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BITSAT 2008 Official Sample Papers PDF Download

By Ankur Banerjee on May 12, 2008 in On A Whim | 20 comments

Since everybody seems to be in BITSAT mode these days, I thought it’s time I should do something more about it than studying throughout the day. Naman suggested me to check out the BITSAT sample questions software that BITS has made available on its website. You can download the sample questions software for PCM by clicking here and PCB by clicking here. Both are condensed, 30 minute tests with only five questions from each subject. So I installed the software on my system using Wine, and just out of curiosity, checked out its folder. Turns out, they keep a Microsoft DOC file of all the questions under the folder titled images1 under the filename sampleqns_all.doc. The biology folks are out of luck here, because the DOC file included with theirs doesn’t include the biology questions (and is the same as the PCM set). In case you’re feeling lazy, then you can click here to download a PDF version of the official BITSAT 2008 Sample Paper. More interesting stuff. I started giving the exam and found that the keys Ctrl and Alt were disabled. It doesn’t really matter anyway, because Ctrl+Alt+Del can’t be overridden by JavaScript, so you could still terminate your test midway and cry foul ;). If you really want to have more fun, try pressing Ctrl + Alt + Down Arrow at the centre – it flips the screen upside down (to get it back in proper orientation, press Ctrl + Alt + Up Arrow). That’ll be quite fun, having the people at their centre break into sweat trying to figure out what the hell went wrong. And of course, you can help them in this situation by shouting hysterically at them. Check out their inc folder and you’ll find the code for that. Plus, more stuff – to disable right-clicking (pointless, if you ask me), and the timer. You can even see the HTML files themselves which are being used, named etest.htm, ptest.htm, mtest.htm etc. Made in Visual Studio 7.1. Which brings up a very valid question. If they’re using a JavaScript-based timer, then it does open up the possibility that someone might use JavaScript injection to, say, give himself some extra time. And what about scripts themselves? I’m quite sure that their software would be using Internet Explorer’s engine to handle page rendering, so what if someone disables scripting from there? I tried that, but it didn’t work; but quite possibly, it’s just because I suck at Windows software and there might be an option elsewhere to disable it. Maybe registry edits? Anyone out there who knows about how to do...

BITSAT Cut-offs

By Ankur Banerjee on May 12, 2008 in On A Whim | 7 comments

Have a look at these for the cutoff figures for different branches in BITSAT 2007. The following is for BITS, Pilani campus: And then, the following is for BITS, Goa campus: Now compare this to the cut-offs for BITSAT 2005, listed on Ankit Sud’s site. As you can see quite clearly, the cut-offs have clearly gone up in most of the courses which are in high demand. That creates a bit of a situation this year, because with the opening of BITS Hyderabad campus, the cutoffs should go down. On the other hand, the general trend is that the cutoffs for other exams seem to be going up. Probably, both these factors would simply result in the cutoff score freezing at the current levels. Let’s hope that happens. More stuff...

BITSAT 2008 : Some Useful Info To Help You (Feel Miserable)

By Ankur Banerjee on May 9, 2008 in On A Whim | 0 comments

I came across this amazingly useful article on the BITS Pilani site about some important information about BITSAT 2008 (note: their site seems to be down now for some reason). Thankfully, I’d bookmarked it through Yahoo! Bookmarks and had saved a copy of the page on Yahoo!. You may read the article directly later if the link starts working, but until then, you can read the text here: For the first time in India, in 2005,BITS Pilani introduced a computer based online admission test known as BITSAT (BITS Admission Test). BITSAT has been witnessing a phenomenal increase in the number of applications. BITSAT 2008 has received 1,16,980 applications for 2000 seats (800 in Pilani and 600 each in Goa and Hyderabad Campus). As compared to last year, the number of girl-applicants has increased by 4% and this year it is 32% (37460). Last year the test was conducted in 16 centres across India. To cater to the increase in number of applications BITS has announced three new centers (making the total number of centers 19) in Delhi , Bhubhaneswar and Nagpur. BITSAT 2008 will be offered from 9th May to 12th June. Another significant change BITS has introduced this year is that it has allowed students with Physics Chemistry and Biology also for BITSAT-2008 and they are eligible for its M.Sc(Hons) Biological Science and B.Pharm(Hons) programmes. In short, 2000 seats for around 1.2 lakh students through BITSAT 2008. There’s no humanity left in this...

