Five Point Someone Kindle Edition

Chetan Bhagat is an extremely successful English-language author in India, and this book is one of several he has written that were later adapted into movies. I was familiar with "Five Point Someone" as the source material for the film “Three Idiots” and read it both for that reason and because I was curious to read Bhagat’s depiction of life at IIT (the most prestigious university in India) in the early 1990s.The book has three acts — the first is shortest, introduces our three protagonists and establishes their friendship. Then, after some bad luck and suboptimal decisions, they get bad marks and find themselves relegated to the “5s” (grades at IIT are evidently given numerically, with a maximum of 10. The best students have averages in the 9s, and almost everybody has contempt for students with averages in the 5s. There is no notion of a ‘major’; they all take the same classes.)The second portion of the book depicts their lives as 5s and how they deal with the resulting loss of social status, ending with their making an apocalyptically bad series of decisions resulting in their near expulsion from the school. In the final act, they are redeemed in part and graduate.The book clearly borrows a lot from Bhagat’s own experiences in university. The book is funny at times, and has real soul — despite their terrible decisions, we feel bad for these characters and want them to recover. The book also has a larger purpose, I think. Bhagat uses the book to argue that the manner of teaching and grading at IIT is bad not only for most students, but also for India as a whole. I am glad to have read it.

Brings back memories from your own college days; there are times you feel you kind of wish for a book just to cheer you up without straining your brain and that’s what this book did for me. Glad I found it and can’t wait to read more of this books

Mr. Bhagat writes love stories by and about young people. I really enjoyed these characters. This story of three young men in an elite Indian tech school is a sort of Hindu "Paper Chase". Well worth your time and money. I also recommend his book "One Night in a Call Center", which is also excellent.

The ususal Chetan Bhagat.. good to the last page as always.

Another great novel from Chetan.

The book is all about IIT life. I graduated from the IIT Madras. Although the book is set in IIT Delhi, 20 to 25 years after my graduation, I found the student life is still the same. The author's use of the language and the subtle humor all the way through made interesting reading.I didn't stop with one book. I am on a third book by the same author now.

Fun to see the "real story" behind 3 Idiots.

The book seemed very unorganized and not too well written. The movie was able to take this lackluster story and make it a blockbuster. The book itself though was a bore and had so much potential to be better.

I enjoyed this book very much, enough to have bought another book by this author since. The protagonist Hari had been an achiever at school but when he gets into the elite Indian Institute of Technology, the going gets very tough- so tough, in fact, that he is no longer a high flier but instead, the five-pointer of the title. He teams up with Ryan and Alok, and their efforts to improve their grades are hilarious and at times cringe-makingly embarrassing. You want to say to him, Don't do that, it's not worth it! Sometimes it leads to pure farce but always page-turningly entertaining and moves at a pace

Read in Fort Kochi, India so could identify with concepts. A very enjoyable read

A fine read even if you have seen the movie. Takes you back to college days - a refreshing blast of nostalgia is in my opinion the best way to describe the feeling you get from reading the book. It is truly un-put-downable once you are past page1.

A contemporary coming of age/ finding self story. it is a fun and informal read yet extremely hard to put down. Especially with the lovable in-depth characters that Bhagat has captured. Just beautifully written.

Don't try and relate this to the inspired film '3 Idiots' - you will be disappointed. This is an original plot, and much of which unfolds after the first half. A good read but not as good as Chetan bhagat's other books!