Preparing for NET Biology

Biology is my favorite subject. I claim to clear the biology section of any entry test without having touched the books for months. But Biology portion of Nust Entrance Test (NET) proved me wrong twice when I took both sessions of NET-1 and NET-2.

The thing that makes biology portion different from that of entrance tests of UHS and Aga Khan Uni is the style and form of the questions asked there.

In AKU and UHS tests, only the important questions were present and your knowledge was examined. But in NET ,like Mr. Spencer Churchill said about entrance test of Harrow, your ‘’ignorance’’ was explored.

Now you would definitely be trying to sort out the meaning of Ignorance here. In biology, the facts most ignored are the numeral values present in the book. For example there is a yellow box in book-1 of biology which tells us the number of genes and base pairs present in some bacteria which was studied for the first time. In the test we were asked to tell the number of base pairs. Now it’s a type of question not expected to come in test but it was there. So try to learn all the data of organisms.

Normally this data is present in the forms of tables at the end of each chapter in guides but the best way is to gather it yourself in your notebook.

For NET, you should be able to make deductive reasoning. You should not only cram the facts as present in the book but also apply them in vast capacity. For example if you know that biconcave red blood cells are present in humans, which are mammals, then they should also be present in other mammals. If such question is given in which you are asked to tell the name of animal having biconcave red blood cells, and in options there is only one mammal while other belong to different categories, then it’s very easy for you to choose. The basic concept applied here is simple that humans (mammals) have biconcave cells so all mammals will have biconcave. (Camel is exception).

Biology portion of NET is something like an IQ test. For example everyone knows that Insects are most numbered animals. If they are abundant then their every system will also be most abundant, like they have open type blood circulatory system.

The favorite part of book for every examiner is the table showing the summary of topic. The table in second book about types of blood cells and their functions is a ‘’must-to-be-crammed’’. Similarly the tables showing the types of muscle cells in the start of book-2 and at the end showing the work of different scientists in evolution are important.

Since you know that full books are included for the syllabus of NET, you should do the short-listing of books. The method is to take the Highlighters of various colors and highlight the book in different categories and cutting the unnecessary lines. Unnecessary means those paragraphs which are the explanation of a single point. But this method is only valid for entrance tests and not for F.Sc or A-level.

When you start your NET, try to solve the biology portion first because it is not very time taking. You should do these 80 MCQs in no more than 45 minutes. Try to save maximum time because this saved time will help you in physics and English portion.

That’s all FOLKS!!!

Best of luck for NET.

Suggestions and queries warmly welcomed.

Written By : Ahmad sher zaman dogar