PIEAS M.S Interview Chronicle

I was shortlisted for interview after passing the written test. The selection ratio in the interview is 1 out of 3. So passing rate is 33% and there is a fairly good chance of being rejected after interview and two third candidates suffer from rejection each year. This year, 303 candidates from Electrical/Electronics category were shortlisted for interview and about 100 are to be selected (after interview) collectively for PIEAS, Islamabad & KINPOE, Karachi.

To my knowledge, overall Aggregate calculation for Final selection is based on Written Test score and score from interview; so one must try for maximum correct answers in interviews to remain in top 100 out of approx. 300 candidates. Interview is meant to test Candidate’s Confidence and Knowledge. So try to be confident (not over-confident) during the interview, don’t ever confuse after hearing a question, don’t think too much for the answer. If you answer a question correct but in puzzled manner then they’ll ask you even more difficult questions and will doubt your answer to make you more and more confused. But on the other side, don’t be rigid too, if you answer a wrong question don’t stick to it; if interviewer insists that answer is wrong; accept that and don’t argue. 

The best thing about Interviews is that you may mold the next questions according to your own will; at the end of your answer you may add an extra comment so that interviewer is compelled to ask you question about that (but this doesn’t work every time). If you are asked a question about a totally irrelevant topic and feel that the question is out of context and beyond your knowledge level, then it’s better to tell the interviewer that you don’t have enough knowledge about that asked question! He surely will stop asking you questions regarding that topic.

The PAEC M.S fellowship interview consists of two sub-interviews: The first one is Technical Interview, it is meant to test candidate’s technical knowledge regarding his specific field. Candidate is asked questions about his final year project, core subjects of engineering, general subjects of applied sciences and sometimes also from English. Second interview is General or H.R (Human Resource) interview, it is intended to test candidate’s general mentality, his psychological stability, to know his family and academic background and to discover his general knowledge. 

Technical interviewing panel consists of 3 interviewers. Each one of them is an expert in the field you’re applying for. Generally, the technical interview is of 2030 minutes or in some cases it may last up to 40 minutes. 

General Interviewing panel consists of ~6-8 interviewers. Perhaps, one or two of them are your technical field expert, 2 or 3 of them may be Human Resource Managers responsible for fresh recruitments for PAEC. This interview spans over the same time as technical interview.

My interview center was INMOL, Lahore (Institute of Nuclear Medicine & Oncology) situated right in front of PU’s (Punjab University) Gate No. 1 besides UHS (University of Health Sciences). All the candidates who appear for written test in Bahawalpur & Multan are interviewed there. Interview time was 9:00 AM. I reached there at 9:10 AM due to my eternal laziness. L

But fortunately, interviews were scheduled according to the order in which candidates reported at the center. So, all the candidates who reported earlier than me were to be interviewed before me.

I presented all the original documents, their copies and initial security clearance forms to the clerical staff. They checked my original documents, kept the copies and returned me the originals. I had to wait for about more than an hour for my turn. 

The first interview was Technical. I entered the room with attendant (who was holding file of all my photo-copied documents). The attendant handed the documents to one of the interviewers and left the room. There were 3 interviewers in the room and I knew they were going to bash me with hard questions for next couple of minutes to find whether I’m eligible to join their respected institute or not. I wasn’t confused at all nor did I had any fear except a frisson of cold that passed from my skull to my frigid hands elicited by thinking that what would happen if they started to ask me out-of-course and out-of-context questions (just like in the written test)? But this happened for a moment or two and I just shook my head to let go of this lousy thought.

>>Whole of the interview of was in Urdu (with a few sentences & terms in English).

Interviewer 1: (asked me to Sit Down and verified my name) Interviewer 1: From where did you complete your engineering?

Me: Islamia University Bahawalpur

(Thank God! He didn’t ask; where is it located? When did the start an Engineering degree? :D)

Interviewer 1: Has your degree been completed? If not, what is expected date of completion? 

Me: No Sir! It is expected to be completed at the End of October.

Interviewer 1: What is your percentage?

Me: 87%

Interviewer 1: What is your position in class?

Me: First

(I didn’t expect this Qs. I thought not to tell them of my 1^st position; but it was listed on my application form; so I told them. I think academic percentage is not considered for final selection (Aggregate calculation) but a 1^st position may help you NOT to fail in the interview at least) Interviewer 1: What is your Final Year Project?

