Aditya Manjunath, who got the 7 rank in CET 2009, is the son of a Pathologist in private practice and the brother of  a girl who has just started her intern-ship in M S Ramaiah Medical College and plans to specialise in orthopaedics. As his father and mother smile with pride and joy, Aditya is being congratulated by his sister. They are so lost in the celebration that before they know it, he and his sister, are dancing and jumping around the whole place.

Follow up:

Looking at such a scene one wonders as to what has caused this outburst and the answer is that Aditya has just received his Marks for Karnataka CET 2009 and has gotten the 7th rank in medical and the 188th rank in engineering. Considering both the ranks to be really good, his joy knows no bounds.

Having finished his 10th from MES Kishore Kendra he moved to MES College of Arts and Sciences for his PUC. The marks score by him were:

CET:
Physics     : 51/60
Chemistry  : 57/60
Maths       : 41/60
Biology    : 53/60

PUC:
Physics     : 93/100
Chemistry: 100/100
Maths       : 98/100
Biology    : 90/100

He is now studying medicine in Bangalore Medical College and has a special interested in Cardiology. Aditya was actually very keen on doing engineering and wanted to join one of the IIT's but after the CET ranks were announced, he was a bit confused about his career. To solve his confusion he visited a lot of professors from various colleges and career counsellors to help him decide which stream to pick up. One such professor told him that if he envisioned himself in a big room with an A/C and lots of gadgets around him then he should join engineering. However if he saw himself helping the poor and the needy in some remote corner then he should join medicine. After having weighed all the options he decided that he would join medicine itself. He did however confess that he did not expect such a high rank in CET medical and was really surprised by it.

Acquainting us with his preparation, Aditya, told us that he had concentrated on preparing for IIT throughout and his study patterns were influenced a great deal by this decision. Not waiting for the portions for his PUC exams to get over in January, he dedicated about 6-7 hours a day to study for them. The 2nd PUC exams, he added, are quite different for the competitive exams and can be cleared with selective studies, even though it is not a strategy he would suggest. He indulged in rigorous studies for the two months that preceded the board exams and made sure he had covered every single point possible. He even reached a point where he knew his Chemistry books like the back of his hand. He also mentioned that he would go to sleep by 12-12:30 am and be up by 7:30-8 am and get back to studying with very few breaks in between

In response to questions posed to him about why he felt the need to study so much, Aditya told us that he felt that he was at a very crucial stage in his life and that the decisions he made now would have far reaching affects in his future. Since he wanted a good future he decided to do what it took to get one and this included spending time on intensive and extensive studies without compromises.

The preparation for his IIT exams, however, started a year earlier, when he was still in his 1st PUC. Even though he was keen on joining IIT and he concentrated more on it, he never ignored CET in any way and since IIT studies include portions of CET as well he was able to cover and revise them as well. He even joined a coaching institute to help in his studies and mentioned that he never joined the institute to study Biology. All his studies for Biology were done by himself with occasional help from his father who is a Pathologist. Since it is common knowledge that these exams are considered really challenging and require the student to be very well versed with his subjects, Aditya told us that studying for IIT was both intensive and extensive. Initially he spent about 3 hours a day preparing for IIT and later on increased it as much as he could.

As is bound to happen, when someone studies so much , Aditya reached a point where he was completely frustrated with studies. He felt like throwing his books away and just sleeping till he could sleep no more. The problem, he mentioned, was studying the same thing over and over again. Explaining what he meant he said that, since a person has studied the same thing again and again so many times, the repetition really begins to become very boring. He wished to get away from it and go play games or just relax but he knew it was not possible. Swelling with pride he said that it was at times like these, when one needs to maintain focus even though it seems humanly impossible and he attributes that to his mother for always being there for him and keeping him on track. She had even taken leave from work and was always around him to keep an eye on him and his studies. When he wished to take a break he would go watch some TV and if he exceeded his 5 minute limit his mother would immediately be there to send him right back to his studies. On many occasions when he wished for a break she would send him out to walk the dog for a while but still made sure that he didn't waste too much time away from his desk. Even when he felt let down about his preparations and thought that he didn't know enough (which he always did), his mother was there to prevent him from thinking about it too much and put his nose right back in his studies. When asked about feeling the pressure to perform well Aditya quickly said that he did feel it but never took it in a negative way. He felt that it was positive pressure and since it led him to study harder and longer, which eventually led to his outstanding result, he thanks his mother for it.

While talking of challenges he mentions that his two greatest challenges were concentrating on studies and effective time management. While the time management problem got solved with constant practice and vigilance from his mother, he said that the only thing that got him to concentrate was the pressure his mother put on him to study. He also told us that during his preparations along with the help that he got from the coaching institutes, he also concentrated a lot on the model test papers. He religiously worked out model papers every day, from 9am to 12pm, while simulating as much of the atmosphere of the actual exam as he could. Using model test papers from Bosco CET Tutor, Dinesh Publications and those that he got from his coaching institute he slowly built up his performance from satisfactory to brilliant. Citing the importance of model test papers he did say one thing, “Model test papers can make or break an exam.” Explaining this he said that it was with the help of model parers that he managed to improve his performance. When he started writing them he noticed that he almost never had time to finish them and that his time management was all wrong. After a few papers he began analysing his performance and compared his methods with those publicised by others to see where he could improve.

When it came to the exam Aditya told us that he had written papers for AFMC, COMEDK and AIEEE scoring a state rank of 366 in the AIEEE exams and the 101st rank in engineering and 92nd rank in medical in the COMEDK exam. Explaining the difference between these exams and CET he said that they were worlds apart. Citing an example he said that in the AFMC exam they were given a question paper with 300 questions and only 2 hours to do them in and what made it worse was that the questions were form all the subjects, science and language, together. He also mentioned that the level of knowledge require for them was much higher as compared to CET. Coming back to CET and outlining his strategy for the exam he said that he first read the question papers thoroughly and then started answering. The pattern that he followed was that he did the ones that were easy and short first after which he went to those questions that needed analysing and thinking and left the questions needing calculations and derivations for the end. Stating this to be the best method he did admit that it worked for all except the maths exam since he ran out of time in that paper. He never got stressed out in his exams and and thanked his extensive practice for this

His advice to those about to write CET is that

Don't waste time watching TV or playing. All that should stop at least 2 months before the exam

Do not do selective studies. Everything is important and anything can be asked

If you don't find the answer in your course books get it from books of a higher level, or ask your lecturers or friends. Don't ever hesitate to get your doubts cleared since every mark is worth a 1000 ranks in the CET.

Understand the question before you answer

Read the question paper completely before starting, it will show you the areas where you can save time and where you will need time.

Solve as many question papers as you can and do them in conditions as close to actual exams as possible.

Analyse mock papers after you have finished and try to improve your performance in the next paper

He found ImproveYourRank to be an excellent idea. He was particularly impressed by the provisions given for students to analyse and improve performance. He likes the concept of Peer Ranking and appreciated the ideas behind the Doubtfire, and the Inspiration Corner sections and promised that he would do his best to visit regularly and help out anyone he could with their questions regarding CET preparation.