The list of those who did very well in their CET exams is long and full of the names of students who gave the exam their best and came out on top. We were fortunate enough to get few minutes with one such student, Karan N Ramakrishna who got the 4th rank in CET medical 2009 . A very down to earth person, Karan, came across as a very confident and jovial young man who believed in always being optimistic and was kind enough to share his experience with all of us.

Follow up:

Q. Can you give us a brief history of your educational background?
A. I got the 4th rank in CET medical and my marks in CET were:

Physics : 51/60
Chemistry: 54/60
Biology : 57/60

For my 1st and 2nd PUC I had joined MES College of Arts and Science, Malleshwaram, Bangalore and scored an overall percentage of 91.16% in my 2nd PUC. I wrote my class 10 exams from St Joseph's Boys High School. Currently I am studying medicine in St. Johns Medical college, Bangalore

Q. Do you feel satisfied with your performance in the CET exams? Do you think you could have done better?
A. Yes. I do feel that I could have done better but I am quite satisfied with the rank and the marks that I got.

Q. Did you Write any other exams apart from the CET exams?
A. Yes. I had appeared for the entrance exams for AIIMS, JIPMER and Manipal Medical University.

Q. How were those exams when compared to the CET exam?
A. Well, I found them to be quite similar to the CET exam but I feel that, to clear these exams or to do well in them, you need to know much more than just CET portions. The levels of these exams is definitely higher than CET and they expect the students to know a lot more about the subject than what is needed for CET

Q. Do you plan on specialising in a particular field after MBBS?
A. I haven't thought of specialisation yet. I will wait for sometime before deciding that. My plan is to take things one step at a time.

Q. Tell us how you prepared for the CET exam?
A. I used to study by myself for 6-7 hours a day for both CET and PUC. I would spend about 3 hours on the PUC portions and 4 on the CET portions. This was the initial time spent, however once the exams came closer, I would spend up to 10 hours a day on studies. I concentrated more on the CET portions and on understanding the concepts in Chemistry, particularly Organic Chemistry. I had also joined a coaching institute and went there for a few hours everyday. Everyday I would revise what was taught in the college and in the coaching classes thoroughly and then move to other studies.

Q. Are coaching classes a must?
A. Yes they are but not to the extent that they eat up all your time. Self study is just as important too.

Q. Did you find your text books to be good enough or did you need refreshers also?
A. The text books were not at all sufficient for the preparation so i used some refreshers. The books I referred were:

HC Verma for Physics
Comprehensive Chemistry for Chemistry along with Asi Mukherji's book on numericals and
Modern's ABC for Biology.

Q. When did you start your revision for the exams?
A. For the CET exams I started during the mid of 2nd PU, around October and for the PU exams I started in December.

Q. It seems you travelled a lot. You went to the college and from there for coaching and then home. How did you manage to study so much? You must have been very tired.
A. Actually I had chosen a coaching institute close to my house so that I don't have to travel too much. It is very important to conserve as much energy as you can since you will need all of it to concentrate on your studies.

Q. What was the strategy that you used in your studies? Did you pay attention to any one subject or did you study everything?
A. I did concentrate a lot on the important topics in Biology and Chemistry but in Physics I made it a point to study all the topics in detail. It is especially necessary for students to pay attention to Botany in Biology and on the mechanical portions in Physics as these are the two places that students make most of the mistakes and loose marks.

Q. So you feel paying attention to one particular subject makes a big difference in the exam?
A. To an extent, yes, because you can use that one subject to improve your rank by scoring more in it but it is ok only if you are paying attention to the other subjects as well.

Q. Did you use model test papers in your studies?
A. Yes i did do a lot of practice before taking the exam. I did question papers from Bosco CET Tutor and I got a lot of papers from my coaching institute also. Apart from this our coaching institute would also conduct chapter-wise tests which made us proficient not only in the subject but also in answering question papers. I also attempted the last 6 years CET papers.

