FSc Premedical Guide - How to fly high..

FSc Premedical Guide - How to fly high..

Unsa Athar

Your 40% needs to be excellent to get into KEMU or  some other good place.

(Dedicated to my teachers who not only taught me the fsc books but also many priceless lessons of life)
(Unsa Athar)

The tree that never had to fight

For sun and sky and air and light,

But stood out in the open rain

And always got its share and rain,

Never became a forest king,

But lived and died a scrubby thing…

Good timber does not grow with ease,

The stronger wind, the stronger trees.

Getting yourself educated in the desi manner i.e. through the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education is one of the top most challenges of today’s society. Matriculation seems difficult at that time, but when you enter FSc, you realize that matric was the easiest job in the world.  Those obese books of intermediate part I and part II are the worst enemies one can ever have.  People say Medical is tougher, but I find one basic difference in both. When you enter a medical college, you are dead sure you’ll come out as a doctor now. But when you enter FSc, kisi kop ta nahi hota k ab wo kia bn k nikley ga.  I used to be a sweet, sensitive, sensible girl in September 2010. By September 2012; I had changed into a completely retarded, hypersensitive menace. Thank God UHS gave me two months after mcat to get back my sanity via a total vailapan.

When I was entering the phase called FSc, I had no idea that it shall take away my health and my wealth(which means my hair  *sob* ) The pressure of getting  good grades kills you emotionally, physically, mentally, and every other –ally. 

But despite all those acne problems, weight issues, headaches etc etc, the positive side of the picture is that if you have gone through it and you have a good score in FSc, the 40% part of your aggregate shall take to a good medical college even if you were not able to ace the mcat. I know people who do not have 1000s in mcat, but there 1000s in fsc got them into KEMU J. You shall forget about all the pain when you finally see your name in list of the the selected candidates of a renowned college.

So all those FSc part I and Part II people out there, here are some tips ships that are deduced from my personal experiences and observations.

THINGS TO REMEMBER:

      Your memory power is extremely important for a good score. I don’t know how and why but it is a fact, If you can rattalize well, you are bound to get an excellent score.

      It is not necessary to answer ditto to the textual lines, but stay as much closer to them as possible.

      If you keep on forgetting things you rattalized, try different methods to learn. Write them repeatedly. Practice them madly.Use different mnemonics. Try to associate difficult terms and names with things of your daily life. To see how it works, give the following article a read too. http://kemunited.blogspot.com/2011/01/study-less-learn-more-by-sadaf-hafeez.html

      Studying just the night before exam is a general student behaviour. But doing this in fsc is not a good thing. If you have banged your head in the chemistry book whole year, only then you can reproduce something on the answer sheet on the exam day.

      If you are having issues in some particular subject, ask the teacher or a senior or anyone who could help you out. You need to get your concepts clear at any rate.

      Your book is everything.  The more you cram out of it, the better. Other notes and guidebooks can be helpful to see how is a particular answer given in it, the headings made etc. But learn the text from the book.

      IT IS NOT COMPULSORY TO JOIN AN ACADEMY TO GET THROUGH FSC. The lahore board topper this year, Amina Riaz, did not go to any academy and still managed to get a 1029. But if you personally think your college isn’t enough and you can handle the fatigue of two places simultaneously, you are free to go to the academy.

      Paper presentation is the heart and the soul of your FSc. If you have a bad handwriting, it doesn't matter. Just make your presentation better.  A nice paper presentation is something that creates the difference in board exams! Here are some handy tips to improve it:

PAPER PRESENTATION

v  Leave a one inch margin at one side of the paper.

v  Draw a margin line with thick blue marker.

v  Proper use of marker is essential.

v  Use the marker to highlight important terms, names, dates etc in your answer. It makes checking easier for the examiner.

v  Spacing is also important.  Do not create a hotchpotch on your answer sheet. Draw a small line at the end of each section.

v  Lines drawn with a ruler are appreciated.

v  Practice holding a marker in one hand while writing with a pen in another.  Do not waste time in picking up a marker from your lap when required.

v  Time management is the most important thing. Even in the smallest of tests, try to give the best of your presentation in the limited time.

v  If you are really bad at the presentation (like me), practice at home too. Take a sheet or two. Give yourself a specific time and write!

v  Give each question its proper space according to its marks e.g. a 15 marks translation in English requires a full page even if it is of 4-5 lines !

v  As the sheets are fixed now, practice completing your paper in one or two sheets less than the board gives. It will help you out in case your allotted answer sheet has less pages than 32. (Yes, this happened this year with a friend. But it was pak.studies paper so she was saved)

Now let’s discuss about each subject briefly.

