How Do I Prepare for ASSET?

ASSET is a diagnostic test - not a competitive test. It does not test the facts you have memorized but tries to measure real understanding. Hence it does not need any special preparation.

Twenty years from now, when you are ready to take up a career, a lot of things in the workplace would have changed. What you learn today in your class may become obsolete and useless information by that time. That is how fast the world is changing.

If you realize, when your parents started their career, most probably, they didn’t use the computer or mobile phone much. But today, they may have difficulty working without these two now. When your time comes, there will be newer developments for which you should be ready.

Whatever your parents or grandparents learned in their school, they were able to apply directly to their workplace. But in today’s knowledge economy, what is crucial is the ability to think critically and creatively, because you need to apply your learning to newer and newer contexts and still succeed.

A test like ASSET checks whether you are developing these abilities to learn, think and apply.

Since ASSET tests what you have really understood, the best way to prepare is to try and understand what you learn in your class and from textbooks!

Since ASSET does not test your memory or recall of facts, studying 1 or 2 days before the test will not help you to get better scores. The only real preparation for ASSET that we can suggest is for you to ask questions, and try to clarify points you do not understand. If you have doubts that are not cleared by your parents or teachers, you can even send them to us at info@ei-india.com.

Wherever possible, do small experiments, on your own or with friends, to understand concepts better. It may be an experiment on how sugar dissolves in Science or a paper-cutting activity in Maths or drawing a time line for your holiday plans. Try to apply whatever you have learnt to everyday situations.

Read the newspaper, some good magazines and books regularly. This will help you improve your thinking and application skills, besides keeping you abreast of developments in all fields.

Remember, the kind of preparation described above should be a continuous one, not just before the ASSET.

We DO NOT recommend any kind of coaching on tuition classes for the ASSET test.

No, ASSET questions are not tough, but they require thinking. At first glance, a question may look unfamiliar, but if you try it, you ay find it easier than you thought!

Let’s say you come across an unfamiliar question in ASSET. Your thought process should go something like this:

“Oh! Here is a question on the heart! My God! I am very weak in biology! I can never remember this aorta / ventricles stuff… I should just move on to the next question. But, hey, hang on! These ASSET people said they don’t test factual knowledge and the questions require thinking! Come on, I can think as well as anyone! Let me read the questions carefully and at least try to understand it. READ THE QUESTION - SEE THE FIGURE CAREFLLY - SEE THE MULTIPLE CHOICES - Okay, keeping the answer choices in mind and looking at the figure, I can make out that …. Is the answer! Hey! I did it! THIS WAS EASY! Really!”

Remember, the test will be a challenge for you - you are not doing this for someone else. Like a blood test which may help diagnose a health problem, approach ASSET with all seriousness, wanting to know what are your strengths and weaknesses.

Well, if you are unfamiliar with multiple-choice questions or have never seen an ASSET-type paper, seeing the sample questions or old papers may help.

The purpose of these is only to ensure that you are somewhat familiar with the test format. Doing any tests is not recommended; in fact we do not provide past papers of more than 1 round.

You can also visit the following websites for more information on multiple choice questions.

http://testtakingtips.com/test/multiple.htm

http://712educators.about.com/cs/assessment/gt/mctips.htm

After the test, about one month later, you will get your scores and analyses.
Click for an explanation.

But we have a strong recommendation about the question booklet itself. Please do preserve the question booklet carefully. It is an important learning tool. When you receive the analyses with the correct answers, check out your own answers and see what all you have done right and where you have gone wrong. This will broadly indicate what concepts you have understood well and what you have not. In case you don’t understand the logic of the correct option, you should ask your teacher or parent to explain it to you. You can also write to us for an explanation at info@ei-india.com.

This will help you understand concepts better and also prepare you for the next round of ASSET.

Yes, we do think the following will help.

• Read good books - like publications from National Book Trust.
• If you are in the habit of watching TV, try to watch channels like National Geographic, Discovery, Animal Planet.
• If you are in the habit of surfing the web, try to surf sites like NASA, USGS, BBC, etc..

All the above will help you in your overall learning and development, which is what ASSET tests too! Also see our page on “How do I improve?”