Top Tips and Strategy for CUET 2022 | Expert Speak | Falguni Goswami

I know that many of you have burnt the mid-night oil towards your studies and preparation for the board exam; you have also devoted enough time and efforts to understand the subjects of the exams. But keeping in mind the (unknown) nature of the CUET exam and the expectation of parents, peers and dear ones, you have to come out from your comfort zone quite early and may have to make a paradigm shift in your preparation strategy for CUET 2022.
Now it is high time to push your preparedness a few notch up by doing a bit of different things.  The tag line Nike’s “Just do it (now)” will be apt and useful for you. Nevertheless, you have to build on what you have done in the last one year and what you could do in the next 5-6 weeks. So, better you work on the strategies and tactics as early as possible.

Do some groundwork to get ready for CUET 2022

• Know the syllabus and understand the CUET Exam pattern and structure
• Have an effective study plan ready to minimize the effort and maximize the result.
• Understanding the basic concepts and practicing online is the key
• Avoid reading multiple books. It bears a better result if
• Clear your doubts regularly and revise, again and again.
• Solve previous years’ papers and online mock tests.
• Work smart, not just hard.
• When feeling low, talk to your parents or teachers.
• Get proper sleep, eat healthy.
• Be determined and stay positive.

However, before we make any strategy, let’s quickly understand the CUET Exam pattern and structure.

Structure of the CUET (UG)

There are 61 tests divided in 3 major categories under the CUET (UG).

1. Language tests (Section 1):Language test is compulsory for all. This has been further divided into sub-sections 1A and 1B. One may attempt a maximum of 3 tests (out of the 33 tests) from Section 1 (1A and 1B put together).
   
   1A: There are 13 languages (Assamese, Bengali, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu) in 1A.
   1B: It has 20 languages: Arabic, Bodo, Chinese, Dogri, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Manipuri, Nepali, Persian, Russian, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi, Spanish and Tibetan.
   
   
2. Domain Specific Tests (Section 2):You must have chosen your domain subjects judiciously from a total of 27 subjects here spread across Arts, Commerce and Science subjects keeping in mind your target course in the target university (universities).
   #Syllabus of each subjects in Arts/Humanities, Commerce and Science are given elaborately in the official site of CUET: https://cuet.samarth.ac.in/index.php/site/syllabus
   
   * A candidate can select a maximum of 6 out of these 27 Domain Specific Subjects.
   
   Please note that all these Domain Specific Tests will be based on class 12 NCERT syllabus of the CBSE. Hence, the challenge faced by a student from a Board not following NCERT books  for these tests CANNOT be overstated.
   Please Note that the syllabus of each subject is available in details in the official site : https://cuet.samarth.ac.in/index.php/site/syllabus
3. General Test (Section 3): This test will have General Knowledge and Current affairs, General Ability, Numerical Ability, Quantitative Reasoning and Logical & Analytical Reasoning.
   
   

Know the Test Pattern

1. Section 1A and 1B Language (in the respective language you have chosen)

The duration: each of these tests will be 45 minutes.
No of questions: One will have to attempt a maximum of 40 questions out of the 50 questions.
The questions types: Reading Comprehension (RC), Vocabulary, Antonyms & Synonyms, Choosing the Correct Word, Verbal Ability, Rearranging the Parts (of a passage or sentence).
The RC passages will be of 3 types: Factual, Narrative and Literary. One passage will have a maximum of 350 words.
 ** It is compulsory to take at least one language from Sec 1A. Hence, the importance of this section cannot be overstated.
Maximum Marks: 200 (5 marks per question), Negative Marking: 1 mark per incorrect answer
No marks will be awarded/deducted for leaving a question un-attempted.

1. Section 2 (Domain Specific Tests)

The duration: each of these tests will be 45 minutes.
No of questions in each subject: One will have to attempt a maximum of 40 questions out of the 50 questions given.
Maximum Marks: 200 (5 marks per question), Negative Marking: 1 mark per incorrect answer
No marks will be awarded/deducted for leaving a question un-attempted.
These tests (Section 2) will be in 2 mediums: English and a medium opted by you (from any of the 13 languages given in 1A), e.g. if you opt for Bengali medium, you will get your tests in Bengali as well as English mediums.

III. Section 3 (General Test)
The duration : 60 minutes.  Maximum Marks: 300 (5 marks per question), Negative Marking: 1 mark per incorrect answer. No marks will be awarded/deducted for leaving a question un-attempted.
 
