RutSum

BITSAT 2008 Questions & Preparation

This post was guest blogged by Sneezy Melon of The Goofy Express.

BITSAT 2008 is an important examination for engineering aspirants from all over India. Arguably, BITS Pilani is perhaps even the most prestigious institute for engineering studies in the country after the IITs. The admission is purely merit based and candidates are required to appear for the BITSAT Online Tests which are conducted over a series of days.

I took the BITSAT today and posted, earlier, about my experience and expected cutoff. This information might help all those who have selected dates later than 10th May in preparing for this important examination.

Let’s start from the basics. As aforesaid, the question paper consisted of four parts-

Part I : Physics (40 Questions)
Part II : Chemistry (40 Questions)
Part III : English Proficiency and Logical Reasoning (25 Questions)
Part IV : Mathematics / Biology (45 Questions)

Mathematics was for people with PCM in 10+2 and Biology was for people with PCB in 10+2.

Total Questions: 150

Total Time: 180 minutes (3 hours)

Bonus Questions: 12

Positive Marking : +3
Negative Marking: -1

There were 12 bonus questions available for all those who had attempted all 150 questions in the alloted time. The key was to answer questions with maximum speed and accuracy.

English Proficiency and Logical Reasoning
I suggest you start with Part III as it requires no calculations and not much thinking. All the 25 questions get easily answered in little time on applying simple logic. It also boosts your speed and leaves more time to be spent on other sections, which are tougher. I finished Part III in about 12 minutes.

Mathematics
After that you can move on to any other section as it won’t make much difference. However, attempting Mathematics next might prove to be a little advantageous as it seemed a bit on the easier side to me. Questions in Mathematics were mainly focussed on two topics, namely-

Functions
Integral Calculus

So be sure to practice as many questions as you can from these chapters. Get your basic concepts as clear as possible and do IIT level problems from good books like Tata Mc-Graw Hill for best performance.

Physics
Physics and Chemistry were more or less same in the difficulty level. Questions in Physics were also mainly focussed on two topics-

Electromagnetism (Including Static/Current Electriciy, Magnetism, Induction)
Rotation

I have noticed that almost all entrance examinations emphasize on rotation and mechanics in general. There were a few tough questions from thermodynamics also. I recommend you stick to HC Verma and/or Halliday Resnick Walker for physics preparation. Do as many numericals as you can and skip trivial topics and definitions as not knowing them will not hurt you.

Chemistry
Main topics covered in the Chemistry part of BITSAT 2008 were-

Inorganic Chemistry (s,p block)
Isomerism

I have specified isomerism in particular as about 5 out of the 40 questions were out of this topic only. Questions from physical chemistry were rare, but present. Pearson’s Guide to Objective Chemistry is the best book I have yet found for engineering related chemistry studies. There are other books as well, but concepts in them are usually overstated, understated or garbled up.

Important preparation material for BITSAT 2008 can also be purchased for Rs 600 from BitsatRace.Com

If you want to get a good rank in BITSAT 2008, study seriously and with good concentration. Stay off the internet, television, telephone and blogging as much as you can.

In the examination, dont try to guess answers as negative marking might land you a score lesser than what you deserve. Think clearly and don’t cheat as invigilation is very strict.

Best of Luck!

If you liked this post, or found it useful, don't forget to subscribe to my RSS feeds. Or you can get my posts delivered to your inbox directly, by subscribing to my feeds by email. Or maybe you'd like to know what we are doing, by looking at our Jaiku badges. But I don't think you would be dumb enough to waste your time and have a look at what randomness I post on Twitter.