Me: I told the title and specified that it is related to Power Engineering. (It’s better to tell them that your FYP is Power Engineering relevant; then they’ll ask you most of the questions related to Power Engg.) Interviewer 2: Explain the project.

Me: I explained the project to them comprehensively by drawing the block diagram of the project. (It took me about 5 minutes conjointly) They asked a few questions related to project.

•      What sort of algorithm are you employing?

•      How your developed micro-grid is different from conventional grid?

•      Where comes the smartness of the grid?

•      Which type of protection are you using in the project?

•      What is HIL (Hardware-in-the-Loop simulation)? etc., etc…

Then they started to ask questions from power engineering!

Interviewer 1: What is difference b/w AC and DC transmission system? Which one is better? 

(The question is a little tricky and answer needs some references from latest research and also from older 19^th century research. I provided all the required suitable references during my answer & I think my answer impressed them in a much positive sense!)

Interviewer 2: What are bundled conductors?

(I answered quite correctly this question, but at the end I said bundled conductors are used to avoid skin effect, as I mixed up Skin Effect with Corona Effect, after hearing this; a notion of un-satisfaction was expressed by Interviewer. I had completed my answer and I knew I had told a bit wrong but it was too late and I couldn’t verbally EDIT my answer then) Interviewer 3: How to measure high voltage?

(I first told them the simpler (but practical) methods of using instrument transformers and also drew a little power measurement scheme for 3 phase 3 wire system and then told about Abraham Voltmeter for HV Measurements)

Interviewer 1: Have you ever visited a power station? Which one? How much capacity it was? How many turbine units are there? What is their extension plan? Why their kWh price is higher?

(I hadn’t had an internship ever (I didn’t tell them though coz they didn’t ask :) ) but Thank God! I had visited just 1 power station in my whole life; Thermal Power Station, Jamshoro! I told them details regarding TPS, Jamshoro!) Interviewer 1: What is infinite bus?

(A simple question; I answered with examples)

Interviewer 1: How to synchronize an alternator to grid? What’s the procedure?

(I explained all four steps to synchronize an alternator to grid/infinite bus) Interviewer 2: What are types of protection systems used in power system? (I told him bus topologies and Breakers protection schemes, but he said No! In fact He was asking about Distance protection, Differential protection, Circulating currents protection (Merz-Price scheme) etc. He named one of them and I answered him as in next question)

Interviewer 2: What is differential protection? How is it used?

(I explained by drawing differential protection scheme for a transformer) Interviewer 1: Okay G! Thank you!

And I was out of room thanking Allah (SWT) for such an awesome experience of my very first (and perhaps last too!) interview of career. J I made two minor mistakes in answering the questions (as detailed previously) but I don’t think if they’re going to affect my overall interview performance because I guess interviewers didn’t even consider them as mistakes..!

My technical interview was much more successful than I even expected. Though chances are rare that you get rejected on the base of General Interview after performing Excellent in Technical interview. But you still need to be careful and attentive. Don’t show any kind of irresponsible demeanor/response during General interview. 

General interview is just to counter-check your mechanical-intelligence, mental caliber, suitability for the job and the manners you treat people. It is also about management abilities because an engineer’s job majorly concerns troubleshooting, maintenance and resource management so they’ll ask some questions related to management and will observe how you manage the problem confronted to you. So be yourself, act yourself and you’ll perform well in this interview too! Way of talking and body-language does matter in General interview (because a psycho-analyst is present there). Any non-serious behavior and/or irresponsible conduct may prove fatal for you. So don’t make any moves that make them feel that you are confused or feeling uncomfortable. And above all Trust in yourself and have faith in Allah Almighty!

I again sat in the conference hall, drank some water and started waiting for the General interview. I had to wait only for 15 minutes and it was my turn again. I entered with attendant who had my documents’ copy. He passed on the copy to an interviewer and left the room. This time there were 7 (or perhaps 6 or 8, I’m not sure because I didn’t look all of them at once in the whole interview nor did I got enough time to count them) interviewers on the other side of the table. One of them asked me to sit, I sat in the chair.

