PupilGarage - Pit Stop Your Knowledge Engines

PupilGarage.com is rightly been identified as the pit stop for Knowledge Engines for years to come. This website primarily aims at delivering the services needed by a student with the expanse of the scope to numerous books, articles, journals, questions asked in job interviews and questions faced by students/apirants in competitive examinations.

PupilGarage - Books

The books provided are direct links to external websites which hold the copyrights for hosting them. They have been identified to belong to various sections of science and technology like Computer Science, Mathematics, Electronics, Instrumentation, Control, Chemical, Electrical, Mechanical, Communication and Civil. It also engulfs the need of a voracious reader as it comes to leveraging the best nominated and famous reads in the category of english literature. Keeping an account of growing demands in the fields of business and management, pupilgarage also maintains a wide and diverse collection of business related books.

To further this collection to cater to the growing demands of our users, we like to inform them that we are building a collection of books for other disciplines such as medical sciences, numerology, physics and chemistry. Very soon, they all will be available to our users free of cost and open for free download.

PupilGarage - Job Quest

This category of domain PupilGarage aims at exposing the students and job seekers to a variety of interview questions in diverse zones of technology.

It presents new and upto date questions asked previously in different job interviews. We kept in mind the precise needs of seekers and hence, created a different category for interviews of various entrance/competitive exams. Mostly, we prepare our readers to face questions asked about fundamentals of topics and then in-depth approach. Not all other websites provide a platform to make it through industries/companies in electronics, mechanical, civil, electrical and chemical fields but we do. We have a dedicated category which contains high quality questions and answers appropriate to the current market trends.

I must say that as we grow in our resources everyday, we will provide more newer and industry ready questions to you to master the art of cracking interviews. We also provide different set of questions for freshers and experience holders. They only differ in levels of difficulty and exhaustion of fundamentals.

Apart from the technical interviews, we host another category of questions-answers which aim at non-technical aspects like HR interviews, group discussions, interview strategies and personality traits. Essentially, this category helps you to succeed in next levels of an interview which you may be facing after technical rounds. It also directs you to boost your confidence and helps you to maintain a good attitude to a guaranteed success. We are all not the same or desire the same things in life from a job but to sport an amiable and witty attitude to get the job first is important. That's where PupilGarage will help you get an edge over other competitors.

PupilGarage - Exam Corner

PupilGarage.com is a repository of questions and test parameters for cracking through most of the competitive exams. Some of which we leverage to our users are IIT, AIEEE, IIIT, BITS, KCET, EAMCET, AIIMS, CBSE, AFMC, CAT, XAT, GMAT, GRE, TOEFL, SAT, MAT etc entrance exams to most of the engineering and medical institutes all over India. We also cater to the candidates interested in Bank PO exams, Civil Services (IAS, IFS, IPS etc), Defence Services (NDA and CDS) and Hotel Management exams.

We provide free exam papers, free question papers, free mock tests and sample question papers for MBA exams. Our users can avail online tutorials and solved questions for CAT, XAT, MAT, GMAT, GRE, TOEFL, IAS, IFS, IPS etc post-graduate studies. Besides the aforementioned, we also help our users by providing guidelines for time management and preparatory sessions for graduate courses - engineering and medical entrance exams. The students interested in cracking through any of these entrance exams can use our previous year solved question papers, topics for group discussions, case studies and situation reactions for specific exams, mock tests and sample questions to build confidence before going for the actual exams, interview questions for post graduate entrance exams. We maintain and constantly add numerous section-wise questions in Quantitative Aptitude, Logical Reasoning, English, Grammar, Literature, General Knowledge, Mathematics, Data Interpretation and so on.

PupilGarage - Upload Objects

As we have turned 1 year old on WWW, we have created a domain on which our users can themselves help eachother by uploading books, journals, study texts, lecture notes etc. Only to point out to all is the copyright policies on books/links to books which are given utmost importance on PupilGarage.

Also worth mentioning is the feature which enables our users to submit new interview questions and their answers, competitive exam questions and answers.

We would be glad to approve and then put them up on our website. The questions of which answers are not known will be handled through our Mad Expat Forum.

Once we receive an appropriate solution to a technical problem asked, we would post it in one of the suitable job quest or exam corner category.