VIT University announced VITEEE 2008 – its entrance exam’s – results today. If you haven’t your result already, then click here to know your VITEEE 2008 result. My results can be summed up in the following way: There is an art, it says, or rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss. Pick a nice day, it suggests, and try it. The first part is easy. All it requires is simply the ability to throw yourself forward with all your weight, and willingness not to mind that it’s going to hurt. That is, it’s going to hurt if you fail to miss the ground. Most people fail to miss the ground, and if they are really trying properly, the likelihood is that they will fail to miss it fairly hard. I failed to miss the ground too, and I failed to miss the ground very hard. I wouldn’t have really bothered to join VIT if it wasn’t for computer science engineering, or information technology; so let’s just say I’m not getting that and I want to end the discussion here. Maybe I’d get any of the others, like mechanical, civil, or chemical – but since none of them are fields I’m interested in, the result doesn’t really matter to me. No, I’m not (manically) depressed about this. Right now, I’m pretty much in ‘NTU or bust’ mode. THAT’s an exam about which I can say I gave a good shot. THAT would be the one I’d be disappointed about if I didn’t get into, because quite frankly, it’s the only exam I really worked for. I’ve also heard the results of a few friends of mine, and it seems that the overall performance of students in VITEEE went up this year. A few folks I know knocked up quite a respectable score, and yet, would be in the same state as me – if only slightly better. Sure, admissions in VIT apparently go up to rank 10,000-12,000, buy you really WON’T be getting computer science or electrical engineering, the most in-demand courses. But I’m also guessing, from the score vs rank relations I’ve gathered so far, that the cutoff this year for VITEEE has probably gone up; and admissions will close at higher ranks. Best of luck to all students who DID get a good rank in VITEEE. For others, people STILL have time to pull their ‘jammy’s up and give BITS a good shot. PS – Wanna know who the top 10 rankers in VITEEE 2008 are? Click here to have a look at the geniuses. No sarcasm. Honestly. These guys did a great job in an exam where top score goes pretty high. Take a good look. Maybe some of these will show up in JEE result lists too. ;) PPS – I can’t individually tell each and every one what stream they would be getting, and mind you that mine is still a guess. However, for whatever it’s worth, here’s my take on what your VITEEE rank can get you: Rank 1-2500: You would probably get any stream you want. Reason is that in this top bracket, there’s a lot of overlap with other exam results, like JEE / AIEEE, etc. A lot of the people in this group either don’t turn up for counselling, don’t want to join VIT, or simply want to wait it out for the other results, and don’t want to commit to any institute so soon. Rank 2500-6000: Once again, there would be overlap with other lists, but to a lesser extent. You probably won’t get computer science engineering towards the lower end of this category. However, there’s a very good chance that you can still get information technology, electrical etc. Rank 6000-10000: Yes, that’s a very big category to club together, but the reason for this is that in the bunch, most would get civil, mechanical, chemical and others which they have like BCA et al. If you really want to do a computers related course, consider the dual degree option in IT. Yes, you’ll have to pay more for it, but you’re more likely to get admission dual degree easily than information technology directly. Biotech would probably be available towards the starting few thousand ranks of this category. Rank 10000 and less: VIT’s admission list sometimes extends on up to rank 12000, so those till that mark still might have a chance. You certainly won’t have much of a choice on stream though. Rest of the folk need to think about other options for colleges. Also, bear in mind that VIT calls for counselling in TWO batches – one up to rank 6000, and the other from 6000 to up to 11000. So you DO have a chance in the second phase of counselling. Note that this is only my interpretation of what I’ve gathered from score-rank relations of what students have put up on mine and other sites, people who study at VIT, and a heady dose of conjecture. I hope this provides the answer for most of the queries people have been posting. More than that, I can’t reply to each one individually....

Download DCE / NSIT CEE Previous Year Question Archive

By Ankur Banerjee on May 5, 2008 in Personal, Stop The Press | 79 comments

Delhi College of Engineering’s entrance exam – the DCE / NSIT CEE 2008 (Common Entrance Exam) is going to be held on 31st May 2008. Curiously however, there’s hardly any stuff available online as far as papers or preparatory material is concerned. Quite odd, given the fact that a LOT of students give this exam from Delhi. Anyway, I *did* manage to track a question archive down. Click here to download the DCE / NSIT CEE Previous Year Question Archive (2006-2007). It’s a zipped archive containing the PDF files of question papers (with solutions) for all three parts (physics, chemistry, math). These solutions were created by Amity Institute of Competitive Studies. Note that these papers are ‘memory-based’ – that is, some bloke who sat for the exam was made to recollect and write down all the questions with their options. That’d be the case because you aren’t allowed to take the question paper with you after the exam is over. Therefore, some questions might have been missed out, or the wordings may be different – but the point here is that you WILL get a general idea of how the paper is. DCE / NSIT CEE is generally tough to get through in, simply because the numbers of seats is quite less; and a lot of students and / or their parents don’t allow mamma’s boys / girls to leave Delhi for studies. They’d “die if they eat hostel food”, blah blah are among the reasons I’ve heard being offered by parents. Nevertheless, people do get through – like Ankit Sud – now in NSIT. I think he got rank 69 if I remember correctly. Ask him the secret of his success, and he’d probably reply: Get your bloody arse away from the computer / blogging and STUDY. In other news, Hindustan Times ran an article today about the sorry state of Delhi College of Engineering. Apparently, the computer science engineering course hasn’t been updated for the past ten years. I can imagine that’s probably true (and not an exaggeration). You just need to have a look at DCE’s or NSIT’s website to see 1990s HTML design guidelines in their full glory. I’m talking about the official sites, not the ‘sort of officially unofficial’ sites that the brilliant lads at DCE / NSIT have thankfully created to maintain their reputation. (I’m NOT being sarcastic here.) HT goes on to say that there’s quite a bit of faculty crunch, with quite a few classes running on guest faculty. Also, the lads in mechanical engineering haven’t been able to get their paws on AutoCAD (it’s a design software) – and design software is almost exclusively used these days instead of oversized protractors and drawing sheets. Which brings me to something I generally say: it seems that most of these places like DCE / NITs have pathetic infrastructure. However, simply because of the fact that the number of seats are less, they’re able to generate a lot of hype of ‘being tough to get into’, and use that to make recruiters part with their greenbacks. I think India should hang its head in shame, rather than tom-tom the ‘greatness’ of these institutions which have reached where they are simply by not keeping up with the times and stagnating the amount of seats available. Other top-rated institutes across the world get where they are based on the research being conducted there. India takes the easy way out, and simply goes in for a ridiculous admission intake ratio. It’s a fact that even the IITs publish a minuscule number of research papers in a year. You can read the whole Hindustan Times article on DCE by clicking here. At the end of the day however, life will move on. A nation will cheer as another batch of handful of brilliant (and I’m the first one to admit it, without sarcasm) students get into these over-hyped institutions. Who cares about creativity and talent anyway? Not India. They just want people who can give up two years of their lives burning the midnight...