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TopperLearning.com asks past students to share what worked/ didn't work for them when studying for competitive exams like the AIEEE and PMT.
Ankur Gupta, an alumnus of St Mary’s School, New Delhi, is currently pursuing BTech from JIIT, Noida. He scored 89.4% in Class XII and writes a dedicated blog on competitive exams.
These days, educational institutes admit students on the basis of their abilities such as understanding of concepts, sharpness of mind, logical ability and knowledge. Millions of students appear in them every year but only few can make it to the top.
One such exam in our country is AIEEE (All India Engineering Entrance Examination), a common test for admission to all government engineering institutes across the country.
Slated for April, 26, 2009, it has become the most important exam after IIT-JEE (common entrance test for admission to IITs across the country), as there are a huge number of colleges that take admission through this examination.
The clock has started tickling. Remember, even a single mark makes a difference!
Key aspects: Concepts, fundamentals
In a way, AIEEE is not much different from your CBSE board exams. Understanding concepts is the key to success in both. Speed and accuracy is yet another aspect. If you can complete 'most' of the paper accurately then you surely can expect a good score.
NCERT: The AIEEE Bible!
It is the base for both boards and competitive exams. There are trivial questions that can be formed from between the lines that you might miss while giving it a quick reading. Learn "exceptions” by heart, and make a proper note. Revise them before going to the exam as these are favorite questions with paper setters.
Old is gold!
Practice previous years papers. This applied to your boards as well as entrance tests. Also, carefully examine the pattern of the papers. Set the time limit to complete the paper, speed and accuracy, will automatically come over a period of time.
Concentrate on both the theory and the numerical part to be able to answer a major part of the paper. Focusing on one aspect limits the scoring capabilities giving your competitor a chance to poke his nose ahead of you.
AIEEE and CBSE: Two sides of the same coin
AIEEE is probably the simplest of all the engineering exams held across the country, which makes it tougher to crack. Sounds strange? It isn't!
Many IIT-JEE (Indian Institute of Technology - Joint Entrance Examination) toppers fail to do well in the AIEEE exam each year. IIT-JEE demands building concepts and proper application of the concept, where as AIEEE demands speed and accuracy in the stipulated time, besides in-depth knowledge of the subject that JEE demands.
JEE requires you to have strong command on fundamentals to be able to crack tough questions that may be presented in an indirect manner, so that it loks more complex than it actually is. Trivial concepts have to be understood, for they are the basis on which questions are being framed.
To clear AIEEE paper, coverage of the entire syllabus, tricks to solve questions quickly and memorising ability, play an important role. Of course, luck matters, too!
AIEEE and CBSE Board exams have a lot in common and preparing for both of them side-by-side helps reduce burden as well as save crucial time especially, when every second counts! CBSE focuses more on theory while AIEEE has a numerical-based approach. It becomes relatively easy to solve numericals once the theory part has been understood thoroughly.