PupilGarage - Online Exam Portal

Not operational at present. We are working on it with high priority.

PupilGarage - Mad Expat Forum

Not operational at present. We are working on it with high priority.

PupilGarage - Trade Books

Not operational at present. We are working on it with high priority.

Low Waged and Mundane Pursuit in IT

Somebody had truly said-Money makes the world go around. Off late, I have been observing an increased trend in fresher's joining IT companies right after their degree courses. I don't blame the students for that. Certain highbrow words like Campus Recruitments, Money and Independence etc truly attract everyone. Sometimes, it is the Brand Name and most of the times, it is the financial grit. At a stage in life when we stand on our feet to be "independent", the IT companies make us go overboard with such delightful offers. Did I just say delightful? Well, mark my words; life doesn’t remain all that delightful once you are into an IT company with your B.Sc/BCA degree. It doesn’t take much time to realize the wrong step taken.

With my experience in this industry for almost 3 years now, I have learnt that an individual with a B.Sc/BCA degree has very less scope of growth. Though we work along with 'engineers' and do similar jobs, you still remain at a lower job band. The year end appraisals show not much difference with every year that pass by.

Basically, the IT companies make huge profits with your career at stake!

A vivid yet bitter, known niche of people held in this jeopardy is the ‘call centre’ professionals-

A group of overworked and stressed out men and women who work day and night servicing people around the globe, only to know that a few peanuts have been credited into their accounts at the end of the month. I have had friends who worked in call centres. I remember they’d quit their jobs in a couple of months when they soon realized that the job was not taking them anywhere along the career ladder and the financial climate always remained dull.

If I were to guide you on your career after a bachelor’s degree in science, I would sincerely advice/suggest you to complete your Masters before you get pulled into this industry. Alternatively, you can always choose to become an "Engineer", the tag always helps!

Ashwini Maller

How to crack Reading Comprehension in CAT?

Most of the people say Reading Comprehension is just about understanding what we are reading. However, this never appeared this simple to me. I felt it was more important to comprehend much further than just understanding the passage. With the new paradigm shift in the question set up in competitive exams, more focus is the need of the day to crack them.

Below are some of the strategies that could be followed in order to get the answers right.

Steps to be followed:
Step 1: Read the passage.
Step 2: Read the questions.
Step 3: Categorize the questions.
Step 4: Answer the questions.

Step 1: Reading the Passage-
Reading the passage is the most important part because we should be fast and side by side we should be able to understand the passage too. We need to concentrate on 3 different things while reading the RC
I) Determine the main theme.
II) Capture the tone of the Author.
III) Remember the geography of the passage.

There are some principles that can be followed while reading the passage:

a) If a sentence consists of independent clause and dependent clause then the dependent clause can be dropped. For example: Let say there is a sentence, "As I was driving to office, I saw an accident." In this sentence, As I was driving to office is the independent clause and nobody would pay attention to this statement rather they would be interested in the next part. So, 'I saw an accident' (independent clause) is important. Therefore we can concentrate on the independent clause not bothering about the dependent part.

b) If we come across a compound sentence separated by that/which then we need to only concentrate on the part after that/which.

c) Examples can be neglected while reading the passage. We can revisit the example if we find any question on it. This is because examples can never be the part of main theme. Main theme is always supported by certain details and those details are supported by the examples.

d) Structure words are the most important in the passage. The structure words always form the link between the sentences. But, therefore, on the other hand, in short, however, thus ... are some of the structure words.

e) Never take the negative sentences into considerations. For example: Before trying to explain a computer the author has used some sentences like, "This is not a living object". These kind of sentences can be neglected. However this should not be followed for science passage.

f) If you find a complex statement with too much of complex content and the full stop would be after 4-5 lines, which we would be desperately looking for, then we drop the sentence. Because most of the cases the next line would be containing the summary of this complex statement and would be beginning with thus, therefore, or in short.

Step 2: Read the questions-
Questions have to be read in full.

Step 3: Categorize the questions-
There are 6 different types of categories under which the RC questions can be divided. Namely:
i) Main theme questions
ii) Description questions
iii) Structured questions
iv) Inference questions
v) Hypothetical questions
vi) Tone questions

Questions based on a passage will belong to any of the above categories or combination of the categories.

