Q.1 What preparation plan and strategy will help students balance their Class XII board and AIPMT preparations?

 Ignoring the board exams means jeopardizing your academic record and taking risks with the entrance exams means putting your career path at stake. Our suggestion is that students make a strict time table and adhere to it diligently. Preparing for the entrance exams needs a lot of dedication and planning. The syllabus is vast, so it would be wise to follow a structured and steady approach in course coverage. Your focus should be more on knowing the fundamentals. Understand the concept first and only then study a particular topic in depth. MCQ tests for the class XII syllabus along with subjective mock tests help maintain the entrance exam rhythm.

Q.2 What are the important books for Physics, Chemistry and Biology that help AIPMT aspirants prepare their best?

The base books for all the three subjects are the NCERT text books. Aspirants should read and understand the entire NCERT text. However, the same rule does not apply in all subjects. For example, for if you study NCERT Biology textbooks many a times, you not only master it but also tend to read between the lines which is critically important for you to crack Botany/Zoology questions. However, this rule may not be as apt for Physics. In physics, you need to strengthen the concepts and practice numericals in a balanced manner. In AIPMT, only less than 40% questions are numerical based. Majority of the questions are concept based while some questions are fact-based. Hence, it is critically important that a student should refer to good authentic books on physics in order to prepare for the AIPMT, AIIMS like exams.

In Chemistry, you need books which make you learn concepts and practice numericals for Physical Part, whereas in Organic Part it should be ready reckoner for concepts, mechanisms and road-maps whereas for Inorganic Part it should make you master it through charts, mnemonics and brain-maps.

Q.3 What could the possible level of difficulty be as compared to the last year? Will the AIPMT 2015 be easier than AIPMT 2014?

If you look at past 8 years’ papers, you will notice that not only the questions’ repetition has been avoided, but there is a definite emphasis on the applications and concepts rather than facts and figure. The questions are never difficult, if you are strong at your concepts. So instead of analyzing the trend and believing in such a prediction, your concern should be to strengthen your concepts. Remember, it is more difficult to crack an easy paper as the Cut-Off goes very high. Hence, if a paper is difficult, it is difficult for most of the candidates. So it’s better not to panic on such an issue but focus on giving your own best shot.

Q.4 What is the key to successfully attempt AIPMT 2015 exam?

 Key to succeed any competitive exam are:

1. Effective Time-management
2. Being honest to your own weakness and striving to improve upon them
3. There are subjects and topics that you are strong at. Ensure that you master sufficient sections at each subject so that you perform fairly well in each of them.
4. Do not waste time over the questions, you are having doubt at, mark it and proceed very quickly to another one. This ensures that you attempt the best known questions first and then attempt the left over. This, if practiced well is the strongest way to give your best shot at any or every exam.
5. Practice previous years question papers in time bound manner. Solving recent papers are of more help as the trends have changed in past few years. Solving authentic Mock papers is very important. You can also test yourself using the Aakash Test Guru. Download the app today for free: Android http://goo.gl/o0q7tO; iOS http://goo.gl/33L0p9 or Visit: aakashtestguru.com

Q.5 How should a candidate prepare himself/herself for the exam day so as to not lose concentration or get nervous? What are the tips to ensure that students feel confident and give their best during the exam?

 When you learn, you know it but knowing is not recalling. When you learn something and are not sure whether you can recall these, you better test it by solving related questions, preparing flow-charts on your learning to check whether you grasped the entire content. Alternatively, you can recite the important points and record it on your mobile to cross check your own learning. Adapt a learning style that suits you–whether visual or auditory. Visual devices include drawing pictures, charts, maps, graphs, etc. to supplement your learning. Use bright markers and symbols to point out important notes. This helps during revision. Students are known to retain concepts better when they can associate an image or demonstration referring to it.

Auditory techniques include reading aloud in a  silent place, making  tutors  or  friends a  sounding board  to  your understanding  of  concepts,  use  of mnemonics or music, verbal  discussion  of ideas, etc. to support revision. After the completion of any topic, objective questions should be done on regular basis to be aware about retention of topic and any part, left uncovered. The questions which could not be solved should be researched in the NCERT / authentic reference books rather than just seeing its answer as many times the answers given are wrong. For any confusion, expert faculty should be consulted. One should prepare a summary list of important facts/formulae of every chapter and should keep on revising the list regularly.

Candidates must develop a habit of reading the statement of the question clearly and thoroughly as many times to avoid answering the question incorrectly or partially due to incomplete reading of the statement.

Find out the areas / subject / chapters / topics where your performance has not been up to the mark and concentrate more on such topics. If needed, consult a specialist/subject expert. Be strategic in your subject preparation.