As I sat in the chair, one of the interviewers said to other sitting beside him pointing at me: “He has an Engineering degree with first position in his class.” The other interviewer said: “Oh! That’s nice.”

(I don’t know how did they come to know of my first position, probably either they knew it from previous interview (But how could they? The room and interviewers were all different for General & Technical Interview) or may be from the copy of my documents which contained registration form for Written test in which I declared my first position in the Engineering Degree column or may be Technical Interviewers may have written some remarks on front of my documents copy because that was a single copy presentment in both interviews. Allah knows better!)

Interviewer 3 (I think He was an Electrical Engineer because he asked all the questions relating to Electrical Engineering even in the general interview):

Tell me about your FYP!

Me: I told him the project title and explained it!

Then he asked me some questions from the project emphasizing the Simulink part and Differential equations:

Interviewer 3: Why are you using Simulink for your project?

Interviewer 3: What does Simulink do?

Interviewer 3: How does it solve differential equations?

Interviewer 3: Which type of differential equations does Simulink solve?  Interviewer 3: Does your project involve any non-linear DE (Differential Equation)?

Interviewer 3: What are different type of solvers?

Interviewer 3: What are types of differential equations?

Interviewer 3:  How have you interfaced hardware part with Simulink?

Interviewer 3: What is non-linearity?

Interviewer 3: How is a differential equation non-linear?

Interviewer 3: What is the criteria to check non-linearity of a differential equation?

(I said, an equation with a power of variable greater than one is a non-linear equations, He said: No! that is called the degree of differential equation! Then I said: Sir! I don’t have a strong background in differential equations! I just modeled the physical system and Simulink itself does the DE modeling using State-space equation. He was satisfied and asked me to have a look on DEs sometime later)

Out of 6,7 interviewers, almost 3 remained quite during the whole interview, some asked a few general questions and One of them (I think he was the Psychiatrist/Analyst) asked a bundle of general questions, some of them are presented here:

Interviewer 4: Your Family background?

Interviewer 4: What does your father do?

Interviewer 4: Family members? What do they do?

Interviewer 4: What are your hobbies? (I said Book Reading and

Travelling/Exploring)

Interviewer 4: Which spots would you like to travel to?

Interviewer 4: Which countries would you like to visit?

(I said, countries from Middle-East and he smiled: What do you find of your interest in middle-eastern countries??? :D I said: I know a lot of places of my interest in Middle East. :)) 

Interviewer 4: So, you live in Okara, do you have any problem if Commission (PAEC) places you away from home? I said, Not at All!

Interviewer 4: Which city would you prefer to be placed after completing study?

I said, Islamabad. He said, but you are from power engineering and power engineers are most likely to be placed at Atomic Power Plants.

Interviewer 4: Do you know where power plants are located?

I said, Yes Sir! Karachi and Chashma (One in Khoshab too, but that is not a power plant, that’s a breeder reactor!) But I’d like to be in Research field, so I might have a chance to stay at Islamabad center. He said, Ok!

Interviewer 4: What do you think are the necessary things to succeed in life? I said: Honesty and Hard work. He said, No, I’m asking about tangible (touchable, physically existing) things!

I said: Money and Consistency (as its outcomes are physical) Interviewer 4: How much money do you need to be successful?

Interviewer 4: What if your expenses exceeds the money you earn? Interviewer 4: If you’re give Rs. 10 Lac. What would you do? You have to spend the whole money on yourself only!

(I said: I’ll buy a Computer, a lot of books and would like to travel to some locations!)

And they asked many more questions of the same sense! They didn’t ask me any G.K question but some other candidates were asked G.K questions too!

So, this interview ended in 25-30 minutes approx. and I was out with a sigh of relief. Both of my interviews went fine and I really enjoyed the interview. I wish to appear in the interviews again! J

What to prepare for the interview? Revise every basic topic from Power Engineering’s subjects and read your project report in complete detail. Pay attention to Electric Machines, Physics, Maths (especially Differential Equations), FYP! These are must for interview. Sometimes they may ask questions from Physics and Maths. It’s better to be prepared for that.

PIEAS M.S Test 2014 Questions

1)          What is the meaning of Protégé? (From comprehension)

2)          Why is it difficult to evaluate real benefits of a mentor to a Protégé? (From comprehension)

3)          What is antonym of fast?