Do’s and Don’ts for CUET 2022 test takers

Every competitive examination works on a common goal: it is not to test how much you have studied and how much you know but to test what you can answer in a given time and score more an optimum mark known as ‘the cut-off’.  The examination wants you to answer a question that needs a certain amount of application. The system frames the question in such a way that an average student is compelled to commit mistakes and at times fail to answer even the questions on known things. Please focus on the following:

1. Get a thorough Knowledge of the CUET Syllabus and Exam Pattern

CUET Exam Pattern 2022

Knowing the exam pattern helps the candidates for efficient preparation for the examination. The candidates can prepare for the examination according to the pattern. Below is the detailed exam pattern for the CUET examination.

Section	Subjects	Total Questions	Questions to be Attempted	Duration (mins)
Section I A Languages	13 Languages	50	40	45 (each language)
Section I B Languages	20 Languages
Section II - Domain	27 Domain Subjects	50	40	45 (each Domain Subjects)
Section III- General Test	For any such undergraduate programme/ programmes being offered by Universities where a General Test is being used for admission.	75	60	60

• Each Question Carries 5 Marks.
• Marks dedicated for each wrong answer is 1 mark.

2. Note that marks in English (Sec-1A) and General Test (Sec-3) are very important. Sec 1A is compulsory for every student. And English will be chosen by maximum number of student and Hindi may be a distant 2^nd. They will have maximum weightage when it comes to admission in any professional course like BBA, BMS, Law, Mass Com/Journalism etc.
   
   
3. Focus on General Test (Reasoning & General Awareness in particular) during your preparation as questions from these areas are likely to be new to you.

• In General Test (Sec-3) number of questions are maximum and hence its weightage cannot be over emphasised
• Note that score in this section [General Test (Sec-3)] is accepted in a greater number of courses than that of any other courses in any university.
• From the past few years’ paper analysis (of similar exams), we found that the GK questions, that mainly come from current affairs, historical facts, polity, geographical facts, sports and culture trouble students more than any other topic/section.
• Track Current Events. All major events that have taken place in India or the world in the last six months or even one year are very crucial. Strengthen your GK by reading newspapers, magazines, journals, refer sites/source that focus on current affairs, etc.

 

4. The score in Mathematics or Biology as the Domain subject is most important. Many subjects in (even in Arts and Commerce stream) take the score in Mathematics and almost in all subjects in science the score of either Mathematics or Biology may be compulsory.

 

5. Make Short Notes. It will help taking the stock of the situation

• It is better to write short notes as they are handy
• You can revise them till the last day without taking much time.
• Use notes prepared by experts which are actually useful and important.

6. Schedule your study plan smartly. Ensure that you’re no more slogging on the basics

• Whatever you were to learn you have learnt. Now just practice and understand the way to pick the right option, even if it is by guess work (smart guess not wild guess).
• The skill of elimination is the most important thing to master at this time

7. Guess the Cut Off Marks from last five years admission data your benchmark

• Even though this is the first CUET driven admission, every university had been following some score as admission criteria. The universities released those cut-off marks of the exams conducted by it regularly. Follow that and try to interpolate in the CUET spectrum
• Add at least 10-15% to the average cut-off marks to set your goal.

8. Write Tests regularly

• It is very important to do the preparation in right direction. The writing makes you aware about format and structure
• Write 2-3 topic tests every day and Write a full length test every 2-3 days
• Make sure you learn by solving those questions yourself and also learn from the mistakes
• Your speed is important. Practice and improve your performance with each attempt.
• A judicious time management can only get an optimum result. - These sample mock tests help your time management. You learn to time your attempts and increasing your test taking speed.
• Analytics of the tests shows you the way. It helps identifying the areas of improvement, optimize your attempts and improve your scores. Take them seriously.

It helps you assess and benchmark your performance in these tests and assess the level of preparedness with each attempt.

Planning is the Key

• focus on weaker topics and not spend excess time on their strengths while preparing.
• make sure you are using subject knowledge from high school streams in the CUET 2022 domain sections.
• a minimum of 7-8 hours daily should be allotted towards CUET 2022 preparation in the last 5-6 weeks, out of which 1 hour should purely be for revision.
• learn topics as a whole and then practice them through topic/chapter tests, rather than learning them in bits and pieces.
• even if youare unable to cover a large portion of concepts, limited content should be revised to get the maximum effect in the weakest and the strongest areas.
• previous year papers, mock question tests, sample questions especially MCQ and objective based should regularly be attempted by candidates.

On the Day of Exam

• Get your exam kit ready well in advance viz CUET 2022 2022 exam admit card, Aadhar card etc.
• Though nothing else is allowed to be taken inside your examination hall this year, you may be allowed to take pen, pencil and eraser etc in your bag.
• Also, check the list of items that you are not allowed to carry to examination hall so that it does not get confiscated at the exam center.

Check the location of your exam center, address, landmark, route well before time or at least check it on Google Map.