Among the four candidates in the country to have topped six subjects in CUET this year, the 18-year-old aims to pursue BA (Hons) Political Science.
When Palak Agrawal was preparing for the Common University Entrance Test (CUET), she had a clear goal in mind: to secure admission in her dream college — Delhi University’s Hindu College. But what the teenager from UP’s Shikohabad didn’t expect was that she would end up scoring 100 percentile in six out of the seven subjects she would appear for.
Among the four candidates in the country to have topped six subjects in CUET this year, the 18-year-old aims to pursue BA (Hons) Political Science.
When it comes to CUET preparation strategy, Agrawal started right after her Class 12 Board exams in which she scored 99 per cent. “I had no time to waste. As soon as I was done with my Board exams, I started preparing for CUET UG. The syllabus was the same and the NTA (National Testing Agency) was very clear that all the questions would be NCERT-based, so I started studying from NCERT. And I think that is what helped me the most,” she tells The Indian Express.
The seven subjects that Agrawal appeared for were English, Economics, Fine Arts/Visual Arts/Commercial Art, Geography/Geology, History, Political Science and General Test. She scored 100 percentile in all but the General Test, in which she attained a 99.91 percentile score.
Besides early preparation, what helped Agrawal was appearing for mock tests. “I maintained a register in which I noted the days remaining till the exam date on one side, and the subjects on the other. I planned my preparation strategy according to that and started solving one mock test for each subject every day,” she says, adding she solved “nearly 100 mock tests in a month”.
Along with Toprankers, Palak relied on a few select YouTube channels and online websites for mock tests. “YouTube in general is very helpful; you have to carefully select which creator is presenting relevant and reliable content. I found a few, which had good mock tests for English. There were also a couple of websites which not only offered mock tests, but also timing and environment just like an exam hall. That helped me a lot,” she says.
Agrawal says even though she was confident about scoring well, if not with a perfect score, in domain subjects, she was not “very sure” about English. “There is a chance of error. But I felt relieved after seeing the score,” she adds.
While Agrawal’s elder brother is a fourth-year student at IIT Roorkee, she says there was no pressure from her family to choose the technical field. “They allowed me to pursue what came to me naturally,” she adds.
On why she wants to pursue Political Science, she says, “Through this degree, I will get a chance to read and understand the minds of people such as Mahatma Gandhi and Karl Marx. What drives me more towards this course is that I get to do something for the society and leave a mark in this world.”
Despite an impressive score in her Board results, Agrawal believes that CUET system is better than the old “cut-off” process.
“A lot of people I know scored very well in the Board exams, but they were unable to score in CUET. This shows that it is easy to ace Board exams because people simply need to mug up the syllabus there, but CUET is all about conceptual learning…if your concepts are clear and you revise your NCERT books properly, CUET will be a cakewalk. So, CUET was needed in our education system,” she says.
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