FSc Pre Medical Road to Success- A Detailed Guide by Toppers

Written By: Unsa Athar (Batch 2017)

Updated By: Fazeela, Tuaseen and Mahrukh (Batch 2024)

(Dedicated to my teachers who not only taught me the fsc books but also many priceless lessons of life)

 (Unsa Athar)

Hello FSc people! 2020 is already here and you all must have geared up to ace the ordeal coming ahead: Admission into Medical College.

It’s the time to soar high in the sky and see your dreams come true, the dreams you’ve had so passionately in your heart for so long.

But the big question that you hear almost everywhere is:

“How to get good marks in FSc Pre Medical?”

By UHS Admission Criteria 2019, FSc makes 50%of your aggregate, so getting a high score in FSc is vital.

But you don’t need to be scared because we are here to ease your sufferings and push you towards your goal.

This is an in-depth FSc Pre Medical guide that covers everything from paper presentation tips to acing the practical exams.

Ready?

Let’s get started.

Matric vs. FSc - What's the difference?  

Getting yourself educated in the desi manner i.e. through the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education is one of the topmost challenges of today’s society. 

Matriculation seems difficult at that time, but when you enter FSc, you realize that matric was the easiest job in the world. 

Those obese books of intermediate Part I and Part II are the worst enemies one can ever have. 

People say Medical (College) is tougher, but I find one basic difference in both. 

When you enter a medical college, you are dead sure you’ll come out as a doctor now. 

But when you enter FSc, kisi ko pata nahi hota ke ab wo kia ban ke nikley ga. 

 Source: Pinterest

I used to be a sweet, sensitive, sensible girl in September 2010. 

By September 2012; I had changed into a completely retarded, hypersensitive menace. 

Thank God UHS gave me two months after MCAT to get back my sanity via a total vailapan.

When I was entering the phase called FSc, I had no idea that it shall take away my health and my wealth (which means my hair *sob*). 

The pressure of getting good grades kills you emotionally, physically, mentally, and every other –ally. 

Despite all those acne problems, weight issues, headaches, the positive side of the picture is that if you have gone through it and you have a good score in FSc, you have your 50% secured. 

You shall forget about all the pain when you finally see your name on the list of the selected candidates of a renowned college.

Is It Compulsory To Join An Academy During FSc?

In my point of view if your college is good enough, you need not go to the academy.

Do not overwhelm yourself, do justice with your time, make your study routine. You will get good results.

If you think your college is not sufficient; your going to the academy will make your studies better; and you can cope up with two things (college and academy) at the same time, then go to the academy.

Paper Presentation Tips for FSc

Paper presentation is the heart and the soul of FSc. 

If you have bad handwriting, it doesn't matter. Make your presentation better. 

A nice paper presentation is something that creates a significant difference in board exams! 

Here are some handy tips to improve it:

• ·        Draw a margin line with a thick blue marker.

  
  

  ·        Proper use of the marker is essential.

  
  

  ·        Use the marker to highlight important terms, names, dates, etc. in your answer. It makes checking easier for the examiner.

  
  

  ·        Spacing is also important. Draw a small line at the end of each section.

  
  

  ·        Lines drawn with a ruler are appreciated.

  
  

  ·        Practice holding a marker in one hand while writing with a pen in another. Do not waste time in picking up a marker from your lap when required.

  
  

  ·        Time management is the most important thing. Even in the smallest of tests, try to give the best of your presentation in a limited time.

  
  

  ·        If you are really bad at the presentation (like me), practice at home too. Take a sheet or two. Give yourself a specific time and write.

  
  

  ·        Give each question its proper space according to its marks e.g. a 15 marks translation in English requires a full page even if it is of 4-5 lines!

  
  

  
  

  ·        As the sheets are fixed now, practice completing your paper in one or two sheets fewer than the board gives. It will help you out in case your allotted answer sheet (unfortunately) has fewer pages.

Have a look at some examples:

Note: These are just examples. You may need to write the headings more compactly to save space as the number of sheets is limited.

