Know NEET(UG), Feel NEET(UG) And Crack NEET(UG)
NEET(UG) is a prestigious examination designed to select the overall best to study medicine in reputed Indian Medical Colleges. It is famous for testing the overall best; the best knowledge of PCB, the best endurance, perseverance and the utmost application skill. Hence every student must understand these words in the spirit of NEET(UG). Following discussion is to enlighten and guide the young minds to achieve the highest possible performance in NEET(UG) and other prestigious medical entrance examinations such as AIIMS-PMT and JIPMER-PMT.
- Depth Of Knowledge
All NEET(UG) aspirants must understand the fact that to qualify NEET(UG) basic conceptual knowledge of each and every article of all the chapters of a subject is very necessary. One must not only have theoretical knowledge but should have enough practice to apply that knowledge to theoretical and numerical problems.
The aspirants should note that the standard of questions asked in NEET(UG) is higher than the board examinations for class XII. But quite often, we find in NEET(UG) some easy questions from previous question papers of AIPMT and other medical entrance examinations. Another remarkable feature of the question papers of NEET(UG) and, in fact, of other medical entrance examinations such as AIIMS-PMT and JIPMER-PMT is the repetition of previous years concepts and fundamentals in the questions asked. So the students preparing for NEET(UG) are always advised to go through previous years’ question papers in all the subjects. This may be verified by analyzing past years’ question papers. This analysis also indicates that there is not the only variation of the standard of questions of a particular subject but also the standard of questions in different subjects differs widely. We may broadly say that the standard of questions in NEET(UG) is almost the same as that of the previous AIPMT questions
- Hard Work
Only Intelligence is not enough to qualify NEET(UG). Hard work is the key to success in NEET(UG). All the students who pass class XII with Biology group are capable and intelligent. This is the belief of very senior educationists who design the syllabi of various board examinations many of them are from Medical Colleges and Universities. Our institution shares the same thought after being involved in the training of young ones for AIPMT/AIIMS-PMT/JIPMER-PMT for about thirty-two years. Our statistics clearly indicate that due to naturally gifted intelligence, students can secure a very high percentage in board examinations where the standard of questions is very low. But most of these students do not even qualify NEET(UG) owing to lack of hard work which is necessary to acquire a depth of knowledge and sharp application skill.
So every aspirant of NEET(UG)/AIIMS-PMT/JIPMER-PMT must be ready to work hard to master the knowledge and must be willing to devote time with proper distribution among all three subjects. He must understand that sacrificing a few live telecasts of cricket matches, absence from a few birthday parties with friends and not being tempted by new releases of movies will help him secure a high rank in NEET(UG)/AIIMS-PMT/JIPMER-PMT.
- NEET(UG) Is A Test Of Nerves
NEET(UG) is a test of endurance. It is quite often heard that a certain student was very intelligent, he prepared quite well and he was very devoted but could not qualify the medical entrance examination.
This is attributed to his or her temperament: however hard one works, whatever knowledge one acquires, if he/she does not learn to bear the stress and maintain a mental calm, he/she cannot qualify NEET(UG) with a much aspired All India Rank.
Positive thinking, periodic tests through All India Test Series and proper counselling has the power to convert a student with the psychologically weak mind into an individual with a strong, assertive, confident and winning attitude for NEET(UG).
To relax the mind further and to achieve peak performance on the day of NEET(UG) one must stop working late in the night and reduce study hours as NEET(UG) approaches. More positive thoughts, strong faith in one’s capability and in almighty will definitely give tremendous confidence to perform the best in NEET(UG).
- Tips To Excel In NEET(UG)
As NEET(UG) is a single phase, single paper all India medical entrance examination whose pattern and format are different from previous AIPMT, which used to be two-phase entrance examination. So, the points of consideration and the care to be taken to give peak performance in NEET(UG) should be different from those of AlPMT. For the aspirants of NEET(UG), following are a few tips from very senior educationists and teachers. These tips regarding academic and non-academic aspects of NEET(UG) have benefitted thousands of students under our guidance in the past many years.
