You are here: Home / Archives for 2010

Self-study – an underrated ingredient of success

November 10, 2010 By 4 Comments

Do you ‘self-study’?  Self-study is the way to go for any serious student. Don’t wait for your coaching class to start the CET lectures. You take the initiative for yourself and grab the MCQ book to get started!

But why should you self-study if you are enrolled with the best coaching class or the best private tuitions? Isn’t self-study for poor students who cannot afford coaching classes or private tuitions? Absolutely not, poor or rich, urban or rural, boy or girl, repeater or fresher – there is one thing common between all these – the process of learning. When you are given ready-made solution, even though you somehow get the answer, most of the steps of learning or problem-solving are absent or  short-circuited. The process of learning cannot be “outsourced”. To help you understand how the process of self-study creates benefits for you, download this PDF file.

Leave your comments below!

Filed Under: MHT-CET study help Tagged With: , ,

Corrections in Std. 12 biology textbook of state board(government textbook) – Sep 2010

November 9, 2010 By 8 Comments

In July 2010, the Maharashtra State Board published its first Biology textbook for Std. 12. However, there are some corrections in it, which have been identified and corrected by the Board. Click here to download the PDF file containing the corrections.

In Jan 2008, the board had issued few corrections in relation to mistakes and content of textbooks from private publishers. If any of use is using the old uncorrected copies of those textbooks, please download this PDF file also.

Filed Under: Syllabus & Study material Tagged With: ,

Net gain of ATP in complete aerobic oxidation of glucose

November 8, 2010 By 9 Comments

What is the net gain of ATP in complete aerobic oxidation of 1 glucose?

Seems too simple? Not really, because the answer is not 38(or 36) ATPs as most would expect! This is very tricky question because it nicely mixes the fundamentals and skills of reading. Unless I told you beforehand that the answer is not 36 or 38, most would never imagine that the answer is other than 36 or 38. If this question is asked in MHT-CET exam, many students will not realize that they have made a mistake.

Key concept: Knowing the difference between “oxidation” and “respiration”.

Oxidation of glucose ends with Kreb’s cycle and the formation of reduced co-enzymes such as FADH2 and NADH2.

Thus, Complete oxidation = Glycolysis + Link Reaction + Kreb’s cycle

Respiration ends with ETS, i.e, extraction of energy from the reduced co-enzymes.

Thus, Complete aerobic respiration = Glycolysis + Link reaction + Kreb’s cycle + ETS.

So, when speaking of only “complete oxidation”, we have net 2 ATP from Glycolysis and 2 ATP(obtained by conversion of GTP) from Kreb’s cycle. Thus, net gain is only 4 ATP.

Also read: How teachers can fool students and play tricks so that you will mark the wrong answer

Filed Under: MCQs by SMS Tagged With:

Puzzle on genetics

November 7, 2010 By 1 Comment

In a piece of DNA molecule the nucleotide sequence on one of strands was ATCG, but that on opposite strand was not TAGC. Why or how is it possible?

Before seeing the answer, please make your best effort and also ask your friends about this puzzle. Only when you “totally give-up”, read the answer below!

Answer: click here

PS: When we asked this puzzle in our free SMS Group, none of the students could get it right!

Filed Under: MCQs by SMS Tagged With:

DMER, what are you trying to hide?

November 5, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Every year, after announcing the results of MHT-CET exam(for graduation in health science courses), DMER conducts several seat allocation rounds called as “selection rounds”. Till the past year, in every such rounds, it used to disclose candidates who have “canceled” their admission after confirming it according to the previous round. But come 2010 and DMER has forgotten to do this. Instead, it ha opted to enlist only those students whose selection has changed.

Will anybody from DMER come ahead and tell us why you thought that it was not important to disclose the canceled admissions?

