Karnataka Common Entrance Test (KCET) Exam 2018 - Tips to crack the exam

KCET is conducted by the Karnataka Examination Authority for admissions into various BTech/BE/BArch courses in Government and 50 per cent quota of private engineering colleges in Karnataka. This examination is also to be taken by students who are aspiring to get admission into BPharm/BSc(Forestry, Agriculture, Fisheries, Veterinary Science, etc.) The admission to Engineering courses is based on equal weightage of the marks in the KCET examination and the Board examination for PCM combination.

KCET examination 2018 is to be conducted from April 18 to April 20. It consists of 4 papers viz., Biology, Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry. Going by the past year's trend, each paper would comprise of 60 questions with one mark allotted for each correct answer and no negative marking.

Concentrate on the important formulae:

Students need to concentrate on the important formulae as most of the questions can be answered in less than a minute and it would be a direct application of the formulae. Calculus forms a major part of Mathematics paper, whereas Electricity and Magnetism in Physics would have a sizeable number of questions.

In Chemistry, it is equally divided between Physical, Inorganic and Organic Chemistry. Students need to be thorough with the Physical Chemistry formulae as most of the Physical Chemistry questions would be from the class 11 syllabi.

Attempt all the questions:

Since there is no negative marking in this examination, one should attempt all the questions. Going by the past year's papers, there are a sizeable number of questions where one need not solve the question, but pure elimination method would lead to the correct answer.

For example, in Physics, where the answer was bound to be negative and out of the four options only one is negative, then the student must not waste time in solving the question, just mark the negative option and move on.

Be versed with the class 12 syllabus:

Most of the students prepare only the class 12 syllabus as the majority of the questions belong to this syllabus. This approach would prove costly as getting a seat in the higher ranked institutions depends on the overall score and therefore the questions from the class 11 hold the key.

Since students have just finished their board examinations, they would be better versed with the class 12 syllabi. The edge in the competition is therefore for those students who have covered their class 11 well. The overconfidence of having done well in the Board examination and taking CET lightly would also be costly to the aspirant as every year, there have been examples of students scoring very high in the Board slipping in the overall rank due to poor performance in CET.

Remember, getting a seat in Engineering college is not the aim of this examination, but one should get the best institute and the best course one opts for, which would be possible only if there is a high CET mark.

Last minute tips:

• During the next one week, go through the class 11 syllabus again as it would require more time for preparation
• Write down all the important formulae as a ready reckoner for the day of the exam
• The next week shift focus onto the class 12 syllabi
• Taking one test a day based on previous years papers would also aid in increasing the speed during the examination day
• Speed in calculation, especially for Chemistry (where Approximation method could be adopted) & Mathematics would be the real test. But Speed without accuracy would spell doom, so it would be better if one can go through the paper in detail during the initial ten minutes, identify the easy questions and then start the examination
• This strategy would give ample time for the difficult questions later. As a rule, it would be better to move on to the next question, if you have taken more than two-three minutes in a particular question. You may revisit the same at the end of the paper
• Candidates should understand that success in the examination not only requires hard work during the preparation stage but also smart work during the examination time
• What needs to be understood is that the objective of the examination is to score more marks than to spent more time in answering difficult questions
• The smartness is to pick the easy questions and to score more marks. These questions would be spread over the entire question paper and so one needs to identify those initially and maximize the score
• Do not panic during the examination, if any of the section seems to be relatively difficult. Remember that if it is difficult for you, it could be difficult for everybody. During the examination, attempt all questions and take a good guess even for the questions which you are not sure of.