We first met Pavan at the launch of ImproveYourRank.in. He was kind enough to attend it on the invitation he received from his friend Kishor S V. During the same function, he also received felicitation for the outstanding rank that he got in the Karnataka CET exams. He had secured the 36th rank in Karnataka CET 2009.

Follow up:

At a later date we met with him at length and asked him about how he felt about the rank he told us that he was pleasantly surprised because he thought he would get a rank somewhere among the top 200 but never did he think that his rank would be so close to the top. Adding to that he also said that another reason for the surprise was that since he didn't know what the competition was like he expected everyone else to have done a thousand times better than him. Event the reactions of his parents were very positive since his rank meant that he would easily get a seat in BMC (Bangalore Medical College) which happens to be the college he wanted to attend.

Having attended the launch and seen the demonstration of ImproveYourRank he quickly agreed to our request to talk to him about his CET experience. But before we get into the details of the interview, lets take a look at the marks that he score in, both, his 2nd PUC and CET.

1st and 2nd PU, Sathya Sai Lokaseva Pre-University College, Alike

Physics 95/100
Chemistry 99/100
Maths 98/100
Biology 91/100

CET
Physics 57/60
Chemistry 49/60
Maths 35/60
Biology 49/60

Pavan, being yet another student from Sathya Sai Lokaseva Pre-University College in Alike gave us a detailed insight into the routine that he would follow when in Alike. The routine was:

05:00 am - Wake up
05:20 am - Go for Suprabhatam
05:40 to 06:00 am - Go for Yoga
06:00 to 08:20 am - Personal study time and getting ready for the day
08:20 to 09:00 am - Breakfast
09:00 to 09:20 am - Proceed to the reading room and read the newspapers
09:20 to 10:00 am - Morning prayers
10:00 am to 01:00 pm - Attend classes (Each class lasts for 50 minutes with 5 minutes of meditation between each class)
01:00 to 02:20 pm - Lunch time
02:20 to 04:30 pm - Resume classes
04:30 to 06:00 pm - Recreation (outdoor games, indoor games, reading, etc)
06:00 to 06:45 pm - Evening prayers
06:45 to 08:30 pm - Personal study time
08:30 to 09:00 pm - Dinner time
09:00 to 09:45 pm - Personal study time
09:50 pm - Lights out

A remarkable routine indeed but when we asked Pavan about how he felt about it, he said that when he arrived at Alike, he was rather disappointed with the routine as he could not fathom how they could devotes so much time to extra curricular activities but a few months later he adjusted to the routine and realised that in the few hours that were dedicated to studies during the weekdays, they managed to learn a lot. The weekends were a different story though. Since there was no strict set pattern for the weekends, he would spend about 7 to 8 hours a day on weekends, just revising what he had learned the previous week and studying for the coming week.


Speaking more about the preparation, Pavan told us that he finished PUC portions by January and started his revision for his PUC exams only in March, about 23 days before the exam. Even though he spent only these days on the PUC preparation he managed to finish the entire syllabus twice over and the reason for that was the intense coaching that he received at the coaching classes that he had joined before he joined 2nd PUC. They had revised and covered all topics that would be covered during the 2nd PUC course making the rest of the year just a revision. But he also mentioned that in those 23 days before his PUC exams he did not read or study anything other than his PUC portions.


Moving onto his CET preparation he told us that he started revising for CET from the first day that he joined his 2nd PUC. He would spend about 4 hours a day studying for CET throughout the year and in the weeks leading up to the exams the time was 7 to 8 hours a day. When asked about the strategy that he used to organise his studies he said that before he started studying he sat with the index of the books of each subject. He then separated the topics according to how difficult or easy he found them to be. Once this was done he started studying with the easy topic since they could be finished fast and would gain him some extra time. Once the easy topics were done he would put them aside, to be revised only before the exam, and dedicate himself to topics he found difficult and making it a point to keep revising them again and again. When we asked him if he ever got bored and tempted to skip studies, he said yes he did get tempted to skip studies and he did once or twice but then he did make up for the lost hours on the following weekend. When we asked him what he did if he got bored while studying he said that he would simply change the topic or the subject that he was studying. But in the big picture studies were never a problem since they were given ample amount of time to play and entertain themselves. Sometimes Pavan would rad a book, discuss movies, play chess or cricket to entertain himself.


As we spoke the topic drifted over to the matter of attempting model papers and the differences between the preparation needed for CET and PUC. He told us that there was a world of difference between the two exams. In the PUC exams, time was never a factor since you got 3 hours for 30 odd question but when it came to CET you just had 70 minutes for 60 questions. The time management had to be adapted to manage both exams efficiently. Elaborating more on the differences between these two exams Pavan also told us that since PUC exams require you to just know certain topics, they are easy to pass in, however in CET you are expected to know how to apply what you know.


Citing mock papers as the best way to learn time management in CET he told us that he himself had attempted about 40 mock papers before he went for the exams and out of these at-least 15 were previous years papers. The papers that he used were easy to find since they were available in books like Bosco CET Tutor and Dinesh Publications. When asked to tell us more about his preparation for CET he told us that it was based mostly on question papers. He started attempting them at a very early stage and kept improving his performance over time. However since he picked the papers at random his attempts had varying results. Explaining this in more detail he said that in most places the difficulty of the CET question papers increases over time and each test that you take become a bit more difficult than the previous. This is done to challenge you and improve your skill. Most books also use this order when they publish such papers but since he was picking it at random he never know what kind of a paper he might get. Recalling once such incident he told us that when he wrote his 25th mock paper he managed to score only 50% in that paper. Sorely disappointed with his performance he felt that all his efforts had been wasted and that there was no point in studying any-more. Reasoning with himself he said, "this was my 25th paper. I have enough experience and knowledge now. I can not perform so badly." Feeling disgusted with his result he approached his friends in Alike for help and feedback on what he was doing wrong. When they saw the paper and what he had done they all told him that he had done a very good job considering the fact that the question paper he had done was one of the toughest around and scoring even 60% in it was a big deal.