Filed Under: News & Analysis Tagged With:

7 tips to solve physics faster in MHT-CET

September 19, 2010 By 40 Comments
  1. Play chess or any other mild puzzle for improving basic logical, analytic and reasoning skills.
  2. By-heart logarithm tables of common nos (Ex: 0 – 9) for faster calculation.
  3. Wherever you are dealing with fractional nos, always eliminate the decimal and spin it into a power of 10. Example: (5.1/17) should be solved as [(51/17)*10-1]. Eliminating fractions will improve the accuracy exponentially. In MHT-CET physics paper, many times the only difference in options is their decimal place. Ex: a) 1.3   b) 0.13    c) 0.013    d) 0.0013
  4. Learn inter-conversion of units in various systems such as MKS and CGS.
  5. While solving numerical MCQs from any book, such as P.S. Bangui, start solving from the last question to first question, i.e in reverse order. The difficult questions are usually given in the last. If reverse order is too difficult, you can solve alternate questions in serial order.
  6. Use common sense, and do not be nervous or anxious while approaching questions. Most of the questions are straight forward formula based. Students blow it up because they are weak on calculation parts, or are not prepared fully.
  7. Instead of “reading” formulas, practice them in the form of numericals. This will give dual benefit of learning the formula as well math speed.

For your information:

  • Atleast 45 out of 50 questions in physics paper are numerical questions. It is foolish on the part of any student to appear for CET without having practiced numericals.

Update: We have now launched Physics test-series for MHT-CET 2012. Click here.

Filed Under: MHT-CET, MHT-CET study help Tagged With: , ,

How we teachers fool students into marking wrong answers in MHT-CET Biology

September 5, 2010 By 33 Comments

First things first – Biology is an easy subject and it is usually difficult for a Bio teacher to set a difficult question. What makes Bio CET more easy is the fact that the correct answer is in front of the student! . But every year, I observe without fail, an overwhelming majority of students score less than expected marks inspite of cherishing that Bio paper was ‘lallo panju‘. Newspapers like to call the Biology paper as ‘Balm for harm done by a difficult physics’, and readers also like to believe it. But the fact is that real effectiveness of the ‘Balm’ is less than the perceived value! It looks great on a newspaper headline, but not on the marksheet!

Now, I am sharing with you some of my secrets that I personally use to fool my students. To start with, answer the below given MCQ:

In T.S., the spinal cord is ___ shaped.

a) K shaped             b) A shaped             c) H shaped             d) O shaped

The correct answer is d -  O shaped. Most of the students will jump to mark H shaped – which is wrong. H shaped is only the gray matter, the entire section is somewhat oval.

Now, read the below rules and see how I have applied them to the above question.

Rule 1: Not to ask any question which is covered by only few of the 10 sanctioned textbooks.

For ex: in the chapter of nervous system, it has been mentioned only in two textbooks(Nirmitee, Scholars) that medulla oblongata is also called as spinal bulb. It is very tempting to use this MCQ because most would not be knowing it but I prefer not to use it because it still gives an advantage to the students who have read those two textbooks.

Instead, I will trick students in such an area which is covered in all the 10 sanctioned textbooks. T.S. of spinal cord is covered in all the 10 books, and hence, I get to use my trick on all the students, and not on only those few who did not study Nirmitee textbook.

Rule 2: Use ‘familiarity’ and ‘association’

In all the 10 textbooks, it has been mentioned clearly that gray matter of spinal cords is H shaped. Students are so used to this sentence that in their minds, they have formed an association of words relating to spinal cord and H shape. By using familiar associations,  ensure that students do not get a second opportunity to think.

Instead of using this, had I put some difficult question, many students would have thought twice before marking the answer, and few of them would have got the correct answer in their second thought process. I have eliminated this by tricking the students to mark the answer quickly.

Rule 3: Allow students to develop overconfidence.

Overconfidence is the Grand Father of all tricks. Its easy to develop, hardly fails and often the students goes home with an euphoria that he will score 95 or 96 out of 100, only to find that he scored only 80 or 85.