Subject-Wise Guideline

Getting an excellent score in each subject is essential for a good total in FSc.

Let’s dissect each subject separately.

English

To prepare for the translation, short questions and synonyms at the same time, you should read the chapter thoroughly.

Focus on each line, learn the important things, and mark out the words whose synonym could be asked. Learn them and translate them in your mind in Urdu. 

For the grammar portion, try not to cram the letters, applications or essays. 

Just learn the pattern for them or the quotations you have to use. 

Try writing the body of the letter/application yourself.

But if you are too bad at tenses to write things on your own, well then memorize them from a book or notes but still try to make some changes in it.

Solve past papers especially for the translation section.

Mostly conceptual questions are asked from the plays, heroes and Mr. Chips. 

So, please read them thoroughly. 

You can’t do much about some questions like punctuation. Knowing the rules and solving past papers shall help.

For essays, especially, you don’t need to compile them from different books.

Simply make a flowchart of points you have to cover in your essay and write one or two quotes in front of the points.

You can explain those points in your own words in the exam.

If you think you cannot write in your own words, then get an explanation of some points from a guidebook and memorize them as it is.

Urdu

The same rules apply to Urdu. 

Reading the lesson thoroughly shall help you in maarozi sawalat and tashreeh. 

Learning tashreeh word to word from some book is useless.

Use reference quotes and ashaar in tashreeh of Nasr, Nazm and Ghazal.

Try to write it on your own.

Length matters in each question.

Give proper length to each question as told by your teacher.

Make habit of highlighting important words in khulasa of sabaq and nazm.

It will give a good impact.

For Urdu essays, you can apply the same rule as for English.

Try to write good material in your paper.

Islamiat/ Pak Studies

To decide the length of a long question in both of the subjects, do this: 

• Calculate the number of pages required for your short answers. 
• Divide the remaining pages by two. The answer is the length of each long question. 

Make a good number of headings. 

Both of the subjects are all about your creativity and ratta power. 

Guide books or notes are required for them.

When writing an Irshaad, give it a proper space.

Have a look at the examples:

Physics

First, make sure you understand the topic completely. 

Learning it comes next.

Memorize the text from the book.

Some mathematical steps are usually not written in the book and equations are derived more or less directly. 

You should write each step; this might impress the examiner. 

Do learn the info given in the tidbits for MCQs.

Make sure you have solved the numericals by yourself thrice. Aik dfa hath sei nikal jaen tou paper mein solve krte waqt masla nhi hota.

The short questions at the end of the chapter are the MOST IMPORTANT. Make sure you know the right answers to them.

Chemistry

Short questions given at the end of the chapter are important. Long questions are usually the common ones. Examples are really important.

For Part I Chemistry you need a great deal of patience.

Most of it just theory which needs to be rattalized. 

Write, re-write and re-re-write the things you keep on forgetting. 

Get hold of a good teacher of chemistry because it won’t get into your brain until taught by someone really good. 

Take a good dose of almonds before studying chemistry.  

Part II Chemistry is a bunch of equations. Memory is everything here. 

Conversions are not as difficult as they appear to be.

Relate all the chapters of the organic part. Find reactions having the same products. 

Once you are done with all the organic chapters you will know how to covert A to B.

There is also given a scheme of questions by board.

Prepare in the last days of exams according to it. This scheme is given for Biology and Physics as well.

Biology

It is the easiest subject indeed. 

But sometimes it becomes difficult to memorize all this information. You just need to learn the important things. 

The explanation can be written if you have the concept. Everything is important. Never leave any topic. 

Not even the flowering families, because in our board exams the examiner was so kind to ask the Family Rosacea’s vegetative and floral characters! (I hate botany :/). 

To learn them, open your practical notebook and see what the terms mean and learn their floral formulae.

Same goes for Zoology topics.

You can make tables for each topic like the one shown below and learn things more easily.

Neat and Clean diagrams are a must..!!! Practice!

