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 one textbook(Nirmitee) 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 Nirmitee’s textbook of Biology.

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 students 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.

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.

Fees for the test-series is Rs. 1800. To know how to pay the fees, click here.

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!

Answer: 94 ATP

Explanation:

Complete aerobic breakdown of glucose with ETS releases 686 Kcal energy.

1 ATP can store 7.3 K cal energy.

Thus, to store 686 Kcal, we would need 686/7.3 = 94 ATP.

The correct answer to this questions is 4 nuclei. Almost all students write 5 as the answer. This is a very tricky question. Read below for explanation.

Explanation:

Key concept: At maturity, the two haploid polar nuclei fuse with each other to form a single secondary nucleus.

Thus, the nuclei participating in double fertilization are:

1. Nucleus of male gamete with egg cell (first fertilization or syngamy)
2. Secondary nucleus and other male gamete(second fertilization or triple fusion)

Commonly, students make the mistake of counting 3 nuclei in the second step(triple fusion) instead of 2.

When are the fundamentals taught?

The fundamentals of every subject are taught in  Std. XI (11). However, it is observed that many students do not take Std 11 seriously. They are under the impression that Std 11 is like a virtual vacation between two stressful years of Std. 10 and 12. As a result, they are more into bunking college lectures, coaching classes and hanging out with friends in their college campus, movies and multiplexes and college gymkhana. The first few months of college are a first-ever experience for them and most of them want to feel ‘cool’ by undertaking adventurous feats like bunking, etc. Even when in the lectures, the students are not fully devoted to what is being taught. The balance between seriousness and cool stuff is often lost.

Students enroll themselves for 11 and 12th coaching as early as immediately after the Std 10 results or confirmation of college admission. Some coaching classes start their Std 12 lectures as early as Diwali or Christmas vacation of Std 11. This means that the student is unable to devote a large amount of time to Std 11 during later months.

Some coaching classes have started promoting the belief that all the student needs in Std 11 is only 35% marks as a passing mark. Students often take this in a minimal sense and ignore the substance of Std. 11. They prefer to mug-up and rote things rather than treating them respectfully. This backfires in CET where concept is more important than mere memorization skills.

How to improve fundamentals?

The best place to get it right is Std 11 textbooks. Due to provision of printed notes by coaching classes and tuitions, not many use textbooks. But textbooks are essential to get the feel of it. Solve the numericals based or reactions based questions. You will find them at the end of every chapter.

It is my guarantee that you will find CET questions study easier after improving your fundamentals. You do not have to be an extremely brilliant students to crack CET. Students who scored as less as 65% in SSC have cracked CET with their dedication and hard work. You too can do it. Wish you Best Luck.

So what should a repeater do?

Students who choose to repeat must have a high level of commitment and will power. Some students enroll themselves for first year B. Sc courses or other courses and continue CET study side-by-side. Others prefer to drop the complete year and concentrate only on CET. For better results, it is recommended that one concentrates only on CET preparations.

Analyzing your mistakes

A variety of factors will have stopped you from getting to the medical or dental college. Many times, it is inadequate preparation from students. But inadequate coaching is also widely prevalent. It not as uncommon as one may think. You need to find out why you failed. I have listed some of the common causes below:

1. Inadequate efforts by the student.
2. Inadequate study material.
3. Improper approach or method of study, including poor fundamentals.
4. Inadequate coaching.
5. Unskilled teachers -  not good at teaching CET.
6. Inappropriate method of teaching at classes.
7. Lack of proper guidance from teachers or classes.
8. Other.

A combination of above factors is usually the reason, commonest ones being 1 and 5. Yes, it can very much be the teachers fault. As a student and even now, I observe that simply having a post-graduate degree does not make one a good and astute teacher. Having knowledge in one thing, and casting it on the blackboard is quite another.

On the students side, the problem can be multi-factorial. The study material provided may not be adequate or appropriate. It may lack quality or simply fail to cover facts. Students with poor fundamentals of the subject are of very common occurrence. I have come across a significant proportion of students who do not know how scalars and vectors are added in Physics even at the end of Std 12 syllabus. This is a disappointing scene. Often, coaching classes start immediately after the final examination of 11th. However, students neglect the two following two months thinking that Board exam and CET are sttill 10 – 12 months away. This is a ‘big mistake’ and it systematically destroys the months ahead. I remember, when I was a student attending my S.S.C. at Mahesh Tutorials, Mahesh Shetty, the founder-director who at that time taught Geometry said that “These 2 months are a make or break period.” Those words are absolutely true. When students think of ‘sleeping’ for these 2 months, they find that they have overslept and only 3 months are remaining for Board exam. In a hurry, they purchase guides, collect notes, etc. and start rotting their books. This is the 2nd critical mistake. Lack of time forces students to not give adequate importance to things like understanding the concept clearly. The aim of the students at such time is merely to recollect and reproduce the words as given in their notes. Every other thing is neglected. It does not work this way in CET, especially for physics. In physics, Concept is King. Once the concept is fully understood, students should move on to practicing a variety of numerical problems and strengthen their hold on formulae and mathematical manipulation skills. In physics, almost 45 out of 50 MCQs in physics are numerical based. As per my estimate, 75 – 85% students are unable to complete physics and chemistry paper within time. Physics is not a subject where you can score by knowing the sentences of definitions, laws and principles.

