GPAT- AN OVERVIEW
GPAT is a well-known all-India level exam conducted by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE)- a statutory body of Govt. of India for selection of meritorious students for the post-graduate in pharmacy (M. Pharm). From the year 2013, it has been conducted as an online exam and 2015 being the third year. Previously till 2009, it was conducted in the name of Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) in the 'Pharmaceutical Sciences' category. Thus, GPAT came into force from 2010 for pharmacy students.
The exam which comprises of 125 questions follows a simple formula- +4 for each correct answer, -1 for each incorrect answer and 0 for no answer . The candidate who qualifies GPAT and takes up the admission for M. Pharmacy in the selected course in a particular college receives a monthly stipend of Rs 8000/- per month from the Ministry of Human Resources and Development (HRD)- Govt. of India. However, there is buzz nowadays that the stipend amount is going to increase but that we can leave up to the government, student bodies etc. and lets not try to touch the sensitive issue surrounding it.
Till 2012, GPAT was conducted all over India in a SINGLE SLOT on a pen-paper mode by darkening the circles of the appropriate option and comprised of 150 questions. Single slot here it means the exam was conducted all over the nation at the same time at the same day decided in the selected examination cities. But from 2013 onwards, the exam was conducted online on MULTIPLE SLOTS. Multiple slots being- Exam schedule spanning over 2-3 days (depending upon the students appearing) and each day comprising of 2 slots- one in morning and one in the afternoon.
For OPEN and OBC category candidates, the qualifying marks are 125 out of 500 while for SC, ST and PD candidates the qualifying marks are 100 out of 500. In general, almost first All India Ranks (AIR) upto 4000 out of all the candidates appearing qualify GPAT every year (although this is not a rule, they are estimated figures and may vary each year).
This change of pattern was in some ways a boon for the students while for some others a curse. Lets first see the ADVANTAGES offered due to the change in pattern-
- Less number of questions as the number reduced from 150 to 125 (anytime a welcome gift for any kind of student !!!)
- The candidate can actually choose the day of the examination with respect to his/her preparation (many choose the last day as the get an extra day to study!!!)
- The time taken for darkening the circles during the exam is significantly reduced giving more time to think over in the 3-hour exam.
- Moreover, although you have selected the option previously, if you want to change your option you can easily change it by just a click.
- There is a special bar in the right corner which shows the questions you have attempted and those you have left out. On clicking that particular question number, the question appears and thus you can view it easily. Again a significant time-saving activity instead of searching the questions left out and thinking over it.
- Although the number of questions are reduced to 125, the exam being conducted on multiple-slot basis, the probability of questions being asked from various pharma fields/ subjects increases drastically since no question is repeated in any of the slots. E.g. Questions are nowadays asked from much neglected secondary subjects (by students) like Forensic Pharmacy and Jurisprudence, Pharmaceutical Management, Anatomy,Physiology and Pathophysiology, Pharmaceutical Engineering, Clinical Pharmacy, Hospital Pharmacy and Drug Store Management etc.
- Although the candidate has the option to select the particular day, the chances of getting an easy or difficult paper is a total-luck based game. For e.g. it has so happened that both the slots on a particular day presented an easy paper to the aspiring students. But on the next day, the overall level of the paper was slightly difficult in the morning slot and in the afternoon slot, the level of the paper was again easy. (my personal experience !!)
- The examination committee has to chose around unique and non-repetitive 500-750 questions. Thus focussing on only 5 main subjects- Pharmaceutics, Pharmacology, Pharmacognosy, Pharmaceutical Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Analysis is not a good option. (If you have less time in your hand, you can really focus on these subjects and qualify).
- No one can actually predict the number of questions coming from a particular subject in a particular paper because if around 40-50 questions are to be included from a particular subject, they are not distributed equally (most of the cases) in a particular slot. Thus if a candidate has that particular subject as his/her favorite , has studied a lot about it and unfortunately in the paper if he finds only around 4-5 questions then he/she is in a deep trouble.
- There is a provision in GATE exam, to account for the difficulty level of question paper. GPAT doesn't take this into account. From a particular mathematical and statistical equations, all the students appearing at different slots are brought at the same platform. Thus in crude terms , we can say that overall marks are deducted from students appearing in easy exam slots and overall marks are added in students overall marks appearing in the difficult exam slots.
- Till GPAT-2013, the examination was held in May; but from GPAT-2014, the trend is set to schedule the exam in last week of February (on the similar lines as that of GATE). Since a B. Pharmacy student can give all the three exams- GPAT and GATE (Life Sciences- XL and Biotechnology- BT), it is a really a difficult time to study for both and qualify in addition to final year study workload. (NOTE- B. Pharma Students aspiring to do M.Tech in Biotechnology and allied course from IITs (Indian Institute of Technology) and NITs (National Institute of Technology) have to GATE only. For others aspiring to do M.Tech in Biomedical Enginnering from IIT-Bombay, M.Tech in Bioprocess Technology (BPT) or in Green Technology from Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai ( ICT- formerly UDCT/ UICT ), GPAT score is acceptable. Please check further requirements on the concerned institutes websites in eligibility criteria section).
-Darwin
[GPAT-2014- All India Rank (AIR)- 619)
NIPER-JEE-2014 AIR-25 and
ICT-BPT-CET-2014 AIR-7 ]
Ist year M, Tech (Bioprocess Technology-BPT)-2014-16,
Institute of Chemical Technology, Matunga, Mumbai