Q. Did you find any differences in the model question papers and CET?
A. Yes, there was a bit of a difference. The model test papers concentrated more on the 2nd PUC portions whereas the CET papers covered not only 2nd but 1st PU portions also. Also, in PUC exams one can almost predict the question since they tend to concentrate on certain important topics, but in CET there is no telling which corner of the book the question will come from.

Q. Did you face any challenges during your preparation?
A. Yes. I got a lot of conflicting information on what is important and what is not. At my coaching institute we were told not to bother about 1st PUC portions, and concentrate on the 2nd PU portions only, which actually is the wrong approach. The CET question papers has 75% question from 2nd PUC and 25% from 1st PUC, thereby making it absolutely essential to study everything.

Q. Then what did you do to overcome these challenges?
A. As far as the conflicting information was concerned I decided to study everything for the exam and leave not even the smallest chapter out. When I did the old CET papers I realised that even 1st PUC portions come for the exam and made it a point to cover those as well.

Q. On many occasions students get depressed about their exams and the preparation they have done. Did you ever get depressed?
A. Yes, that did happen for me too but I was helped out by my Biology teacher who made sure that I kept a positive frame of mind at all times. Even my parents kept my spirits up by constantly encouraging me. I have an elder brother also who had written the exams before so was able to give me some valuable advice on them. One great comforting factor was that I was writing the Paper with my twin brother, so I always felt that I was not alone, and that someone knew exactly what I was going through.

Q. What did you do to prevent yourself from getting depressed again?
A. I concentrated more on my studies and maintained my focus. I also made it a point not to dwell on the mistakes for too long. The most important thing I did was to keep a positive attitude and work hard.

Q. Did you ever face a situation where you were in the exam hall and you just couldn't answer the paper? Did you get stressed out? What happened?
A. Nothing like that happened to me during the CET exam but it did happen when I was writing the Manipal exams. For the first 30 minutes I just couldn't understand anything and was completely clueless. After sometime I just gave myself a 5 minute break, relaxed my mind and didn't think of anything. After that when I got back to the paper I started with the easier questions first, slowly building up my confidence. Once my confidence increased I was fine and was able to complete the paper without any difficulties.

Q. What was your strategy for writing the exam?
A. I had already decided on a plan for answering the questions. I Read the question paper and the questions repeatedly to make sure I understood the question before answering it. I did this because many a times students see a question that looks like something they did during coaching classes (but is not) and without reading it they give the wrong answer and loose marks. Other than this I

Attempted all easy questions first because they get over fast and help you gain time
Kept only 2 minutes for all the small questions
Kept more time for longer questions like those that need calculations
Didn't let myself get distracted by anything and
Focused only on my exam and finishing it

Q. What advice would you give to those who are about to write the CET exams?

A. Save as much time and energy as you can by choosing educational institutes close to your home. If you get home too tired after travelling long distances then you wont be able to study enough.

Always be optimistic and don't dwell on poor results
When it comes to preparation, do not postpone it for anything
Refer to as many books as you can
Avoid going in for crash courses if you have not studied earlier
Don't loose perspective. Karnataka CET is not the only test
Stay well informed about the portions and any changes made to it
Take practice exams very seriously
Don't get distracted and waste time when you are writing the exam
Read the question again and again. Don't jump to conclusion
Don't study the night before the exam. Relax your mind and don't get so lost in studies that you forget to have fun.

Q. What do you think of the current system of CET examinations? Do you think it lacks something?
A. No, I think the system in place now is really good and encourages a lot of learning in students. The fact that questions can come from anywhere ensures that students will cover all topics when studying and not just a select few. When I had gone for the exams, everything was very well organised and done very professionally however I do feel that they should re-introduce the negative marking system so that they are able to discourage guessing of the answers.

Q. what do you think of ImproveYourRank?
A. I think it is a brilliant service which will help students a lot in terms of learning how to manage time better and get a feel for the actual CET. Also the ability to communicate with others via an on-line portal will be a vital tool in spreading the knowledge about various aspects of the exams. It will also give students, lacking proper facilities, an opportunity to get their doubts cleared and provide them with valuable tips that could help them gain an advantage in the exams. I think that ImproveYourRank could become an invaluable tool for students and I wish them best of luck in their efforts.