Have you ever noticed yourself being attracted to machines and mechanics? Is messing around with gadgets and electronics your passion? Do you love goofing around with technological inventions and keeping an eye on software breakthroughs?
Congratulations! You indeed wish to become an engineer!
Bad news? There’s tough competition out there, to an extent that you should always have a second option in mind. Or take a tougher and better decision – study hard and prepare well for the entry test, determining whether you are capable and worthy of getting admission into an engineering university.
With a proper study plan and right guidance, you are most likely to achieve this milestone. But first, let us have a detailed dissection of the Engineering College Admission Test, abbreviated as ECAT.
Initiation
ECAT was an initiative of the University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore. It is a test conducted in the Punjab province of Pakistan each year for admission in BE, BS and BSc Engineering degrees.
The approval for conducting this examination was given by the then Chief Minister of Punjab, Mian Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif in an effort to counter cheating allegations and schemes.
It was also introduced to terminate the authoritarian and solitary supremacy of HSSC board examinations as some institutes disagree in relying completely on HSSC board results.
Criterion for
ECAT is a prerequisite for getting admitted into UET, its affiliated colleges and all other public sector engineering universities in Punjab. And that’s not all. Some private institutions in Punjab and the capital, Islamabad, also rely on the score students achieve in this test.
During admission procedure, ECAT constitutes 30% weightage in the selection criterion while your result in FSc pre engineering, A Levels or any other equivalent degree forms the remaining 70%.
Those who underestimate the proportion of ECAT after knowing this scheme would only make things worse for themselves. Believe it or not, even with this ratio, ECAT is the defining marking criterion here.
So now, you know. There’s no bragging. You really need to clear this test for your dreams to be manifested in reality.
How to Apply?
Do not rely on friends, cousins, college clerks and academy teachers for the application process. You need to do it yourself! The candidate first has to deposit a sum of Rs.700/- at a branch of Habib Bank Limited (HBL) and receive a token from the bank. This token bears a 5-digit Serial Number & 14-digit Token Number that will be required to login while filling the form.
The application forms are available online at https://admission.uet.edu.pk and will be submitted only through internet. Posts will not be accepted by UET in any case. So just save your time. Internet and printer facilities will also be available at the 13 centres allocated as test centres for UET. Candidates can fill their online forms there and get printouts of their admit cards there and then.
Without these admittance cards and the smart card issued by NADRA for minors or the CNIC if you are above 18 years of age, you can not enter the test centre no matter how much you beseech that day. Rules are rules, right!?
Test Format
Enough of the history and the cautions! Let us get to business. What exactly is the format of this test? Piles of short answer questions and the ever-expanding list of long answer questions? Fill in the blanks? Numericals are a must, right?
Wrong! The entire test is MCQs based. Every year the test comprises of 100 MCQs, selected from all the subjects that the student chooses for ECAT based on what he/she studied in intermediate or A Levels or DAE. The candidates are given a limited time frame of 100 minutes to complete the test.
Marking Scheme
This would have been bothering you since knowing the aforementioned MCQs-time ratio. Well, settle the feud. The marking scheme is set this way:
Right answer – 4 marks
Wrong answer – negative 1 mark
No answer – 0 mark
Let’s break it down for you. Suppose you got 70 answers right, 15 wrong and left the remaining 15 ones unattempted. This is how you will calculate your score:
~ (70*4) + (15*-1) + (15*0)
= 280 – 15 + 0
= 265
Thus, 265 is your final score! Not bad.
Division of Marks
Following is the division of MCQS in ECAT in our country:
- English – 10 MCQs
- Chemistry – 30 MCQs
- Physics – 30 MCQs
- Mathematics – 30 MCQs
With English and mathematics as constants, there actually are four subject groups for this test including statistics as a subject as well. This varying scheme of subjects is decided to cater to students who have studied various subject groups at the intermediate level.
Quite an appreciable inclusive approach!
Course Outline / Syllabus
There is a fixed course outline for the test as far as the subjects are concerned. However, the subject group will be selected by the aspirant while filling the application form.
English
The English portion is further divided into
- Vocabulary (synonyms and antonyms)
- Grammar (subject verb agreement, active passive voice, direct indirect speech, punctuation, sentence completion, detecting errors in a sentence etc)
- Comprehension (questions asked from an unseen passage. The questions may vary from the content to the vocabulary of the passage.)
Chemistry
Chemistry and English are going to be the bonus points for you! The segment for chemistry in ECAT constitutes 30% constituting 30 MCQs, each with 4 marks.
The syllabus consists of the text given in the text books of 1st and 2nd year intermediate level. The course, as of 2019, consisted of 27 whole chapters (11 from the book of Intermediate part I and 16 from Intermediate Part II). Preparing syllabus from both the textbooks is equally important for the aspirants.
For A Levels or DAE students, the topics remain the same.
Physics
Physics and mathematics are the subjects that actually MATTER in engineering degrees. So it is imperative that ECAT enthusiasts need to revere these subjects even more.
With 30% weightage in ECAT, this portion encompasses 30 MCQs with 4 marks each for one MCQ. Bear in mind that just like MDCAT 2019, ECAT works on the policy of deducting 1 mark for each wrong answer.
The syllabus comprises 21 Chapters in total (11 from the First Year Physics textbook and 10 from the Second Year Physics textbook).
Mathematics
This portion contains the expansive labyrinth of formulae, numerical and equations one usually dreads the most. The mathematics portion in ECAT holds 30 MCQs and has the same marking criterion as physics and chemistry.
Make sure you practise for this portion extensively and endlessly or you will have to face the music. Without an extensive preparation, you are likely to fall short of the target you have decided to achieve in ECAT.
With these preliminary points in mind, we hope we have succeeded in creating a mental map of ECAT in your mind. Stick to these points while you navigate to make your way through the application process and the test. We hope you will benefit from this article and score well for your ambitions to come true!
Good luck!
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