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June 20, 2013

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Another year, another batch and yet another bunch of earth shattering cut offs. If you’re a class 12th student about to enter college, you’re in for a treat. SRCC and St. Stephens are having yet another bumper year with all the aspiring economists vying for a golden ticket. All the budding engineers are hoarding to get into IIT Delhi (or any other, for that matter).And all the others students pursuing different streams are holding their breath as they eagerly await the first cut offs.

Among the various questionable changes being introduced in the curriculum from this academic year, the introduction BMS-Bachelor of Management Studies- is the most engaging. It is a four-year undergraduate program that has been formulated after combing BBS, BBEand BFIA. To everyone’s surprise,More than 22,000 students have applied for the course. So it’s just going to be you and 21,999 other students competing for a few hundreds seats, to say the very least. Not to dampen your spirits further and to make this article actually worth reading, let’s focus on what exactly is the entrance exam going to be like.

The marks are distributed as follows:

50% The Entrance Exam
30% The Board Result
20% Personal Interview

In order to actually reach the personal interview round, an applicant first needs to clear the written exam. Here is a list of Do’s and Don’ts that can be helpful in preparing for the exam:

  • The Test Structure: The exam will have a total of 100 questions. Although there is no set syllabus, the exam aims to test:
    • General/ Business Awareness
    • Quantitative Abilities (Mathematics)
    • Reasoning Skills
    • English.

    The format of the exam itself is still the same, so practicing from past year papers can be of great help. Practice questions can also be found on the Facebook pages of prominent institutes like Pratham, IMS, Edumentor etc. Another very useful website I stumbled upon is ‘www.indiabix.com’. It has general practice questions on most of the sections for BMS. Also, continue reading the newspaper (no, not HT City and the Delhi Times, but the main paper).

  •  Segment wise Division: Every candidate has only 120 minutes to complete the exam. So it’s better to think of a strategy before entering the exam hall. The section on General Awareness is the shortest, so that should be attempted first. The Mathematics and Critical Reasoning sections, being the lengthiest, should follow it. The English Section is relatively easy so that can be attempted in the last, keeping in mind the time constraints. It’s better to attempt an entire section at once as it helps to maintain a flow of thought.
  • Negative Marking: 1 mark will be deducted for each incorrect answer and correct answers fetch you 3 marks each. So if your unsure of an answer, it’s better to leave it blank. Also, DO NOT mark multiple answers for the same question.
  • The Examination Day– Irrespective of what you have or haven’t done, stay calm and confident. Do not clutter your mind with new things. Either you know it or you don’t know it and there is nothing you can do to change that a few hours before the exam.
  • Last Minute Worries– Last minute hassles can cause more troubles than the exam itself. Make sure that all your documents, stationery, admit card etc. are in place well in advance. Read all the instructions carefully a day or two before the exam to make sure you don’t ignore an important instruction.

Keeping all pointers apart, work hard; there is no substitute for that. Study smartly and plan your time well. These two always seem to work.

All the best!

Illustration Credit: Megha Sarogi

(For entire Admissions 2013 coverage click here)

dinesh singhRespected Mr. Dinesh Singh,

This letter is to congratulate you on your relentless pursuits to making Delhi University a world class university. I am fully aware that due to the “hurried” changes in the degree program, you have received more brickbats than bouquets, but this letter is an exception.

It has been around three years that you’ve been elected the VC of the best university in India. In your interviews you’ve maintained that the preparations for implementing the four year undergraduate programme (FYUP) started as soon as you held office. Even then you made the smart decision to implement the semester system, just to replace it with FYUP after two years. Your uncanny future planning is admirable, sir.

You’ve claimed rather vehemently that FYUP is going to increase the employability of students. I fully trust you when you imply that by studying non-core subjects more than core subjects in the span of 4 years, a pass out will be the preferred choice. I also believe you that by giving multiple exit points and still “benefiting” from the studies, a drop out with a B.A degree will get a job without really specializing in his 2/3 years of study.

Sir, I appreciate your concern for the students who wish to study in U.S.A after completing their graduation in India. Your decision to make structural changes (increasing the span from 3 years to 4 years to suit the USA model) rather than focusing on the quality of the structure (the quality of core disciplines, lessening the burden of non-core subjects) is admirable. Because you see, spending a year extra without learning extra is the goal, USA and all.

I understand you value quality education, that’s what FYUP is all about after all, isn’t it? Therefore I applaud your decision of making students study the disciplines that are in no way related to the field they want to major in. The fact that you’re making an English major aspirant from humanities background study biochemistry perfectly makes sense. Because the value of science foundation courses is so important in literature after all, that it would have been better to delete a Shakespeare text and replace it with physics.  Also, since not everyone has studied biochemistry at the high school level, college level bio-chemistry is going to be pretty much same to high school bio chemistry, so that everyone is able to study, thereby not taking college level studies a notch up. I perfectly see where you’re taking quality education with this.

You, respected sir have created an ideal university, where professors keep shouting and administrators turn a blind eye. Where students aren’t able to learn and nobody listens. Where cut offs keep rising and quality education keeps going downwards.

Congratulations sir. My heartiest wishes to you in your endeavour to achieve life, liberty and happiness, and perpetual deafness.

Yours sincerely
A student who being in second year is facing the misfortune of not studying in FYUP.

Image Credit: South Campus website