Step 4: Answer the questions-
How we can answer a particular question depends on the category to which it belongs. Below we will see how we can answer questions belonging to different categories.

i) Main theme questions- The main theme of a passage can be found from the below mentioned places:
-- 1st paragraph, 1st line
-- Last paragraph, last line
-- 1st paragraph, last line
-- 2nd paragraph, 1st line

* If the content of the 1st paragraph does not match with the content of the last paragraph i.e., the 1st paragraph is giving the background information then the main theme lies in the 2nd paragraph 1st line or last paragraph last line.

* The main theme lines are usually associated with structured words.

Common mistakes:
-- Choosing too specific or too generic statements.
-- Choosing examples. We should never forget the rule that examples can never be part of the main theme.
-- Adding value to what author has stated i.e. using the words of author or restating the author's statement.

ii) Descriptive questions-
-- Identify the correct line/lines from which the question has been picked up from.
-- Read the previous and next line of the identified line. Try to understand those lines and get the answer.
-- If you find a lot of pronouns in those lines then try to answer based on the line before and line after.
-- If still it is not matching to any of the answer options then we need to align our answers to the summary of the paragraph from which the line has been taken from.

Common mistakes:
-- Choosing an answer option which is aligned to the theme of the passage.
-- Choosing an answer option which is adding value to what the author has stated.
-- Choosing an inference answer option. (We will be discussing inference questions shortly)

Example question: According to the passage, which of the following ...

iii) Hypothetical questions-
The hypothetical questions generally calls for applying the concept given in the passage in a different scenario.
Generally the question types would be like:
* Where do you think this passage has been derived from?
-- The answers to this type of questions are more likely to be aligned to the main theme of the passage.
* What could be the title of the passage?
-- The correct answer option will have the main theme plus the subject matter (hero of the passage).
* Which of the following line can be the continuation of the last passage? or Which of the following lines can immediately follow the last paragraph of the passage?
-- We don't have to summarize the whole passage while selecting the answer. Neither the answer option should be aligned to the main theme of the passage. The answer should be aligned to the last 3 to 4 lines of the passage i.e. the nouns in the correct answer option will match with the nouns given in the last 3 to 4 lines of passage.

iv) Structured questions:
These kind of questions are not substance questions i.e. they are not asking about the meaning of the particular line or paragraph. For these questions style is important rather than the substance.
Basic example of structure question would be, "How do you think the passage has been organized?".

The different types of structure are:
-- Compare & Contrast structure: Compare is finding the similarities and contrast is the finding the dissimilarities. There can be only 1 line of comparison and n lines of contrasts but the structure is still compare and contrast structure. Similarly there can be n lines of comparison and 1 line of contrast and the structure will still be the compare and contrast structure.
-- Cause & Effect structure: This structure is like a chain where a cause causes an effect and the effect now becomes the cause for another effect which in turn becomes for another and this continues... For example: Cause c1 causes effect e1. e1 becomes cause c2 for effect e2. The e2 becomes cause c3 for effect e3. Now what is the cause for effect e3? Is c3 the cause for e3? No!!! c1 is always the root cause for e3. We should always choose the root cause not the side effects.
-- State a position & give evidence: In this kind of structure where position is stated along with several evidences. In CAT exam several evidences would be mentioned however the state of the author will be missing and we have to find out what is the position of the author.
For example:
* 4 evidences are given where 3 are in the for of the topic and 1 will be against the topic. So in this the position of the author will be qualified support i.e, the position of the author is slightly weakened support.
* If all the 4 evidences are in for of the topic then the position of the author would be plain support.
* If 3 are against the topic and 1 will be in the support of the topic then the position of the author would be qualified criticism.
* If all 4 are against the topic then the position of the author would be plain criticism.
* If 2 are in favour of the topic and 2 against the topic then the position of the author is equi-vocal.
Note: Structure questions cannot be framed without structure words i.e. a line which has got a structure word then its essence must be captured in the right answer option.

v) Tone questions:
* Always avoid the strong tone answer option. They may not have evidence behind their support.
* Avoid ambiguous tone answer option.
* Avoid redundant tone answer option.

vi) Inference questions:
The correct answer option will be the conclusion drawn from the author's conclusion. In this type of question the answer option can be li'll bit outside the scope of the passage. However we should not go too outside the scope of the passage. We need to use process of elimination for choosing the right answer option. For eliminating the wrong answer option we can follow the below mentioned principles:
* Nouns in the wrong answer option will not match with the nouns given in the passage or the answer option will not have strong link with the passage.
* There will be lot of strong words or deterministic words in the wrong answer options.