ENGLISH:

To prepare for the translation, short questions and synonyms at the same time, you should read the chapter thoroughly.  Focus on each line, learn the important things, mark out the words whose synonym could be asked and learn them and also translate it in your mind in Urdu.  

For the grammar portion try not to cram the letters, applications or essays. Just learn the pattern for them or the quotations you have to use. Try to write the body of the letter/application or the essay yourself. But if you are too bad at tenses to write things on your own, well then memorize the essays from a book or notes but still try to make some changes in it. Solve past papers especially for the translation section. Mostly conceptual questions are asked from the plays, heroes and Mr. Chips  So please, read them thoroughly. You can do much about some questions like punctuation. Knowing the rules and solving past papers shall help.

URDU:

The same rules apply to Urdu. Reading the lesson thoroughly shall help you in maarozi sawalat and tashreeh. Learning tashreeh word to word from some book is useless. Try to write it on your own. Length matters in each question. Give proper length to each question as told by your teacher .

ISLAMIAT/PAKSTUDIES:

To decide the length of long question in both of the subjects, do one thing. Calculate the no. of pages required for your short answers. Divide the remaining pages by two. The answer is the length of each long question.  Make a good number of heading. Both of the subjects are all about your creativity and ratta  power. Guide books or notes are required for them. When writing an Irshaad  give it a proper space as shown below:

PHYSICS:

First make sure you understand the topic completely. Learning it comes next. Memorize the text from book. Some mathematical steps are usually not written in the book and equations are derived more or less directly. You should write each and every step; this might impress the examiner.  Do learn the info given in the tid-bits for mcqs. Make sure  you have solved the numericals by yourself thrice. Aik dfa hath  sei nikal jaen tou paper mein solve krte waqt masla nhi hota.

The short questions at the end of the chapter are the MOST IMPORTANT. Make sure you know the right answers to them.

CHEMISTRY:

Short questions given at the end of the chapter are impotant. Long questions are usually the common ones. Examples are reallyimportant. For the Part I chemistry you need a great deal  of patience. Most of it just theory which needs to be rattalized. Write, re-write and re-re-write the things you keep on forgetting. Get hold of a good teacher of chemistry because it won’t get into your brain until taught by someone really good. Take a good dose of almonds before stdyin chem.   Part II Chemistry is a bunch of equations. Memory is everything here. Conversations are not as difficult as they appear to be. Relate all the chapters of the organic part. Find reactions having the same products. Once you are done with all the organic chapters you will know how to covert A to B.

This year, a paper pattern was issued by the board, telling how many short questions or long question shall come from each chapter. And the paper was exactly according to that pattern! So if you find such a pattern, first make sure its official and then give more importance to chapters having more questions. But don not leave anything unlearnt.

BIOLOGY:

It is the easiest subject indeed. But sometimes it becomes difficult to memorize all those information. You just need to learn the important things. The explanation can be written if you have the concept. Everything is important. Never leave any topic.  Not even the flowering families, because in our board exams the examiner was so kind to ask the Family Rosacea’s vegetative and floral characters! (I hate botany :/). To learn them, open your practical notebook and see what the terms actually mean and learn their floral formulae.

You can make tables for each topic like the one shown above and learn things in an easier way.Neat and Clean diagrams are a must..!!! Practice!

PRACTICALS:

I have the pattern is changing next year so I can’t say much about it. But if the pattern’s the same as ours’ remember one thing, sifarish won’t do much good if you do not know what to write on the answer sheet. So Learn the practicals properly and thoroughly after the board exams. Give them full attention. LEARN ALL THE SALTS BY HEART. Performance is not of much importance as compared to the written work.

During your practical classes in regular days, make sure you give full attention to what you learn the practical later and is also good for conceptual clarity.
Never pile up the work of practical notebook. saath saath complete krein. Get your notebook signed every week. 

Note: Practical k waqt examiner pe darood shareef parh kr phoonkna na bholeye ga.

PRAYERS:

§  Prayers are the most important.

§  Prayers are the most important.

§  Prayers are the most important.

§  Prayers are the most important.

§  Prayers are the most important.

Yes, they are! Because without them all the hard work goes in vain.

And no need to get depressed if you get less than you expected. You did your best. Now it’s up to Him to decide the rest!

Note: Feel free to ask any question, Fsc folks!