[ NOTE: Academic Calendar (Tentative) - This might be updated due to clash with JOSAA counselling. Do not use this to know when the college is opening. ]
The academic structure of IITKGP is important imo, cause it gives you a realistic look at how much time you have, and how you plan things. This is something that each person will feel a sense of as time progresses, so I'd recommend not trying to read into this too much, and just take as general advice.
In terms of structure, I think the structure of first sem will feel very different compared to other sems, because it will be your very first experience to college, and hence will mentally feel a lot more different. Hence I'd say that this wont be very impactful around till midsems get over. In general the start of first sem will feel like a very unique experience, and its generally good advice to try out as many things as you can in that period.
The basic structure is that every sem consists of two major examinations, midsems and endsems.
Midsems make up 30% of your final grade, endsems make up 50% and the remaining 20% is teachers grading(could be anything from a project to tests to attendence).
Every semester constists of 4 months as an aprox, and every other month will usually have either midsems or endsems. For instance in september, midsems usually take place from around the 18th to 27th (tentatively, just for you to get an idea). Quite a few of the days will also be holidays (15-20 in Autumn Sem).
Similarly in spring sem midsems are at end of february, endsems are at april end.
Though, you will also have to worry about class tests and things like that, which will usually take place during the start of these exam months. I would say that a lot of socs generally slow down during this month, because of all the things people have to prepare for.
Now, I'll get into breaks:
In autumn sem, there is generally one large set of holidays within the sem, which is for durga pooja. I would say that this is around a week long, slightly more.
Then there is winter break that lasts throughout December.
After this, in spring sem, there really isn't any long term holiday. Some people do go back home when they get like 2-3 days free, but for a lot of people (including an unfortunte southie like myself) I cant really exploit that to go back home. So spring sems are generally 4 month grinds in college, and it can be somewhat taxing.
Now apart from this, there will also be normal holidays, where you will have leaves for a day or so, and the full list of all of these things can be learned on the academic calender of kgp.
Now apart from this, there will also be other major events that take place during throughout the year. During Autumn sem, every year on the day of diwali, an event known as illu (standing for illumination) takes place.
There are a lot more events hosted in Spring sem.
Firstly Three fests are held in kgp, and they all happen one week after the other. It starts out with Shaurya(Sports fest), Kshitij(Techno-Management fest) and Spring-Fest(So-cult fest). They usually start on friday and go on till sunday. There are a lot of things to do and see during this, so itl mostly take up most of your time. This happens during the month of january, and would go on.
Along with this, there is also GC, which is an interhall competition in multiple different things. The specifics of when it happens varies based on what you are participating in, and can be anywhere from Jan to around the end of march or so.
There are also hall days, which is a set of days (around 10 days), when people visit each others halls, and takes place at the end of march.
Along with this you will also have to participate in whatever activity socs you are in, which would be very different for different socs.