(1) Tips to Master Academic Aspects Of NEET(UG)
Since a candidate’s AIR in NEET(UG) will decide the institution of study, every candidate taking NEET(UG) has to be extra cautious and careful to score maximum marks and should not leave any scope for slackness or slippage. While taking NEET(UG), a candidate must know that, as far as his knowledge of PCB is concerned, he is tested for his:
* Aptitude of Science
* Comprehension Skill
* Reasoning Skill
* Analytical Skill
* Application Skill
The meanings of the above terms and tips to improve them have been given below.
(i) Aptitude for Science
Aptitude for science may be broadly defined as one’s ability to understand concepts of science and to apply them to numerical and theoretical problems.
We strongly believe that students who can understand Physics, Chemistry and Biology of classes Xl and Xll have the aptitude for science. It can be further improved by rigorous training using a scientific and psychological approach. For this purpose, our experts have designed specific problems involving logic and reasoning. During this training, students should take care of the following facts:
* By the time the study of a topic is over, it should ensure that all the concepts and logical reasoning behind them are clear.
* Laws and fundamentals of a particular topic and the conditions under which they are applicable must be very clear.
* Derivations, mathematical representations and mathematical formulae and conditions under which they are derived must be logically clear.
* Application of concepts and laws to solve theoretical problems must be quick.
* Application of concepts and laws in mathematical formulations to solve numerical problems must be strong.
Following are the tips to improve the aptitude of an aspirant.
Begin with Conceptual Problems
Once the study of fundamentals of a chapter is over, one must begin with sufficient conceptual objective and subjective but simple problems. Such problems on a particular chapter require simple use of concepts and formulations in different situations. This improves the aptitude of a student and makes the application of laws and formulae crystal clear. Only after sufficient practice of such simple problems, students should move to a higher level of comprehension type, multi-correct type and analytical type questions.
Attention to Conditions of Laws and Derivations
A student preparing for NEET(UG) should not only make a summary of formulae and conditions under which they are applicable but he should also know the approximations that are used to derive the formulae. Whenever he/she attempts to solve a problem, the situation of the problem must be analyzed properly, only then he/she should reason out for the concepts and conditions which can be applied to solve the problem.
Mark the Difficult Problems for Revision
For revision, all the notes must be properly arranged and students should mark more difficult problems separately which can be referred to just before the test so that they may save time which is wasted in doing easier and well-known problems in the last few days.
(ii) Comprehension Skill
In the context of NEET(UG), comprehension skill can be defined as the ability to understand the information with all the scientific concepts logics.
NEET(UG) may have some written passage and objective questions based on it. A candidate’s, comprehension skill depends on strong command over the language and high aptitude for science. Since the language in which an aspirant wishes to take NEET cannot be improved over a short span of a year or two, so students should take NEET (UG) in the language in which they can easily understand Physics, Chemistry and Biology. But the language in which a student has been preparing for NEET(UG) can be improved further during preparation by paying proper attention to:
* Speed of reading
* Speed of writing
* Vocabulary
* Punctuation
* Construction of sentences
Apart from improving reading skill, one must pay attention to the scientific reasoning and logical thinking to enhance aptitude so that one can grasp the given information in its proper spirit.
Following are the tips to improve comprehension skill.
(a) Fast but Meaningful Reading
It has been observed that even very talented students lack the ability to completely understand a problem just by reading once. Only after reading a passage twice or thrice are they able to understand it. Owing to this lack of comprehension skill, they read the same paragraph, again and again, to understand it so as to answer the question(s) based on it. This causes loss of time which can be saved by a bit of concentration and alertness. They must train themselves during the preparation so that the meaning of the whole passage is clear by the time first reading is over.
(b) Highlight the Main Points
For better understanding and quick reference, while doing problems on the passage, one must underline the main points and facts.
