Students' Speak: ​ How to score 300 + in the BITSAT Mains by preparing in the last month

By: Donika Juthani

You won’t see your progress until you solve practice question papers and/or previous year question papers. So, you need to practice a decent (moderate) level of many questions.

The main mistake made by a majority of the students is that they do not prepare for the BITSAT examination separately. Although the exam is not very different from JEE, there are some aspects that require extra focus. First of all, let’s look at the pattern: 

Total questions - 150  

1. Physics - 40 Questions  
2. Chemistry - 40 Questions   
3. Mathematics - 45 Questions  
4. English proficiency - 15 Questions  
5. Logical reasoning - 10 Questions  

The two important points you should consider are: 

1. There are 25 questions of English and logical reasoning and they make a lot of difference because many students do not focus there.  
2. Weightage of Mathematics is slightly more than Physics and Chemistry.

Approximately, you get 1 minute per question. This is obviously very less and that leads me to another important aspect which is speed. But along with speed, you need accuracy. You need at least 350 to get a CS branch. 

Let’s look at preparation. The questions are almost NCERT level (mainly for physics and chemistry) and hence very hi-fi problem solving is not required here. I myself had prepared NCERT thoroughly and it is very relevant. So, NCERT should be on your fingertips and keep revising. Just studying or reading it once won’t help. You won’t see your progress until you solve practice question papers and/or previous year question papers. Unlike JEE Advanced, where the number of questions is less and difficulty is more, here the number of questions is large and hence, the difficulty is less. So, you need to practice a decent (moderate) level of many questions. And by many, I mean a very huge number of questions. The more questions you practice the more your speed will improve. Try setting a time limit each time you solve a question and this way you will be able to judge yourself. It will also prepare you for the acute shortage of time in the exam due to nervousness or any other personal issue. 

The main thing is from which subject to start. According to me, you should start with chemistry. You need to attempt maximum questions but utilization of 1st hour is of immense importance. If you solve 70-80 questions within 1st hour, you will automatically feel less pressure for the rest of 2 hours and hence will be able to attempt the questions with more accuracy. It is natural to have excitement and a clear mind during the start and adrenaline rush and tension during the last. Hence, this strategy will let you cope with pressure and also attain good accuracy. Chemistry and English questions are generally cram based so chemistry will help you save a lot of time. Do not start with Mathematics as it takes a lot of time. So, I recommend attempting Mathematics after Chemistry, Physics and English.  

The next thing is the 12 bonus questions. You get these only when you have attempted all 150 questions which per se is quite difficult. If you did complete all the 150, you should definitely go for the extra 12. One gamble you can play is if you have done 140 questions confidently, you could solve the 10 questions quickly and go to the bonus ones. But do not forget your aim - Get maximum questions correct out of 150. Don’t just fall into the greed for bonus 12 questions. Also, never ignore English and verbal sections. Let me give you an example.  

Case 1  (No loss situation) 

A friend of mine had attempted 135 questions out of 150 and he still had half an hour left. He took the decision of not attempting the bonus questions thinking - “If I attempt the rest of 15 in a hurry leading to negative marks and the bonus questions might be difficult.” So, he was satisfied with the 135 questions and he got a score around 360.  

Case 2  

Another friend of mine had attempted 125 questions and he took the risk of attempting another 25 with intelligent guess in a short span of time. He opened the bonus questions and got 11 questions correct out of 12. This person is in the CS branch. 

This was the case with the majority of the students. Generally, bonus questions are not extraordinarily difficult. They are of the same level as other questions. 

So don’t be under the assumption that bonus questions would be more difficult than the others. Don’t step back from taking risks. After all, it depends on your mindset during the test. You see if you apply intelligent guesses on 40 questions and get 10 right. Your marks will be balanced with +30 (from 10 correct) and -30 (from 30 wrong). If you get 1-2 correct it’s your profit and even if you get 1-2 wrong take the risk based on your confidence and level of preparation. This will give an edge over other students who are not attempting bonus questions. 

Hence, if you want to score high, you will have to play out of your comfort zone. Students don’t have much time (hardly a month) left after JEE Mains and as there is no separate preparation for BITSAT, the short span of time will not lead to any magic. Chances are less that your English vocabulary will improve all of a sudden and hence, you’ll have to start preparing English and vocabulary at least 5 months before the exam. So, by ignoring the English section, you won’t be able to achieve your dream of getting 360+ in BITSAT.   

Giving mock tests regularly will help you a lot in assessing yourself and will also improve your speed to a great deal. Solve the last 5 years JEE Mains papers very thoroughly and the questions along with their answers should be on your fingertips. By this, it doesn’t mean that you do ratification, you should know the explanation and the approach to the problem as well. This will help you a lot in the mathematics section. Topics like Moment of Inertia from Physics should not be left out. As JEE Mains contains less number of questions, tricky topics like these do not come very often but in BITSAT, questions are asked from here as well. If your level of preparation is high, it wouldn’t matter if the difficulty level of the exam became a bit higher. Cut-offs vary each year (generally increase) and hence all you have in your hand is the level you stand on. I hope these tips are helpful. 

About the Author:

Donika Juthani is pursuing BTech in ICT (Information and Communication Technology) from DAIICT. She is also an upcoming summer intern at Goldman Sachs. Donika is an ML (Machine Learning) enthusiast and skilled in Python, HTML, CSS, and MySQL. She is a member of the programming club at DAIICT and responsible for organizing SisCode, an initiative to motivate and guide female students in competitive programming.