Biology For MHTCET

MHT-CET 2010 will be conducted on Thursday, May 6 2010. MHT-CET is a common entrance test for admission to health sciences, engineering and pharmacy courses in Maharashtra. The information brochures and application forms for this exam are usually distributed around the time of H.S.C. board exams.

The date of MHT-CET exam may change in due course. This has happened frequently in the past. Hence students and parents are requested to keep themselves updated by periodically checking the website of DMER.

On 19 Jan 2010, the HRD Ministry has decided to de-recognize 44 deemed universities across the country, 3 out of the 44 entities are located in Maharashtra. Atleast 2 of them, namely Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences, Satara and D Y Patil Medical College, Kolhapur are involved in medical/dental education. Lack of adequate facilities and infrastructure has been cited as the reason towards this step. Education of students enrolled in medical or dental courses will not be affected by this move as the colleges have been advised to affiliate with the State university. Another 44 deemed universities whose names have not been disclosed have been asked to take measures to make good the deficiencies within a period of three years.

Alertness is a quality that is required in many occupations. The doctor’s job is one among the many ones where it is needed. As you may already know, I am conducting a test-series for MHT-CET that focuses exclusively on strengthening the student in the subject of Biology. Simple questions are twisted around core concepts to make them appear difficult to the student. Every attempt is made to confuse the ‘weak’ student and trick him into marking the wrong answer. An average student may choose the correct answer by chance, but over time, only the truly strong student will win consistently. A combination of paper-setting tricks ensures that the weak will be bowled out very early in the game.

Coming back to out topic of discussion – Alertness – is equally needed in MHT-CET exam. In a tough and competitive exam where over 2lakh students compete for just 2000 seats in MBBS & BDS, even a slight edge over others can be your “Seat-saving medicine”. There are a no. of MCQ practice books available in the market. To add to it, your coaching class may also burden you with “20,000 MCQs question bank”. My experience is that not all students who attend CET coaching programmes are serious about it. On an average, less than 25% of students, or even less, are self-motivated. Other do so under pressures from teachers, students, peers, etc. Those self-motivated ones will not restrict themselves to just one or two books. They will go much beyond it. These “hard-working” students will have read all the 9 sanctioned textbooks and also practiced MCQs from atleast 3 MCQ books.

This article is directed, or, written for the benefit of those “self-motivated and hard-working” students. The human brain has a property by which it responds subconsciously to habitual things. You get into the “habit” of it without thinking about it actively. Similarly, when you solve the similar kind of MCQs repeatedly, you are likely to answer it subconsciously because you feel that you already know that answer. This is the “side-effect” of over-practicing MCQs. I have myself committed such an mistake in my actual MHT-CET exam. Hence, take my words without a doubt that you too are susceptible to this.  this For ex, consider the below question:

100 DNA molecules are are replicated for two generations in medium containing 14N isotope. In the third generation, percentage of DNA molecules containing 14N isotopes is

a) 20 %

b) 25 %

c) 33.33%

d) 100 %

The above seems related to the Meselson-Stahl experiment which proved that DNA replication is semi-conservative and you would then proceed to the calculations. However, you must notice that the question here says that we have used “14 N” isotope, which is actually the “normal” or common isotope. Hence the answer for this question is 100%. You may have been a victim of over-practice if you failed to notice and differentiate that the questions mentions 14 N, whereas the experiment used 15 N. MCQs based on this are very common, so you may have developed a “habit” of it.

The best way to avoid this would be patience. Read the question statement twice, word-by-word, with eyes and mind wide open. In Biology, you will have ample excess time unlike physics and chemistry. So there is no need to hurry. Always be double-cautious when you feel “super-confident” about an twisted question/answer. When we are super-confident or over-confident, we fail to see things that are right in front of our eyes. Let that not happen with you.