(c) Assimilation of Concepts
Assimilation of concepts and formation of mathematical equations to solve a direct question or to answer a question based on a comprehension passage must go side by side with their reading so that by the time the reading is over, one is ready to solve the problem. A student can train himself for this type of reading if he reads his daily lessons so as to grasp it in all possible details in one reading.
(d) Frame Questions on Daily Lessons
Reasoning and comprehension capability of a student increases if he tries to read a lesson by asking questions beginning with what, how and why. He may discuss such problems with his friends to further improve the logical reasoning needed to assimilate the information given in the passage.
(iii) Reasoning And Assertion Skill
The ability to answer whether a statement is true or false and whether another statement is a correct reason in support of answer to the first statement depends on the conceptual clarity and in-depth understanding of the fundamentals of a topic.
AIS Test Series also prepares students for such format of questions. The questions on this format may also be asked in NEET(UG), so one must prepare for such questions also to have a competitive edge over others.
(iv) Analytical Skill
In the context of scientific knowledge for NEET(UG), analytical skill means the ability to correlate various concepts and then apply them to numerical and theoretical problems.
The questions requiring analytical skill are the most interesting and this really requires a thorough understanding of various chapters and their correlations. This skill may be tested through questions of any one of the following formats.
* Comprehension
* Reasoning and assertion
* More than one correct option
* Simple objective questions
* Matching of columns
Though the format of questions in NEET(UG) is a single correct type, yet the practice of subjects through other formats will develop a better understanding of the subjects and better analytical skill.
Analytical skill can be further improved by paying attention to the following facts.
(a) Subjective Problems
Ever since the announcement of NEET (UG), the pattern of examination and format of questions of NEET(UG), students, parents and even the teachers have started thinking that there is no need to solve subjective problems. It is a very wrong and hazardous impression. This is because only after working out lots of subjective problems can one become quick and analytical in doing objective problems. Subjective problems enhance the thought process and logical reasoning. So the speed of doing objective problems depends mainly on the practice of solving subjective problems.
(b) Construct Your Own Problems
In fact, designing your own problems on a particular topic or using two to three topics at a time is the test of ultimate maturity in the subject. When a student checks the correctness of his own constructed problems, he comes to know about the use of concepts and laws in making numerical and theoretical problems. In this way, his understanding of fundamentals and their use in numerical and theoretical problems become more clear.
(c) Problems with Multiple Correct Options
Though multiple choice multi correct objective problems have not been asked in NEET (UG) till now, yet the practice of such problems not only increases the alertness necessary to improve the efficiency of a student but also enhances his analytical skill. Hence every student must practice regularly to solve such problems.
(v) Application Skill
The application skill may be defined as the ability to apply the concepts and fundamentals to solve theoretical and numerical problems.
In fact, the ultimate aim of the studies is to master this skill. This skill may be acquired by critically understanding all the definitions, concepts, fundamentals, Laws, mathematical derivations and the conditions under which these laws and derivations are applicable. After acquiring a strong theoretical understanding, one must solve a sufficient number of graded theoretical and numerical problems to master this skill.
This skill can only be acquired if one has an aptitude for science and has mastered all the above skills, viz.
* Comprehension Skill
* Reasoning Skill
* Analytical Skill
(2) Tips to Master Non-Academic Aspects of NEET(UG)
While taking NEET (UG) and also other prestigious medical entrance examinations, such as AIIMS-PMT and JIPMER-PMT, a candidate has to take care of non-academic aspect of the entrance examinations so that he may maximize the gain in terms of the final core which also depends on the time management and strategy to have maximum efficiency in the three-hours time of NEET (UG) and other prestigious examinations. Following are a few tips to improve the non-academic skills needed to crack NEET (UG).
(i) Read the instructions carefully
The information brochure of NEET(UG) contains complete information related to the examination including the evaluation scheme such as the marks awarded for a correct answer and the marks that a wrongly marked answer carries. It also contains information about the pattern and format of questions.
But you must also read all the instructions carefully when you get the question paper. The major points which you should look for in the information and instructions are:
* Whether the questions have one correct option or more than one correct option (Even though questions of only one correct option have been asked so far.