We then asked him about the challenges that he did face while preparing for his exams and he told us that as far as the information was concerned he never face any problems since he got all the right information. The study however was a challenge since in PUC you are just expected to memorise information but in CET you are expected to understand it and apply it. Apart form this he also suffered from exam blues which would affect him especially when he would not perform well in a test. At such times he cited his friends in Alike to be the best support system that he had since they all watched out for each other and helped where ever they could. Regarding the mock papers he also told us that when he wrote the first mock paper and didn't score well he approached Venkatesh, a senior of his whom he knew well and also the same student who got the first rank in CET 2007, for advice. Upon hearing his tale, Venkatesh promptly told him that there was absolutely nothing to worry about. This is how things go when you take the very first test. Taking the advice seriously Pavan put the incident out of his mind and concentrated on his studies and sure enough his results did start improving.

When we asked Pavan if he felt pressurised into performing well he said there was no pressure from his parents but being in Alike itself meant that you were studying with some of the best minds around you so that did add a need to constantly perform well. Besides this he often thought of his father. Having been accepted in Sathya Sai Lokaseva Pre-University College meant that you were an exceptional student and his father was proud of the fact but Pavan knew that if he didn't perform well then his father would loose face in the society and that was something he didn't want, should happen. When we asked him how he dealt with the pressure he said that he just trusted in God and did the best he could.

After a while we started talking about writing the exam and asked him to share his experience with us. The very first thing he told us was that when he went for his first CET paper he had made a plan for attempting the questions but the moment he saw the paper all his planing went out the window. He go really nervous because he could not answer more than 3 of the first 15 questions. He started sweating profusely and couldn't calm down. After about 20 minutes of this he finally calmed down, moved to easier questions and once he had answered those, gathered up enough confidence to answer the rest of the paper. From then on it was all good and things went smoothly in the remaining paper.

The approach that he found the best was the 3 rounds approach. In the first round he read through the entire paper, simultaneously answering the easiest of the questions. Once all of those were done, he went around answering the questions that he could figure out without too much effort and lastly in round 3 he dealt with all the long and difficult questions. Apart from this he even found right answers by eliminating the wrong answers from the options but did advise caution in doing so since many a times people will not read the answers or the questions completely and loose marks.

We then asked him how he felt that CET exams were different from other exams that he sat for and he said that the exams that he found CET to be different from were AFMC and AIEEE. In AFMC he felt that the questions were too direct and there was a lack of the application approach that CET exams have. He also felt that the level of knowledge required for AFMC was much lower than that needed for CET but when he compared CET to AIEEE he did say that AIEEE was definitely more difficult since the knowledge needed to clear AIEEE seemed much higher than that needed for CET.

As we wound down the talk we asked him what advice he would like to give other student preparing for Karnataka CET 2010 and this is what he said:

Don't worry about time management in the first few tests. They will always take long to finish.

Pay attention to the type of questions you deal with in the mock papers since that will help you identify the type (easy/difficult/long/short) in the exams.

Don't take mock tests in groups of more than 3 to 4 people otherwise you end up discussing the papers rather than treating it as an exam.

Once you are done with a test, identify the wrong answers and correct them then itself. This will help you remember where you made mistakes and you will not repeat them in the future.

Since you will not get calculators or log books you must know all the basic values like pi etc by heart.

Don't stress yourself out if you score less, learn from the mistakes you make and move on but at the same time don't be over confident either.

Use the 3 rounds approach, mentioned earlier, when answering question papers

Collect all the short cut methods you can for subjects like Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics

Don't waste your time with questions that you just cant figure out.

Read each and every question and the answers very carefully before jumping to answering the question.

After we had received these pearls of wisdom we asked him what he thought of the current system that CET follows and he said that he was completely satisfied with the way the system worked. In fact he thought it was really good and competitive and applauded them for forcing student to not just cram what they learn but also learn how to apply it. We then asked him what he planned to do now and he told us that after he has finished with his MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine Bachelor of Surgery) he will apply for IAS (Indian Administrative Services) and in case he does not get through that he would like to do a specialisation in Neurology or Cardiology and be a full time doctor. Hearing this we asked him why he wanted to be a doctor and he said that he wished to be a doctor because he felt that it was a noble profession and he really welcomed the opportunity to help people directly. He also said that money matters very little to him. What matters is that he can help someone and feel good about being able to do so.


Finally we asked him what he felt about ImproveYourRank and he said that after he saw the presentation he was convinced that ImproveYourRank would an invaluable tool for students who are looking to score well in competitive exams. Appreciating the analysis that is provided by ImproveYourRank he said that the Accuracy Booster was something he would use when he studied but his was a mental record. He would however have welcomed the opportunity to be able to employ a tool like this in his studies. Speaking of Doubtfire he said that it was a very good idea to add that the site as it will help provide a link between teachers and students when they needed it the most. He also commended the Inspiration Corner since he felt that such a collection of articles on other would help boost the morale of those who are still preparing for their exams.