Practical Exams

You need not take them lightly as 90 marks have their own importance. By putting some effort you can easily gain them.

Remember one thing sifarish won't do much good if you do not know what to write on the answer sheet.

So you have to learn them properly and thoroughly. Give them full attention.

Chemistry Practical

For Chemistry, learn all the salts by heart.

There is a very simple technique to grasp them.

With the revision of every salt group, write down the common reactions of salts and some specific reactions of a particular salt on a separate sheet of paper.

On the day of practical, you will read only that page you have prepared despite the whole practical book.

Believe me; learning salt is not so difficult. With some learning techniques, you can learn them well.

Biology Practical

For Biology, apply the technique of making tables regarding floral families and learn them in comparison despite learning each floral family as a whole.

Do practice of frog's skeletal diagrams.

Physics Practical

For Physics, they usually don’t ask you to perform them.

But if you know how to perform a practical, it is good.

Make sure to learn all the tables regarding practicals.

I am not asking to learn exact values, but at least you should have some idea of them.

Do not make mistake in graphs. They give you marks easily.

Your answer sheet is everything. Make sure not to do mistakes in it.

If the examiner takes your viva, do not be confused. They are pretty easy questions and usually one or two.

If you are lucky, there may be no viva for you. 

During your practical classes on regular days, make sure you give full attention to what you learn; it is good for conceptual clarity.

Never pile up the work of a practical notebook. saath saath complete karen.

Get your notebook signed every week.

Pray for a good examiner. You are sensible enough to understand the meaning of a good examiner. Right?

Some Golden Nuggets

Your memory power is extremely important for a good score. If you can rattalize well, you are bound to get an excellent score.

If you keep on forgetting things, try different methods to learn. 

Write them repeatedly. Practice them madly. Use different mnemonics. Try to associate difficult terms and names with things of your daily life. 

To see how it works, give the following article a read:

Study Less Learn More By Sadaf Hafeez

Studying just the night before the exam is a general student behavior. But doing this in FSc is not a good thing. 

If you have banged your head in the chemistry book the whole year, only then you can reproduce something on the answer sheet on the exam day.

If you are having issues in some particular subject, ask the teacher or a senior or anyone who could help you out. You need to get your concepts clear at any rate.

Your book is everything. The more you cram out of it, the better. 

Other notes and guidebooks can be helpful to see how a particular answer is given in them. But learn the text from the book.

It will help you a lot in your exams and MDCAT as well.

Your consistency and perseverance matter much more. You have to give each subject proper time and make a strategy not to waste a single day.

Give the same importance to Urdu, Islamiat and Pakistan studies as science subjects. With a little more effort in these subjects, you can score high.

Do not ignore these subjects because at the end (means at the time of your admission process), you crave every single mark.

Revise your syllabus as much as you can.

What does success demand besides studying?

Well there are certain quotients that can REALLY make or break your efforts.

Religious Quotient

Prayers are the most important.

Yes, they are!

Without them all the hard work goes in vain.

Besides all the hard work and struggle, your belief in Allah Almighty and yourself will inch you closer to your dream. These are the main ingredients of success.

Emotional Quotient

Do not overwhelm yourself by your emotions.

Get yourself out of the circle of ‘fear of failure’.

And no need to get depressed if you get less than you expected. You did your best and now it's up to Him to decide the rest.

This is a territory of uncertainty, pressure, and possibility of failure, but it's all worth it in the end.

The tree that never had to fight

For sun and sky and air and light,

But stood out in the open rain

And always got its share and rain,

Never became a forest king,

But lived and died a scrubby thing…

Good timber does not grow with ease,

The stronger wind, the stronger trees.

…And Wrapping It Up

Thank you for taking out the time to read this article.

FSc for sure is a stressful time. With the right guidance and appropriate hard work, you CAN decide your future.

If this post was helpful, share it with a friend!! 

We'd love to hear your thoughts, suggestions and questions in the comments section below.