* What marks a correct answer carries and what marks a wrong answer carries
* What is the duration of the examination?
* How to fill the correct option?
* How to make a correction if you want to change the option of a certain question?
* What entries, registration number, etc. are to be filled in ink?
* What is to be filled by pencil?
* If they have asked for a certain grade pencil to be used then use that pencil only.
(ii) Scan the question paper with a keen eye
Since the question paper contains questions of all the subjects, students can start from any question of any subject. But generally, students are very rigid in their approach to taking an examination. It has been observed that they start with the subject which they feel to be their best-studied subject. This strategy has been observed to be deceptive many a time. This is because quite often it happens that questions in other subjects are found to be much easier and if the student had started with these easier questions, he would have secured higher marks.
This happens especially with sincere students whose definition of the best-studied subjects is generally above the standard of NEET(UG). They think that they know a subject only if they know the answer to each and every problem tackled by them. This approach is not good for the final day. In fact, on the day of the examination, one must have confidence and conviction that he would perform to bag the best rank. One has to be convinced that the best-studied subject is his own earned capital and nobody is going to snatch this from him on the day of examination. But if he becomes a bit methodical and scans the question paper to feel the standard, some easier questions of other subjects will come to his notice and then he may decide which questions he has to attempt first. In this way, his chances of wasting time in difficult questions of his best-studied subject will be eliminated.
(iii) Maintain high speed right from the beginning
A quick scan of the question paper, in the beginning, lets a student assess the standard of questions in the beginning. This will definitely give him a clear idea about the questions asked and then he/she can decide which questions should be done first. After doing these questions quickly, those questions should be attempted which require extra thinking and logical reasoning. It is usually observed that students attempt questions leisurely in the beginning and rush up at the end. They must not do this. The speed of attempting questions correctly should be high right from the beginning.
(iv) Adhere to the time limit for each question
Divide the available time among the questions in the paper and try to do each question quickly in that time frame only. Even if you do not know answers to all the questions, keep their allotted time in reserve. And when you have done all those questions whose answers you knew quite well, approach more difficult questions which require a bit of thinking. While allotting time to each question you must be careful to save some time for the revision of your answers.
Always keep in mind that if you are taking more than the allotted time for a question, you are eating up the time of other questions and reducing your chances of getting good marks. You must leave a question which you are not able to solve, never make it a prestige point even if it belongs to your best-studied subject.
(iv) Be careful in filling the options
In objective type competitive examinations, almost all the institutions are now using computer gradable answer sheets. You must be very careful in filling these answer sheets. They must be filled exactly as instructed in the question paper. Pencil work in filling the options should not cross the boundary of the bubble or rectangle, whichever is to be filled.
It is also a habit of students to first solve all the questions and then fills the correct options. As this happens at the end when the students’ mind is a bit tense because of lack of time and anxiety to attempt some more questions, which they could not solve in the first go, they often lose concentration and mark the options wrong. So fill the options simultaneously or mark two or three options at a time. Always keep on checking whether you are marking the options at the correct place or not.
(vi) Random marking (A waste of time and quite often a loss)
It is also a prevailing practice among students to fill random answers for the questions they are not able to solve. This may fetch them negative marks so unless some of them are very lucky, it would be impossible to score marks by this gambling. Some students try to play safe and stick to a particular option and mark that option in response to all those questions which they are not able to solve. But these innocent students must know that this strategy will not work in the present marking.
Only very sincere students who can do up to seventy percent paper correctly on their own can be advised for limited random marking. But these students should also see whether their random marking was able to fetch them some marks in the tests at the coaching. If it used to get them some marks then it is not blind marking but a logical elimination on the basis of memory. In fact, these students have studied well and owing to their excellent preparation, there are many things in their minds which they are not able to recall but their mind logically tilts towards a correct option. But this should not become a regular practice and only the students who have found it correct in their home tests may sparingly adopt this approach.