ENTRANCE TEST TIPS
Brace for the last lap
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Strategies, tips and advice for effectively handling the physics and chemistry parts of the entrance examination
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Judicious use of time is a must in entrance examinations
STUDENTS WHO are appearing for the medical and engineering entrance examinations this summer will have reached the last stages of preparation by now.
Here are some tips on how to perform at your peak in the examinations.
Apart from general tips, we will focus on physics and chemistry, the common subjects for engineering and medical entrance examinations.
Classifying questions
Multiple-choice questions can be classified into four types, depending on the level of difficulty:
Straightforward ones that check the students' level of comfort with a particular equation or concept
Lengthier types that will require sifting of relevant and secondary information
Those requiring application of more than a concept from more than one subject area
Tough ones that will consume time, as they are difficult to comprehend.
Pitfalls
Most students start answering a question paper in the sequential order in which the questions are given.
By following this method, they can fall prey to the following pitfalls: if some of the initial questions are representatives of the third and fourth types mentioned above, the students will lose a lot of time and will not have many recorded answers on the OMR (optical mark reading) response sheet. This results in panic.
There can be many easy questions of types 1 and 2 towards the latter half or even the end of the question paper. The students will miss attempting this for want of time.
They will have to develop the method of writing steps only on a `need-to-write' basis.
Most students, fresh from their Board examinations, follow the similar path for problem solving.
But here, a machine scans and values your responses. Machines are not responsive to the number of steps you may have written to solve the question. The decision is just binary - correct or incorrect.
The weightage given for physics and chemistry is interchanged in the engineering and medical entrance examinations of Kerala. But for examinations such as the All-India Engineering Entrance Examination, the weightage is the same. Students need to give equal importance to both these subjects.
Consider the statistics: the lowest percentage score in Kerala medical entrance among all toppers is for physics compared with chemistry and biology. This is a wonderful opportunity for a student to make a difference through physics.
Time management
There is no rule that you should do physics or chemistry questions first in a common paper.
Most students go according to the order in the question paper.
But students can exercise their choice here and start with their favourite subject, though it may have fewer questions in the entire paper.
This will ease the pressure, as the number of correct responses per unit time is more likely to be for your favourite subject.
Fundamental concepts
Every chapter will have some fundamental, core concepts and derived concepts.
Students should understand the core concepts and their varied manifestations on the multiple-choice question platform. For example, it is essential to understand — not just know by heart — the three laws of motion.
Also, the student should be able to apply these laws by considering different systems in the given problem, listing out the various forces experienced by each system, preparing the free body diagram and writing down the respective equations.
Similarly, in rotational dynamics, core concepts are the centre of mass, moment of inertia and torque.
Here, just knowing the definition of the centre of mass and the equation to locate it alone will not help students solve all the problems. The student should be clear about how to apply the equation to locate the centre of mass to distribution of particles in two and three dimensions in terms of position coordinates.
Tackling chemistry
Chemistry can be divided into four major areas at the Plus Two level: theoretical chemistry (comprising topics such as bonding, hybridization, atomic structure and so on), inorganic chemistry, physical chemistry and organic chemistry.
If you divide the subject according to the NCERT (National Council for Educational Research and Training) syllabus from an entrance-examination point of view, each chapter can contribute on an average two questions in the medical stream and one in the engineering stream.
Therefore, all chapters should be given equal importance. Students, on the other hand, have likes and dislikes.
For example, organic chemistry can be a `hard nut to crack,' while inorganic is `dry' and physical chemistry a bit `mathematical.'
Such premeditated approaches do not reflect on the intelligence or aptitude of the student, but signify a weak foundation in that area. But for entrance examinations, such excuses count the least. Hence a `love-all' approach towards all sections is a must.
In physical chemistry, conceptual clarity is paramount. The questions involving numbers are not to test your depth in mathematics; instead, they assess your understanding of relationship among different concepts.
At best, you should be good in logarithm and know how to factorise. Formulae should be clearly understood in terms of each symbol.
Practice makes perfect in organic chemistry. Working out reactions need a lot of writing practice. Reagents, catalysts and conditions (temperature, pressure and so on) should be precisely understood. Students generally neglect IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry) naming. But at least one question is being asked from this topic every year.
Students find inorganic chemistry a bit dull or boring because they learn by rote the reactions in this area. But it should be always related to physical chemistry to make it more interesting. The concepts also get clearer.
For example, Birkelend-Eyde process of manufacturing of nitrogen dioxide is not just a combination of nitrogen and oxygen.
Liquefaction of nitrogen dioxide (as nitric acid) and its removal will increase the rate of forward reaction (Le Chatlier's principle) and decrease storage space. Also we understand that in acid rain, mixing up of the air-pollutant nitrogen dioxide and rainwater produces nitric acid.
Students should not let their preparation suffer by talking to too many people and accepting conflicting strategies and approaches to be adopted for the tests. Usually, this happens during the last phase of preparation.
They should interact with experts and get a fix on a particular methodology of cracking each subject.
A three-pronged strategy at this stage should include getting the concepts clear, solving a number of questions of all varieties and getting professional advice on test-taking strategies. The last point is critical because, beyond a threshold level, it is not just knowledge alone that wins the race.
It is also the skill in applying knowledge given the time constraints of entrance tests.
Contributed by T.I.M.E ENTRANCE COACHING
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