Toppers’ Tips: Here’s how CUET preparation is different from CBSE board exams, 100 percentile scorer explains

Why I couldn’t get into Hindu College?

I intended to enroll on the Hindu College Political Science programme for my BA, but their cut-offs were too high. As a result, I was accepted into KMC Political Science. Hindu College had 20 seats for BA (Hons) in Political Science in the unreserved category and the cut-off for those seats were between 795 to 800 marks.

NCERT is a must

For my preparation, the first thing I referred to was NCERT books. I prepared a journal where I made notes of all the essential information— dates, events, people and their contributions and more. There was a lot of confusion about CUET— paper pattern, syllabus and there was no reference material available in the market or online. Nevertheless, we had to prepare for the exam so I referred to the NCERT, the journal I prepared and some other books such as Exam Idea by VK publications, Together With by Rachna Sagar to practice for MCQs. According to me, NCERT is the fundamental requirement; everything else is secondary.

What was the language paper like

The English paper was different from what we studied in classes 11 and 12. Instead, it was for basic English language and vocabulary. I prepared a pdf with antonyms, synonyms, idioms, one-word subscriptions, poetic devices and more. I added five new words each day.

However for me, English was the most crucial subject since it changed the game for me. I scored 100/100 in my domain, but I messed up in the exam. I got confused between— novelty and nobility and chose the wrong synonym. As a result, I not only lost the five marks designated for the question, I also lost one mark due to negative marking and one mark after normalisation of marks. My total score for the subject was 192.408 out 200 and that made all the difference in my marks and cut-off marks of my dream college.

CUET gives you a chance to fulfil your dreams

My class 12 board result wasn’t as great and Delhi University cut-offs are always high. With my marks, I may not have got admission to the north campus colleges. Initially, I thought CUET was unnecessary, but I had a change my views after receiving my exam results. CUET tests your knowledge rather than your writing abilities. In contrast to board examinations, you may score extremely well if you have a basic understanding of topics.

What I think should change is DU’s format. With Delhi University the options are limited. If you want to take admission, you must have the same CUET subjects, and domain, as they were in class 12. 

As we did not have much idea about CUET, there was stress regarding how to prepare and attempt it. But, the pressure made me do better during my exams. After my board examinations were over, I kept practising for MCQs and other relevant topics. The board exams also helped me a lot as it was the same syllabus.

Negative marking was a game-changer

With negative marking was that we had to pay close attention to it. Negative marking was a game changer, there were many of my classmates who were toppers and were good at studies, but they could not get a good CUET score because of the negative marking.

Negative marking is beneficial because it keeps you focused on the fact that you must make wise decisions. However, normalisation is not as beneficial. My grades were heavily dropped because of normalisation.

Changes that NTA (CUET) requires

NTA needs to give candidates proper machines to be able to appear for the CUET or any other entrance test. The exam centre where my first test was conducted turned out to be a nightmare. The computer equipment was outdated, and we encountered numerous issues, the centre it was far from my home and at the end of everything, the test was cancelled.

Advice for the CUET aspirants

Stick to NCERT and keeping a facts journal are vital facts. There is 50 per cent of questions based on a reading passage.