Source: harish svAminAthan at https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1482606041376653319.html
Some people questioned why its a big deal to finish the taitireeya shaakha in 5 yrs. Well here are the details, if the intent is to just see book and chant (which is also not easy BTW,) you can complete it even in one year.
The TN patashaala system has produced many vidwans who if woken up in the middle of the night can chant the asked portion without a blink. How is this possible ? The system is very rigorous and riddled with hardships.
The guru takes a portion of the veda and repeats it for 10 days (Guru says it once, student says it twice). In the next 10 days the guru starts a new lesson and repeats it for 10 days. Now the student repeats the previous portion that was taught 10 times everyday for 10 days. So in all comes to 100 times. Thus it gets ingrained in the memory.
As days go by, the student continues to revise the older portions and also chants them in a prescribed order during the daily brahma-yajnam.
Challenges
This daily repetition of 10 times for 10 days is no mean task. The student is expected to do like this for close to 7 years. So boredom is very much possible.
In school education the student is only tested on what he learnt that year but in veda final exam, the student is tested on what he learnt from day 1 to his final day in the gurukulam. The exam is grueling and can go on for hours. We can have student of different ages in the exam as well.
Many might discard it saying it is mere rote learning but mind you its not as simple as you think. There are many similar sounding passages and careful understanding of where it differs is quite important. There are verses developed for remembering such difficult portions as well.
So in this way it roughly takes 5yrs to complete samhitaa + brahmanam and another 2 years for padam/kramam. For yajur veda the exam is conducted only if they complete kramam, while for rg veda completing moolam is enough for the exam.
TN patashaala system has churned many such vidwans. Gopalee67 is one such person produced out of this system. We followed the same system at home with some give and take and can say that we achieved what we wanted till moolam. No book is required for chanting at any point of time.