What is the difference between M.Tech and M.S?

How important is course marks for an MS by Research student at IIIT Hyderabad after he/she gets into a lab of his/her choice?

• As opposed to an MTech student for whom course work is the most important component of the curriculum, how much importance is given to the course work of an MS by Research student? I understand marks is a weak measure of a student's calibre, but it does end up making a difference in life's short term plans!

• Answer:

  You can say that marks still matter once you enter into a lab of your choice. For starters, you need a CGPA of 7.0 to get your degree (this is not the exact rule. Check with SAC to get it clarified). But there's another way in which I think marks matter. We can deny it all we want but, to some extent, a grade does reflect the amount of hard work you put in. When this grade is for a course related to your lab and your research, I would say that marks matter a lot. The reasons are twofold: If you aim at getting higher marks in a course which relates to your research area, you'll automatically build a solid foundation to start your research. It is assumed that as it is your area of research, you would put in hard work here (you're not playing around anymore, or doing courses "just because you have to do them"). For example, consider the course Digital Image Processing. If you aim at getting a good grade, you would do the assignments and the major project with dedication. After you're done with the course, you would have gotten enough practice and developed a substantial understanding to start a project using basic image processing. So, in a way, aiming at getting higher marks is a way to build a solid foundation. If you're planning to go for higher studies later on (or you think you might plan to go) a good grade in courses related to your research areas would normally help in admissions.