As a paper-setter, I know that the preceding physics paper is always a nightmare for students.  It greatly impacts the student’s mindset negatively. In this negative atmosphere, I see an fantastic opportunity to play my trick. Purposely, the first 20 or 25 questions will be extremely easy so that students can ‘relax’. Typically, the student will have solved these 25 question within the first 5 minutes of the Biology paper. By this time, the student has suddenly experienced a relief from the stress created by the Physics paper. The student has come to a conclusion that he is good at  Biology than physics. This is only an manipulative illusion created by the paper-setter because he wants to trick the student.

Now that the student has started taking it easy, I will be putting my tricky questions in his way one by one. The sudden relief created by the first 25 easy questions masks the negative impact felt by the student when he is unable to solve “just 1 opr 2″ questions. Not to mention, if the question is something like I have asked above(shape of TS spinal cord), most of the students will not even realize that the trick has already been played!

Rule 4: In tricky questions, put the correct answer in option A or D, but not B or C

When not sure about the answer, students are more likely to mark B or C as the answer rather than A or D.

http://img1.orkut.com/images/medium/1282393400/90420291/gq.jpg
Filed Under: MHT-CET study help Tagged With: , , , , ,

Which test is used to detect typhoid bacilli in blood?

August 22, 2010 By 1 Comment

The answer is NOT Widal test. The correct answer is blood culture.

Explanation: Widal test detects antibodies to typhoid bacilli, and not the bacilli itself. To detect the bacilli we must grow them on a simple nutritive media having pH 6 to 8, at temperature 37 deg C.

This answer is derived from Biology textbook by the Board(pg 130, below green box).

This is a tricky question. If students want to succeed at MHT-CET exam, they should practice a lot of such tricky questions. Commonly, students practice only simple questions which really have no value in competition. Every Tom, Dick and Harry knows those answers. If you want to beat them you should practice such questions.

Successful students do not read different books. They read the same books, but in a different manner.

Many question asked in actual MHT-CET Biology paper are tricky. As a matter of fact, most of the students score less than expected marks in Biology. Students who expect 90 marks in Biology usually score only 75 to 80 marks. Those who have already appeared for MHT-CET will know this by their own experience. If you are appearing for MHT-CET for the first time, you can ask your senior batch students about their experience.

Physics is difficult, hence students expect less marks and they score less marks. In Biology, they expect great marks, but score much lower then their expectation. This itself tells that special attention must be given to Biology. Also, not many students know that students with higher marks in Biology can get higher rank in MHT-CET.

The study material given by most of the coaching classes, MCQ practice books,etc. consists of simple questions only. They pickup single lines from the textbook and give it as a MCQ. Even a 10 yrs old kid can answer such simple MCQs. There is no competitive value in such questions.

Our test-series has been created with a special focus on such tricky, challenging and complex questions. We see to it that our students get complex questions to solve so that they can develop their skills and differentiate themselves from Tom, Dick and Harry. We know that merely giving simple questions to our students will not make they successful. In order to be successful, they need more than simple questions. The complex and tricky questions are created by Prof. Rohan Shenoy himself, and hence you will not find these questions in any other practice book or coaching classes’ study material.

Sample question paper of our test-series can be download from here.

Filed Under: MCQs by SMS Tagged With: , , , , ,

MHT-CET 2011 is NOT cancelled due to single entrance test for MBBS

August 14, 2010 By 4 Comments

Times of India has carried out an article in its prime pages about a single entrance test for MBBS and MD from 2011. I have already started receiving emails from concerned parents and students about this issue. In February this year, the HRD Ministry had announced its plans to hold a single entrance test for medical, engineering, etc. from the year 2013.