Observations:
a) When the passage is simple then the questions would be difficult. Because the examiner would have set difficult questions after understanding the whole passage.
b) When the passage is complex then the questions are easy. May be because the examiner himself was not able to understand the passage. ;) (Just Kidding) The answers to these questions are more straight forward and can be found directly in the passage.
c) 2 to 3 questions of a passage are always simple.
d) A direct or indirect question can be found which would be based on the main theme of the passage.

Do's:
-- Read all the passages that comes in CAT exam.
-- Do not try to attempt all the questions based on the passage. Most of the times we try to answer all the questions in an RC just because we have read the whole passage. This should not be done. Categorize the questions and check which category questions you are most weak in and leave the questions.

Disclaimer: I do not claim this to be my own methodology neither I'm claiming this to be the best. However I felt this to be the best approach to get most of the answers right.

Trupti Ranjan Behera

Visit www.PupilGarage.com for more!!!

Have you seen the edge?

When Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were subtly arguing on Apple and Microsoft complementing each other’s businesses, they had put forth for further studies the ‘The Bejamin Button’ case, in a rather unconvincingly jeopardized fashion. They themselves couldn’t have agreed much on the debate of Benjamin’s race for youth versus natural, yet coherent ‘rest of the world moved on with time as time passed by’. Well, that was the truth Bejamin had to live with as time doesn’t compromise and always move forward.

A clear-case scenario with technology was argued upon by the two software giants - Steve and Bill.
When the former was talking about possible convergence of technologies into an Apple ipod or iphone, latter was reluctant to quit his side for big and better xbox advent. But there is an anomaly, notably supported by Heisenberg in his uncertainty principle. The momentum and the position of an electron can’t be defined precisely with all available resources and that’s so true. To define the position, we must view the electron and the packets of light (photons) which strike with the electron make its position uncertain by transferring quanta of light energy to it.

Analogous to this, when Steve is trying to transform to miniature devices, Apple ought to collaterally contemplate on the human satisfaction. We as humans don’t want a video file streaming on a miniature screen with miniature buttons and with so called miniature technology. Neither do we want to use the touch screen to view corners of a webpage, nor are we satisfied with polyphonic but feeble music tracks. They must provide end to end solutions keeping the taste palettes in utmost priority. Imagine a plate of delicious cuisines but each one of them in small quantity. I don’t want that. Rather, I would choose one in proper quantity. Isn’t it? Same holds absolutely true with entertainment devices/options. Things have become so prolific that we are placed with a lot of choices, despite the fact that we all need a close to satisfactory one out of hundreds. I’m content with an apple pie but not with Apple ipod. The capital ‘A’ makes no difference to my needs.

Bill, on the other hand, was trying to campaign for xbox as the next generation multimedia plus entertainment techno craft. He too failed to bargain with the sense of inhibited human satire. On one hand, he talked about internet connectivity and infrastructure required to take xbox to the next level and on the other, he was a disclaimer to bring xbox to a portable size which can be carried around and still be felt by us as the most enticing of all entertainment packages available. He too was afraid of holding up the right to justify and strike a perfect balance between what kind of dishes we want on our plates and in what quantities/sizes. Nevertheless, his act of justifying the software and drivers that they are marketing to other companies was commendable.

Now is the time when Steve and Bill should think about working on close contours to put this into effect. May be they can think about just developing hardware and software for each other’s devices later. Of course, they can still be competitors in real terms but the need to portray an exact combination of hardware size and software sophistication is knocking at their doors for sure.

We haven’t seen the edge because we can’t. We are moving on a spherical surface and the trail of technology can take infinite directions. But the requirement to justify current trends in demand and supply must be met either through collaborations or by a new AppleSoft.

Saroj.Joras@gmail.com

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