4)          As an adjective, what is meaning of Intimate?

5)          What is synonym of Continue?

6)          He was in the swimming pool and calling for help but no one came!  What is active verb in the sentence?

7)          _________, I can give my extra time for humanitarian cause. (As for me, as from me, as to me)

8)          He got the job as he is like a cat who ate the _________. (mouse, rat, bug, canary)

9)          We solved the problem ________________ a new device. (by means for, be means with, by means of)

10)     Everyone disliked his _____________ to the President (illusion, allusion, elusion)

11)     Light with energy E is incident upon a surface area (A) per unit time (T). Simplify the units for E/(A*t).

12)     What is energy of a 600 nm red light photon?

13)     What is orbital speed of a satellite at the height of 8000 km above earth where value of g=6.2 m/s²?

14)     What is the angle between equipotential lines and electric field lines? (parallel, orthogonal, acute, obtuse)

15)     U²³⁵₉₂ absorbs a neutron and emits two β particles. What will be the daughter element?

16)     What quantity does change when a light ray reflects from a mirror

(frequency, wavelength, speed, phase)

17)     Divergence of y²i + xz²j+2xk. 

18)     If a light ray propagates in direction of x-axis. In which plane is movement of its electric field? (Y-axis, X-axis, XY plane, YZ plane)

19)     The transverse wave nature of light is confirmed by which phenomenon (interference, diffraction, polarization, refraction)

20)     What is the best approximate for diameter of alpha particle (10^-9,10^-10, 10^-12, 10-11)

21)     What differs in two isotopes of an element (electrons, protons, neutrons,

shells)

22)     What changes by increasing voltage on electrodes of X-ray tube (Speed, frequency, no. of emitted photons, Energy)

23)     Resistivity, length and resistance of a resistance are given, find the diameter of the wire.

24)     A 45⁰C temperature change corresponds to a change in ⁰F (128, 113, 450, 145)

25)     Conductivity in metals depends upon (electrons, ions, molecules)

26)     A spring with a constant ‘k’ is cut into three equal parts, what is the spring constant of newly formed parts? (k/3, 3k, k, None)

 

29)     Find Eigen values of a given 3*3 matrix. 

(This question repeats almost each year)

30)     What maximum volume rectangle can be formed by a rectangular piece of 21*16 inch by cutting a square piece from each corner? What is area of that square?

31)     A drum contains 100 gallons of salt solution with 1 lb/gallon salt. If 2 lb/gallon solution is added at the rate of 5 gallons/min and stirred uniformly and solution is ejected out at the same rate. What time will it require to reach 150 lb salt in solution?

32)     If f(x,y) = e^x. Sin(xy) the what is the relation b/w  and             

33)     Evaluate   

34)     What is integrating factor in y’ + y/x = e^x

35)     How many word can be formed by letters of ALLANAMOPIA with no two A’s adjacent to each other.

 The given series is (divergent, in-

determinate, convergent, power series)

37)     Pressure at the sea level is 100 kPa. Water density is 1020 kg/m3. At what depth the pressure will be 110 kPa. (11m, 10m, 9.8m, 1m)

38)     A function f(x,y)={(1,x), (2,y), (3,x), (4,y)} is a (an) (Surjective, bijective, 1-1, onto) function.

39)     What is the surface area of a unit cube?

40)     Value of a variable k was to be found in terms of pi in a math question.

= ?  (load factor, diversity factor,

plant factor)

42)     Potential at the ends of a transmission line is 132 kV, reactance of line is 50 ohm. What is approximate loading capacity of line?

43)     Breakdown voltage strength of air depends upon (voltage applied, air density, humidity, all of these)

44)     Receiving and sending end voltage at the ends of a short transmission line are 120<-5⁰ and 100<0⁰ respectively. Reactance of line is 1+j5. Calculate real power line losses?

45)     IGBT combines the good characteristics of ___________ and ___________ 46) A 500 kV, 60 Hz transmission line has inductance 0.4 mH/km and capacitance 0.02 uF/km. Find the surge impedance of line.

