The CUET 2022 will be conducted in the month of July. As it is going to be the first edition of this test, you need to keep certain things in mind:
Speed
The duration of Domain-Specific Subject tests is just 45 minutes (2700 seconds) and hence you need to manage your time real well. You have just about a minute- on an average- for a question! As you have to do only 40 questions out of the given 50, you must NOT waste time on any of the first 10 questions that you get stuck with. If needed you may mark a question for review and proceed. You may always come back to these “marked for review” questions if and when you get time.
Revision
Please bear in mind that you need to do Class 12 NCERT book/s of the relevant Domain-Specific subject/s at least 2 times, so that you solve the questions on the CUET fast.
The Domain-Specific Subject tests are going to be even more challenging for subjects like Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry as these subjects have a good number of numerical to be solved. Please do NOT forget to do the NCERT Exemplar series for subjects like Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and Biology. These books can be downloaded free of cost from the NCERT website (https://ncert.nic.in/exemplar-problems.php?ln=).
Practice
It is important to practise for the CUET 2022 with mock tests. You must take these tests at home within the time limits (60 minutes for the General Test and 45 minutes for any other test).
In fact, you should try to do a mock for the General Test in 57 minutes and a mock for other CUET tests (Domain-Specific Subject test or Language Test) in just 43 minutes as you may not feel the actual exam pressure while taking these mocks at home.
Needless to say that you must practise with the sample papers of all the relevant tests provided to you by the NTA on its site.
While practising the mocks at home, you must simulate the conditions that you will be facing in the actual test. If you are going to write 3 tests in the Morning shift, please do the mocks of all these 3 tests back to back as that is how you will be doing them in the actual CUET. Also, try to set your biological clock for these tests: start your mocks of the tests that you will be appearing for in the Morning shift at 0900 am and the ones that you will be appearing for in the Afternoon shift at 0300 pm.
You must finalize the order in which you are going to attempt these tests in the actual exam (if you are appearing for more than a test in any of the shifts) before you enter the examination centre. You may experiment with different orders while doing mocks at home to know the order that suits you the most.
We expect you to practise at least 10 mocks for each of the tests that you are taking on the CUET 2022. These mock tests should be followed by a proper self-analysis.
As the actual CUET is going to be a CBT (Computer Based Test), it is in your best interests to do the practice mocks also in the CBT mode.
Knowing the rules of the game There are certain things about scoring in the CUET that you must keep in mind.
If more than one option of a question is found to be correct, then 5 marks will be provided ONLY to those candidates who have marked any of the correct options. If all options are found to be correct, then 5 marks will be given ONLY to those students who have attempted the question.
If none of the options of a question is found to be correct or a question is found to be wrong or a question is dropped, then ONLY those who have attempted the question will be awarded 5 marks.
You must NOT make blind guesses as there is negative marking in this examination. You lose 1 mark for each incorrect answer.
The General Test Conundrum
Most of you will be experiencing a test like this for the first time and hence it is very important for you to prepare for it very well.
You have 60 minutes to do 60 out of 75 questions in this test. Initially, the NTA had put in the syllabus that there would be 5 sections in this test- General Knowledge and Current Affairs, General Mental Ability, Numerical Ability, Quantitative Reasoning and Logical & Analytical Reasoning- and each of these sections would have 15 questions of which you had to attempt 12. This syllabus was edited later and now it reads that you have to do 60 out of 75 questions (with no other conditions). The topics of the test remain the same: General Knowledge and Current Affairs, General Mental Ability, Numerical Ability, Quantitative Reasoning and Logical & Analytical Reasoning. It is further mentioned that the Quantitative Reasoning would have the topics Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, Mensuration and Statistics (simple concepts on these topics taught till Grade 8). It appears that there would be NO sections in the test.
The beauty of General Knowledge and Current Affairs is that it can be done very fast on the test(thus leaving you with extra time for some time consuming topics). You, probably, cannot improve much on your General Knowledge in a short time, but you must do the Current Affairs of the period January 2022 to June 2022 (till June 15). Also, please consider Numerical Ability as part of Quantitative Reasoning only. Numerical Ability restricts itself to simple application of Arithmetic (Number Series, Simplification, percentages, etc.). It is advisable to revise the NCERT Mathematics books of grades 6 to 8 to be comfortable in the Quantitative Reasoning section. You need lots of practice to be comfortable with General Mental Ability and Logical & Analytical Reasoning.
You need to decide very fast whether you have to do a particular question or not. There can be some questions in Logical Reasoning or Quantitative Reasoning that just do not strike, please do not get stuck with them (or any other question). You must have adequate practice of this test to optimize your performance. Please bear in mind that you have to leave 15 questions in this test and hence you should decide very fast whether to attempt a question or not. This test is going to be very important for many of you.