CEED 2018 Topper Interview: AIR 1, Afshaar Shariff shares her success mantra

CEED 2018 topper, Afshaar Shariff talks to Shiksha about important topics to score well and tips to manage time in the design entrance exam.

CEED 2018 Rank 1 holder, Afshaar Shariff completed her schooling from International Indian School, Dammam, Saudi Arabia after which she pursued Bachelor's in Product Design (BDes) from Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences, Bengaluru.

Born and brought up in the Gulf (KSA), Afshsaar revealed that, “My family has always encouraged and appreciated my interest in fine arts and the creative fields”. An extremely creative person with an eye for details, Afshaar shared that, “My hobbies are what I have tried to turn into a career for myself. I have a keen interest in fine arts like traditional paintings, sculpture, crafts, DIYs and sketching. I enjoy working on conceptual photography a lot as well. Apart from these, I like to spend my time reading and writing poetry, reading books, cooking and playing badminton”.

In a candid interview with Shiksha, Afshaar spoke about how she managed to score 77.53 in Common Entrance Examination for Design conducted by IIT Bombay to become CEED 2018 topper. She also elaborated on important topics to score well and some time management tips for CEED exam. Read the complete interview below for more details. 

To be very honest, I hoped to get through CEED but definitely did not expect to actually make it. Topping the exam with a Rank 1 was not even part of my thought process. 

In Part A, I scored 38.4 marks and as for Part B, I scored a total of 90.57 marks. My total CEED score was 77.53 which got me the 1^st Rank in the Open category.

My basic preparation for the exam involved looking through the previous years’ papers and other sample papers to understand the pattern and type of questions asked.

I did not take any coaching.

It depends entirely on the kind of background you come from.  If you're not used to sketching and are not familiar with the design field and concepts, it would make sense to start preparing well in advance, i.e., at least 6 months.

Since I was already doing my Bachelors in Design, I did not allocate any specific time to prepare for the exam. I did start revisiting and catching up on the concepts I had already learnt about a few weeks before the exam.

The only study material I referred to were the previous years’ question papers and sample papers.

For the aptitude test, it wouldn't be wrong to say that one will need to be aware about a little of everything. I would suggest practicing spatial cognition based questions and revisiting general Maths concepts. Apart from these, knowing about Indian arts and crafts would definitely come in handy. As for the Part B, one needs to practice sketching, especially perspective drawing. Make sure that your ideas are clear and express what you want to as this is very important.

Not honing your spatial and visual skills I think is a huge mistake. Also, practice sketching as much as you can.

I, in fact, had a very hard time managing the time since this was my first attempt at CEED. 

Do not spend much time on questions that you are not sure of. Move on to the next question and come back to any questions if you have any time left. Another important point is, do not answer the questions with negative marking if you aren't sure about the answer. Either answer correctly or just leave it blank.

Do not add negative marks to your bag. For the Part B, finish the questions that are easier fast and as best as you can. Allocate time and focus on the 50 marker. It can definitely make or break your score.

Managing time was definitely very difficult.

As far as my understanding goes, getting through the Part A is necessary to even be in the running for qualifying CEED.

My ultimate goal is to get through the interview round for IDC, IIT Bombay. I'm currently in the process of applying for IIT Guwahati and IISc Bangalore.

Do not wait to prepare for the exam. Attempt CEED the first chance you get even if you've got minimal preparation. Anything can happen.