In Biology, many students take it for granted that they will score good marks in Biology. Often, when the results are out, the student finds that he has scored something like 54% in physics, 62% in chemistry and 82% in biology. This makes him believe that he is good in Biology. His parents too start believing the same. This is dangerous. The number 82% looks brilliant in comparison to 54% and 62%, but in reality every Tom, Dick and Harry has scored 80 – 85% in Biology. Therefore, when it comes to competition, it gives no competitive benefit because it is easy for all. The competitive benefit from Biology comes only from the tie-breaking rules and those 10-12 question which most students are not able to solve. There are the ones which will decide how high your rank will be, or how low it will lie. Biology marks are more valuable than physics or chemistry marks because of tie-breaking rules. However, most students and parents never realize this.

They continue to believe that they are good in Biology and weak only in physics whereas the truth is that the student is weak in physics as well as biology. 85% may be a good score in physics, but its only average in Biology. As a result of this mistaken belief, the students prepares for physics and gives less attention to biology. In the CET, the student is able to show his improved skills in physics, but fails to show significant improvement in Biology. Every year, there are cases where students scoring 47/50 in physics do not get admission where was students scoring less than 40/50 get admission to MBBS. This is because of marks in Biology. If two students score the same grand total marks, the one scoring higher marks in Biology is ranker higher.

Students should not focus on the no. of MCQs and books practiced by them, but they should focus on quality of MCQs.

Students have a bad habit of practicing only what they like, and ignoring things that they find difficult. Actually, this is true for most human behaviour. A person will spend much time repeating what they like doing rather than learning new things that seem difficult. Often students omit or skip difficult questions and never seek help for them. This is a deadly mistake. Students are almost never able to come out through such mistakes.

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.

Dear students, let it be known that all the 100 MCQs in MHT-CET biology are compulsory. You cannot afford to leave any MCQ unattempted. Ofcourse, there are some chapters which hold more weight in terms of MCQs asked from them, but that certainly does not mean that the MCQs asked from the smaller chapters are easy to solve. In a situation where we have almost 9 sanctioned textbooks for MHT-CET biology, it becomes increasingly difficult to compile and remember all the facts about any given concept from all the 9 textbooks. Also, there is no restriction as to from which part of a chapter the MCQ can be asked or not asked. A MCQ may be asked from any corner of any sanctioned textbook.

Please do not look for fast-marks. For students who carry the attitude that they can fare well at MHT-CET exam by focusing on “important chapters”, I wish to tell them that there are hundreds of students who have been sincerely preparing for MHT-CET for more than 12 months, leaving no stone unturned – there is no way that your “crash-course” of “important chapters” can beat their year-long hard work. So if you are planning to focus on important chapters and sideline the smaller chapters, please drop that idea – its gonna fail! You need to master almost everything to be successful at the MHT-CET exam. Winners look for long-term solutions, losers look for quick-fixes!

1. While darkening circles, please be careful that you are darkening the appropriate circle. Sometimes, students darken the circles in the line above or below the appropriate circle.
2. Do not write anything on the question paper, except in the space provided for rough work. Some students are in the habit of ‘ticking’ the correct answer on the question paper or doing rough work just besides the question. Please be warned that this is not allowed as per rules of MHT-CET. If the supervisor notices it, you could be in trouble.
3. Pay close attention to bells. The supervisors are not teachers but staff of local Municipal Corporation. They are not so well-versed with the examination system. Sometimes, they might confuse one bell for another and this may lead to late distribution or early collections of question papers/answer sheet. If this happens, please bring it to the notice of examination centre authorities immediately. Is such cases, there is no use of doing a court representation because there is inadequate proof that such irregularity occurred.
4. For boys, please try to bear the look as in your photo on your MHT-CET admit card. An extra-cautious supervisor may else waste your valuable time in confirming your identity.