I appeared for the KVPY exam in 11th and cleared the written exam as well as the interview. So, I thought I should share my experience to help others who wish to take the exam.
The KVPY is a scholarship-exam for science stream students to encourage them to take up pure-sciences. The SA stream written exam has four subjects: Maths, Physics, Chemistry and Biology. It is a 100 mark paper with equal weightage to each subject. In 2014-15 the pattern of the paper was as follows:
At first it feels unfair that there is no choice between maths and biology, however I feel that if you are interested in science, then you should learn both of these at least till 11th.
The syllabus for maths is not very different from 10th grade, but the level of difficulty is higher. Thus Biology students will have to practice solving such questions.
The Biology section is fairly easy. Since I could not take both maths and bio in school, I was initially concerned. However, looking at the previous years' papers I noticed that the bio questions were not that difficult. Most of them are based on class 10 syllabus and the rest on life processes in cells and genetics.
Physics and Chemistry are fully 11th-12th based. You really have to prepare for just these 2 subjects.
In the summer after the 10th board exams, my friends and I started studying 11th std. physics from HC Verma's Concepts Of Physics. We were studying for KVPY as well as NSEP and so focussed most of our time on physics.
We would read and try to understand as much as we can from HCV and clear each others doubts or look up our doubts online. We made it a point to understand all the derivations and then try to derive the formulae ourselves. After reading up on a particular chapter, we solved the Exercises given at the end of the chapter and then solved further questions on the same topic from I.E. Irodov's Problems in General Physics. Solution books are available for both of these books and are immensely useful. (While solving Gravitation, we learned many substitution techniques required in calculus, using the solution book for Irodov!)
In this manner, we finished most of 11th st. physics in 2 months or so and then started 12th std. physics. For class 12 physics I referred to Sears and Zemansky's University Physics for better explanations along with HCV.
Having study partners really helped me as it kept me going at that pace. Sometimes my friends were ahead of me in the syllabus and thus I had to study even if I felt lazy or tired. Sometimes I gave them the incentive to study. Also, studying in a group and solving questions together is really fun. We would solve physics questions, maths olympiad papers and occasionally even watched movies.
The chemistry section is pretty hard. I am not very interested in chemistry and find it hard to study on my own. So I pretty much neglected it...(and paid for it. I lost only 3 marks in physics and around 12 in chemistry). The Chemistry section has a lot of questions from General Organic Chemistry. However, you also have to study other chapters like gaseous state, thermodynamics and equilibrium.
The written exam is what really counts. The weightage for written is 75% and 25% for interview. Usually the cutoff is low for the written exam(40s out of 100) but that is where you can really score. So one should prepare well for the written exam.
There are a lot of conflicting posts about the interview for KVPY. Many claim that it is very strict and the teachers are mean and out to there to get you and so on. Well, it isn't.
The interview was very friendly and casual. The interviewers were very amicable and supportive. There are 2 interviewers per subject, so 8-9 interviewers. The interview lasted about 40 minutes. They asked me about 10-12 questions subject-wise. First they read my self-appraisal form and asked me about my science-exhibition project(Automated Telescope). Then one of the physics teachers asked me solve a question on the whiteboard showing all the steps. It was a simple question and I think he just wanted to see how I tackled the question rather than my ability. The question was find the total distance travelled when a ball is dropped from a height 'h' with coeff. of restitution 'c'. The other physics teacher asked me what I knew about Quantum Mechanics and why I liked it(self-appraisal form). When I made a mistake in something, the teachers did not say I was wrong but instead guided me to the right answer. The bio teacher asked me vague questions and the maths teacher only asked me one question(what are limits?) The chemistry teacher asked me a few questions which I was unable to answer to his satisfaction.
I felt that I could have done much better than I did in the interview. I was anxious about the outcome and kept thinking that the interview didn't go so well.
However, about 6 weeks later(mid March) when the results were declared online, I found out that I had cleared the exam with an AIR of 92.
Of the four of my friends, with whom I studied, 3 were selected.
I feel that the interview does not really affect the results by a lot. One of my friends said in the interview that he wasn't even sure if he wanted to do pure sciences! and he was still selected.
I hope this was helpful and informative.
All the best for KVPY aspirants!