47)     Which power plant will always be used as a base load power plant? (coal, diesel, nuclear, hydro-electric)

48)     Which motor is not self-starting? (induction, stepper, synchronous, none)

49)     What is the effect of increasing rotor resistance on torque of 3 phase wound rotor induction motor? (increases, decreases, remains same, none)  Controls & Communication Systems:

50)     For a stable system, what should be values of phase & gain margins

(opposite, both positive, PM –ve & gain margin +ve, both are same) 51) Y=6.x(t)+4 Is this system Linear & time invariant?

52)     The phenomena of Coding and Width allocation is associated with (PAM, PCM, PWM, PPM)

53)     Find inverse Laplace of  

54)     Fourier transform of an even periodic function contains (sine components, cosine components, both, none of them).

55)     x[n] and x[n-1], their Fourier Magnitude & Phase Plots are same or different?

56)     A carrier of 2 kHz modulates a signal with frequency deviation 5 kHz, what’s the frequency of modulated signal?

57)     What is hamming distance between two binary numbers (011011 &

110001)? (3,2,1,4)

58)     A JFET amplifier was shown with values given and its output voltage was to be determined for given input.

59)     What happens to the value of Gain-Band width product of an op-amp when provided with negative feedback? (increase, decrease, remains constant)

60)     Data regarding an Op-amp was given and was asked to determine its slew rate.

61)     Gd = 400 and … (This question is related to JFET and was calculation based, don’t remember the whole question, I think a diagram was also provided)

62)     A circuit with a biased JFET was shown and was asked to determine the input impedance of the amplifier.

63)     What is the minimum number of variable components required to balance an AC bridge? (4, 2, 1, 3)

64)     To implement the system Y=∑(1,3,4,5,6,7,11,14) what single multiplexer would be enough: (4-1, 12-1, 8-1, 16-1)

  is called? (Laplace eq, Poisson eq, Bernoulli eq,

Maxwell eq)

66)     The type of amplifier that can be used to amplify signal from a bridge circuit? (Inverting, non-inverting, tuning, instrumentation)

67)     A voltage source of 20 V with internal resistance 1.5 ohm provides power to a 6.5 ohm load resistance. How much power is provided to load resistance?

68)     An inductor stores 300 kVar power, quality factor of inductor is 300. What are real power losses of inductor?

69)     In an R-L circuit, inductor stores 1000 J energy, and resistor dissipates 2000 W power. What is time constant of the circuit?

70)     A circuit was shown and effect of adding a new resistor (using switch) was to be determined on the brightness of the lamp.

71)     For a full wave bridge rectifier, load current is 10 A and peak to peak ripple voltage is 20 V. What should be the value of repetitive current for diodes in the bridge?

72)     For an ammeter with R_m = 100 ohm, I_fsd = 100 mA, what should be the value of shunt resistance to measure a full scale deflection current of 5A?

73)     A 2^nd order RLC circuit was shown and voltage across capacitor was to be calculated?

74)     For the same circuit, a switch was closed at t=0, and current through inductor was to be found immediately after closing the switch.

75)     A balanced delta impedance of 60+j45 is equivalent to what value of equivalent star connected load?

76)     A two port network was shown and wrong value of Z (Impedance) parameter was to be sorted out of given values.

77)     A four bit adder circuit adds two numbers A₃A₂A₁A₀ and B₃B₂B₁B₀ what is the logic expression for Carry output of First Bit?

78)     What will be the logic expression for the decision of four judges to select a candidate? The candidate selected on the basis +ve selection response from maximum number of judges. The input for Judges are W, X, Y and Z.

79)     What will the response of a system with just a single pole at origin (oscillatory, constant, exponential, sinusoidal)

80)     What is the value of damping factor for an over damped system? [Doubtful Qs.]

           

I could remember only 80 questions out of 100. If anyone who appeared in the test does have any more questions not included above, send them to me! The question order is jumbled, the questions of Subject Part weren’t classified in subcategories in the actual test.

So, how was the test? Seemed a little difficult to me at very first. Some questions were knavish, many were irrelevant to Power Engineering and no doubt some were easy too! But overall test was satisfactory (to many) including the General Portion. If you can attempt ~40% questions right now, you’re expected to attempt 75%+ questions with proper preparation.  

