may-2025/181581/25): [@ankit.jain](https://discourse.onlinedegree.iitm.ac.in/u/ankit.jain) – I’m the culprit behind this RoE structure. Thanks for the opportunity to share my thought process. **What does this RoE evaluate?** Implicit learning. - Implicit learning is “How much can they answer if woken up from sleep?” - Explicit learning is “How much can they answer given time and Internet?” Some may know 10% implicitly. Some know 50%. They’ll answer those in a few seconds. Some, they can FIND out. with Google, StackOverflow, ChatGPT. That’s explicit learning. But it takes time. Some, they just CAN’T find out. Maybe the terminology is unclear. Maybe their skill set is different. The RoE evaluates how much of learning is implicit. (Projects test how much is explicit.) **Can you answer 17 Q in 30 m?** Hopefully not. I hope this is at the edge of the class’ competence. If multiple people answer all 17, I’ll suggest 20 Q in 30 m next time, or pick tougher questions. (This sounds harsh. Over time, though, I’ve come to value frank feedback over polite encouragement.) **What knowledge helps solve it this fast?** Practice. 3 strategies help. 1. **Consistent practice**. Practice regularly. Pick problems just outside the edge of competence (fail 50% of the time). 2. **Social learning**. Observe experts & peers and internalize their strategies. We’re social animals and learn faster through mimicry. 3. **Emotional engagement**. If we like it or enjoy it, we learn faster. Practicing on real-world problems or problems we enjoy solving, working with people we enjoy, helps. **Is it worth it?** Maybe not. Not all implicit learning is worth it. 1. You may not need it. 10 years ago, as a data scientist, scraping was worth learning implicitly. Today, as a manager, I’d just hire someone to do it. 2. You may not be good at it. When I got a “D” in German, followed by a “D” in Japanese, I realized I’m just not mentally wired for human languages. It’d be too much effort to learn. The RoE scores will give an idea of your implicit learning. But your time is limited. Implicit learning is costly. Please focus your time judiciously.