The KVPY is a scholarship-exam for science stream students to encourage them to take up pure-sciences. The SA stream written exam has four subjects: Maths, Physics, Chemistry and Biology. It is a 100 mark paper with equal weightage to each subject. In 2014-15 the pattern of the paper was as follows:
Part I (60 marks): one-mark MCQs
- Maths:15 ques
- Physics:15 ques
- Chemistry:15 ques
- Biology:15 ques
Part II (40 marks): two-mark MCQs
- Maths: 5 ques
- Physics: 5 ques
- Chemistry: 5 ques
- Biology: 5 ques
The syllabus for maths is not very different from 10th grade, but the level of difficulty is higher. Thus Biology students will have to practice solving such questions.
The Biology section is fairly easy. Since I could not take both maths and bio in school, I was initially concerned. However, looking at the previous years' papers I noticed that the bio questions were not that difficult. Most of them are based on class 10 syllabus and the rest on life processes in cells and genetics.
Physics and Chemistry are fully 11th-12th based. You really have to prepare for just these 2 subjects.
In the summer after the 10th board exams, my friends and I started studying 11th std. physics from HC Verma's Concepts Of Physics. We were studying for KVPY as well as NSEP and so focussed most of our time on physics.
We would read and try to understand as much as we can from HCV and clear each others doubts or look up our doubts online. We made it a point to understand all the derivations and then try to derive the formulae ourselves. After reading up on a particular chapter, we solved the Exercises given at the end of the chapter and then solved further questions on the same topic from I.E. Irodov's Problems in General Physics. Solution books are available for both of these books and are immensely useful. (While solving Gravitation, we learned many substitution techniques required in calculus, using the solution book for Irodov!)
In this manner, we finished most of 11th st. physics in 2 months or so and then started 12th std. physics. For class 12 physics I referred to Sears and Zemansky's University Physics for better explanations along with HCV.
Having study partners really helped me as it kept me going at that pace. Sometimes my friends were ahead of me in the syllabus and thus I had to study even if I felt lazy or tired. Sometimes I gave them the incentive to study. Also, studying in a group and solving questions together is really fun. We would solve physics questions, maths olympiad papers and occasionally even watched movies.
The chemistry section is pretty hard. I am not very interested in chemistry and find it hard to study on my own. So I pretty much neglected it...(and paid for it. I lost only 3 marks in physics and around 12 in chemistry). The Chemistry section has a lot of questions from General Organic Chemistry. However, you also have to study other chapters like gaseous state, thermodynamics and equilibrium.
The written exam is what really counts. The weightage for written is 75% and 25% for interview. Usually the cutoff is low for the written exam(40s out of 100) but that is where you can really score. So one should prepare well for the written exam.
There are a lot of conflicting posts about the interview for KVPY. Many claim that it is very strict and the teachers are mean and out to there to get you and so on. Well, it isn't.
The interview was very friendly and casual. The interviewers were very amicable and supportive. There are 2 interviewers per subject, so 8-9 interviewers. The interview lasted about 40 minutes. They asked me about 10-12 questions subject-wise. First they read my self-appraisal form and asked me about my science-exhibition project(Automated Telescope). Then one of the physics teachers asked me solve a question on the whiteboard showing all the steps. It was a simple question and I think he just wanted to see how I tackled the question rather than my ability. The question was find the total distance travelled when a ball is dropped from a height 'h' with coeff. of restitution 'c'. The other physics teacher asked me what I knew about Quantum Mechanics and why I liked it(self-appraisal form). When I made a mistake in something, the teachers did not say I was wrong but instead guided me to the right answer. The bio teacher asked me vague questions and the maths teacher only asked me one question(what are limits?) The chemistry teacher asked me a few questions which I was unable to answer to his satisfaction.
I felt that I could have done much better than I did in the interview. I was anxious about the outcome and kept thinking that the interview didn't go so well.
However, about 6 weeks later(mid March) when the results were declared online, I found out that I had cleared the exam with an AIR of 92.
Of the four of my friends, with whom I studied, 3 were selected.
I feel that the interview does not really affect the results by a lot. One of my friends said in the interview that he wasn't even sure if he wanted to do pure sciences! and he was still selected.
I hope this was helpful and informative.
All the best for KVPY aspirants!
KVPY 2020 exam will be conducted by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore. KVPY entrance test is a national level entrance test organized for the selection of the eligible candidates on the basis of Aptitude Test & Interview organized by IISc. Through this entrance exam, candidates are provided scholarships up to Pre-Ph.D. level for their selection. Eligible candidates awarded with the scholarships will be able to pursue their career in the Research Science. To know more about KVPY Exam click here.
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