More than 60% questions are numerical types and calculation based that’s why a non-programmable scientific calculator is allowed in the test (The calculator is much helpful in the test, much more than you imagine, bring an original scientific calculator with natural display, download its user manual from its site and read the complete manual, the one/two hour(s) you spend on reading the calculator manual will help you save time and earn extra marks during the test). I solved about 4-5 questions using advanced natural display calculator which I couldn’t have solved with a simple scientific calculator or if solved with simple scientific calculator would have taken me twice or thrice more time!

What to prepare for the test? Preparing irrelevant subject matter for years will have no practicable effect on your test results. Try to be focused, prepare well, and try to avoid far-flung rote learning. Here are the outline of the Test as supplied by PIEAS:

The question paper is divided into two parts i.e. Part (A) and (B). There will be 50 questions in Part (A) and 50 Questions in Part (B). Part (A) is the general part to be attempted by all the candidates (except MBBS/Medical Sciences students) whereas Part (B) is the subject part having subject papers. Only the subject paper relevant to the candidate’s academic background may be attempted by the candidate. The candidate should mention the subject paper he/she is attempting by filling the appropriate section of the answer sheet. The maximum time allowed is 3 hours. Each question carries 3 marks and 1 mark will be deducted for a wrong answer.

A.    General Part:

i.                 It consists of three fields namely Mathematics, Physics and English.

ii.               General Part must be attempted by all the candidates

iii.             General Part will have 50 questions in all. 20 from Mathematics &

Physics respectively and 10 from English

a)     Mathematics (Level F.Sc and B.Sc)

Topics: Basic Calculus, Differential Equations, Complex Variables,

Boolean Algebra, Vector Algebra, Matrices, Statistics

b)    Physics (Level F.Sc and B.Sc)

c)     English

B.    Subject Part: It consists of 50 question from

Electrical/Electronics/Telecommunication in the following proportion:

Mathematics: Prepare F.Sc Part 1 maths: Ch. 1 to Ch. 7 (Skip Trigonometry & 8^th chapter). Each chapter is equally important and keep in mind that Test is numerical based. Memorize formulas and work out with calculations.  From F.Sc Part 2 Maths: Skip Ch. 5 and prepare remaining all 6 chapters (you may skip Ch. No. 6 too, but it’s better to prepare some basics of 6^th chapter). Pay special attention to Ch. 2 & 3. Though each chapter shares equal importance in test, one or two questions are included from each chapter roughly.

Physics: Go through all the chapter of Physics F.Sc Part 1 and Part 2 books. Learn all the formulas and be good with calculations. Last 3,4 chapters of 2^nd year Physics are important.

English: English has nothing to prepare, because no specified course can be allotted for English preparation. This is the first portion of the General test consisting of 10 questions. 1^st two are from comprehension, so they are easy. Next 3-4 are synonyms & antonyms, they’re easy too but confusing, tick them carefully.

And remaining questions are correct form of verbs, prepositions or correction of grammar mistakes. Subject Preparation:

Basic Electrical Engineering: Revise Circuit Analysis I & II from David Irwin’s book or any other Basic Circuit Analysis book (1^st order & 2^nd order circuits are important). Review EMT from William H. Hayt’s Book or Alexander Sadiko’s. Learn all basic equations (i.e. Maxwell’s, Poisson, Laplace, Ampere, Green/Stokes Theorems etc.). Have a basic review of DLD book by Thomas L. Floyd. Pay special attention to combinational logic circuits (They’re important). Have an insight of sequential logic. You may skip K-maps and other lengthy portions.

Electronics, Electronic Circuits and Components: For this portion, prepare thoroughly Electronic Circuit & Devices by Robert T. Paynter or Thomas Floyd’s Electronic Devices. FET, JFET and MOSFET’s components, circuits, biasing and analysis is REALLY important. Learn them by heart (in fact brain :P).

Controls and Communications Systems: For control systems, review Control System by Norman S. Nice. (Samarajit Ghosh’s book is not up to standard). Revise basics of Open loop & Feedback Control systems. Stable & Un-Stable system conditions, poles-zeros plots, bode plots, frequency response, Phase margin, gain margin, root locus and all basic relevant topics.