This decision is taken by the MCI and not the Supreme Court. Even though the Union Ministry of Health has accepted it, the Supreme Court can thrash it any moment. MHT-CET(and many other State CETs) is being conducted as per the ruling of Supreme Court, and not primarily as per resolutions of MCI or any Ministry. In Feb 2009, few Ministers and Bureaucrats from Maharashtra had made careless and irresponsible statements to the press that MHT-CET had been scrapped. Even though MHT-CET was not scrapped, the people who made those irresponsible statements never followed-up the same. All they did was setup a panel to find ways of doing away with the MHT-CET, but the panel had no outcome.

With specific reference to Maharashtra, a single entrance test is not possible because that there is a lot of difference in the syllabus of the State Board and other boards such as CBSE, ICSE for MBBS entrance. MD/MS entrance may be converted into a single test, but there is no chance of MBBS-entrance being converted.

The proposed single entrance test talks about only MBBS course at UG level. What about BDS, BAMS, BHMS, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, nursing, etc?

There is already one national entrance test called as CBSE PMT, or more popularly All India PMT. Not many are aware, but States can opt-out of the existing CBSE PMT scheme. For ex: Andhra Pradesh and J&K are not a part of the CBSE PMT(All India PMT) scheme. The existing CBSE PMT is only for medical(MBBS) and dental(BDS) courses, but not for ayurvedic, homeopathic, etc. courses

So it is likely that the single CET will be introduced in others states where CBSE syllabus is followed, but definitely not here in Maharashtra.

On many occasions, it has been observed that such blabber from Ministers and Govt. departments only serves to cause confusion, uncertainty and mental agony to the concerned parties without any solid outcome or follow-up. Ministers and Govt. departments have a bad habit of announcing mere “proposals” as “final decisions” in a high-sounding language and fancying themselves as the Apex authority. In Feb 2009 when there was a lot of chaos on scrapping MHT-CET, it is not known if they even approached the Supreme Court with the proposal, but some Ministers felt an compulsive urge to open their mouth loud and release misleading definitive statements in the press. So this incident could also be just one more of those.

Filed Under: News & Analysis Tagged With: ,

How NOT to study for MHT-CET

August 13, 2010 By 5 Comments

I am often asked “How to study for MHT-CET”. Writing on how to study would be very lengthy, hence I chose to write “How NOT to study for MHT-CET”. Below is a set of things to avoid when studying for CET.

  1. Not using textbooks published by the Board, and instead wasting time collecting notes of “top professors”.
  2. Starting CET study without proper HSC base.
  3. Studying CET with HSC on a topic-to-topic basis (means studying a HSC topic and immediately solving CET questions based on the same)
  4. Practicing only simple, straight forward questions.
  5. Assuming that the study material given by classes is the best and enough.
  6. Not completing entire HSC syllabus before October.
  7. Using general-use quality study material.
  8. For physics, not solving P. S. Bangui’s numerical problem book(Don’t appear for CET if you did not solve P. S. bangui’s book)
  9. For chemistry, not solving numerical and chains of reactions.
  10. For biology, assuming that all questions asked in CET are simple pickup lines from textbook. They ask difficult, tricky, challenging questions which even the otherwise “best” teachers are likely to get wrong! Boy, don’t you ever underestimate those gray-haired unglamorous paper-setters.
  11. Not undertaking any independent assessment of your CET preparation by a 3rd party. CET is a creative subject. When different people come together, they can view the same problem differently and create a variety of different questions. Since a single teacher cannot think in all possible directions, join other teacher/classes test-series so that you can gain exposure to alternative ways of approaching the same thing. Don’t run behind other professor’s/classes’  notes, but run behind their test-series.

Bonus tip for physics: Physics is an extremely logical subject. Therefore, if you are weak at physics, you can take up some small logical skill building exercises such as playing chess in your free time, solving puzzles, etc. And don’t forget to solve numerical problems.

Ofcourse, there are some for thing to avoid, but these are sufficient to start with!

Filed Under: MHT-CET study help Tagged With: , ,
« Older Posts