KEAM: Tips before you head to the exam centre

Representational Image. Photo: iStock/ Deepak Sethi

The candidates of the Kerala Engineering-Pharmacy Entrance Examination (KEAM) are busy with last-minute preparations ahead of the all-important test scheduled on Wednesday (May 17).

Those seeking admission to Engineering courses have to appear for both the papers while those electing Pharmacy need to take only the first paper.

Each paper has a total of 120 multiple-choice objective questions. Each question will have five choices and a candidate is required to choose the right answer or the most appropriate one among them.

Four marks will be awarded for every right answer, while one mark will be deducted for each wrong one.

If a student gives two answers to one question, the same will be considered as a wrong answer. However, no mark will be deducted if he/she skips a question.

Students are strongly advised against making guesswork as the probability of them going wrong is 80%, while only 20% chance is there for the answers turning out to be correct ones. Hence, one shouldn’t leave it to chance and lose out on hard-earned marks. Anyway, there is no negative mark for skipping a question that you find too tough.

Out of the 77,005 candidates who appeared for the test last time, 18,435 failed to qualify. All, except Scheduled Caste/Tribe category students, will fail to qualify if unable to score a minimum of 10 marks out of a total of 480.

A majority of students who fail to qualify won’t be the ones who couldn’t provide three correct answers out of 120 questions. They may have indulged in guesswork and incurred negative marks for wrong answers. So please resist the temptation for guesswork.

The comments posted here/below/in the given space are not on behalf of Onmanorama. The person posting the comment will be in sole ownership of its responsibility. According to the central government's IT rules, obscene or offensive statement made against a person, religion, community or nation is a punishable offense, and legal action would be taken against people who indulge in such activities.