Communication Systems: (Advance topics from this portion are asked in test) Prepare Laplace & Fourier transforms (important). Harmonics, AM & FM modulation techniques, Slew rate, Fourier magnitude & phase plots, filters (IIR & FIR). You may refer to Modern Digital & Analog Communication Systems by B. P. Lathi. Also review topics from Signal & Systems and DSP. Prepare basics (i.e. LTI systems, signals & their properties, convolution, Fourier series & transform plots of a signal etc.)

 Power: Prepare AC & DC machines from chapman. Revise selective topics of Power Engineering from Principals of Power Systems by V.K Mehta. Power calculations are very important (i.e. finding base values, Impedances, Real & Reactive power flowing through a circuit, capacitance & inductance values). Revise

Power generation too (it’s important). Also revise Power Electronics topics especially for SCR, IGBT, MOSFET, BJT, DIODES, TRIACS & DIACS; their properties, construction, circuits & applications.

This is the complete course outline for M.S fellowship test. But you must prepare more than that mentioned above in order to succeed. By carefully observing the 2014 test questions, you may find out the exact (But up to a limited accuracy) topics to prepare for a specific subject for coming year’s test. For example from Circuit Analysis, questions of Series Parallel combination of Resistors, 1^st order & 2^nd order circuits, Maximum Power transfer theorem, Basic Current/Voltage division, KCL, KVL are much important because questions related to these topics have been found in Fellowship tests. For instance, at least 3 questions were related to FET, JFET, & MOSFET as listed in above questions, so this is most important topic! Same is true for Op-Amp.

 Carefully read the sample paper; also search Internet for past papers for PIEAS B.S and M.S fellowship tests (2010, 2011, 2012 & 2013; 2014 is given above). At least 3-4 questions (or may more) are from past papers. And many more or related to past paper questions with just small changes in values etc.!

How much time should you allot for test preparation? The answer to this question is quite important for an aspirant candidate to succeed. The time you set aside for your test preparation depends on a number of factors; you have to ask a couple of questions to yourself: 

•              What is you previous Knowledge Level about the subject(s)? 

•              Are you starting from scratch? 

•              Do you plan to revise only or to read the topics thoroughly? 

•              What is your intelligence level? 

•              How much are you eager to learn?   What is your Method of Revision?  

So, scrutinize each subject and its sub-topics according to Previous Knowledge, Type of Revision etc. and you may be able to allocate specific time for each subject. Manage your time well and you may be able to revise a lot of material in shorter time span! :) For just to take an example, I completed my revision in 4-5 days from 04 June, 2014 to 08 June, 2014. I revised only F.Sc Maths and Physics books, because I had left with no time for Subject Preparation (as 8^th semester’s finals started from 10^th June). Then I got one and half day more after 2^nd paper of finals. I again reviewed Maths & Physics one time and looked upon some topics from engineering subjects. That was all of my preparations!

Attempting a MCQs based test is itself an art. Mastering that art with a proper commingle of preparation will get you through any test. You’ve 3 hours and 100 MCQs; spend each second of available time wisely. In the first round, attempt only easiest question which you can solve in less than 30 seconds. Then in the next round try moderate questions. And in the last, attack the Hard questions, answer those which you can easily solve, don’t spend a lot of time on a single questions. Use your Brain & Calculator collectively.

While attempting questions in the test, beware of the –ve marking, don’t attempt a question unless you’re completely sure for the correct answer. Never answer a question by mere random guessing. If you don’t know an answer to question, use educated guesses that may increase your chance for guessing a correct answer. 

Read the question and its answer choices carefully, now relate each answer choice to the question and find the chances for this choice to be a correct answer. Use the techniques of reverse solving, inference from other option, use analogies and make a decision that the choice being considered can be an answer or not. Similarly, work out all the option choices and each time roll out the choice which has no (or relatively lesser) chance to be a correct answer and this way you may increase the probability for guessing a correct answer.

If 4 multiple choices are given for a question then you have 25% (1/4) probability of guessing a correct answer randomly. If you eliminate one choice then you’ve 33% chance and if you eliminate two answer choices your correct guessing chance rises up to 50% and so on. 

           I answered 98 questions. About 15 of them were educated guesses, 70+ were correct (according to me), so I expect to get 220+ marks out of 300. I think 200 marks are enough for a candidate to be shortlisted for the interview!