PAC Cadet Scholarship Exam common mistakes
PAC Cadet Scholarship Exam · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Spending the first ten minutes rewriting the English comprehension passage in your own words before answering the questions, then rushing the last questions as time runs out.
School habits train candidates to 'read carefully' by copying or summarising, but the comprehension section is marked only on the answers; the passage is a reference text, not a writing task, and the section is scored per question with no credit for neat notes.
What to do instead
Do a two-pass read: first pass 60-90 seconds to get the gist and mark the topic sentence of each paragraph, then read each question and scan back to the matching paragraph. Practise with a stopwatch so that a 5-question passage never takes more than 6 minutes total, leaving buffer for the vocabulary items.
Choosing the answer option that 'sounds most impressive' in English synonym/antonym and sentence-completion items instead of testing the word in the sentence's grammar and register.
Candidates with a limited active vocabulary recognise a word vaguely and pick the longest or most formal option; they do not check whether the option fits the preposition, the countable/uncountable pattern, or the tone of the sentence, so a near-synonym with the wrong collocation wins over the correct plain word.
What to do instead
For every option, say the full sentence aloud in your head with that word inserted. Reject any option that needs a different preposition (e.g. 'comprise of'), breaks the singular/plural agreement, or shifts the register from neutral to slang. Keep a personal list of 10 confusable pairs per week (affect/effect, principal/principle, complement/compliment) and test yourself on the pairs, not on isolated words.
Attempting every mathematics question in the given order, so a single long division or fraction-simplification item consumes eight minutes and forces blind guessing on the last ten questions.
The paper mixes easy one-step items with multi-step word problems, and candidates treat the printed order as a difficulty order. Pride also plays a part: abandoning a started calculation feels like failure, so candidates keep re-checking the same long division instead of moving on.
What to do instead
Do three sweeps. Sweep 1 (about 40% of the time): answer only items you can finish in under 45 seconds. Sweep 2: the medium items. Sweep 3: the remainder, with a hard 90-second cap per item, then guess and mark. Before the exam, drill 20 mixed sets under this rule so the 'skip and return' reflex becomes automatic.
Losing marks on multi-step word problems because the final line answers a different quantity from the one asked, e.g. computing the cost of one item and writing it as the cost of twelve.
Under time pressure the brain latches onto the last number computed and treats it as the answer. Candidates also skip writing the unit and the 'what is asked' line, so there is nothing to check the result against.
What to do instead
Adopt a fixed three-line layout for every word problem: (1) 'Given:' with units, (2) 'Find:' restating the question in your own symbols, (3) the calculation. Before moving on, cover the calculation and read only the 'Find' line against your final answer. Any mismatch means one more step is needed.
Treating percentage, ratio and average questions as pure arithmetic and applying the formula to the wrong base, e.g. adding a 20% markup then a 20% discount and concluding the price is unchanged.
These topics are taught as formulas rather than as relationships, so candidates do not visualise the changing base. The '20 up, 20 down cancels' intuition feels arithmetically tidy and is rarely challenged in routine classwork.
What to do instead
Force a base into every percentage question by writing 'of what?' beside it, and use a 100-unit test: start with Rs 100, apply each change in sequence, and compare with the original. For ratio questions, convert to 'parts' and write the total number of parts before dividing. Ten minutes of daily practice with successive-change problems removes the trap.
Answering Pakistan Studies questions from general impressions or family conversation rather than from dated, checkable facts, so dates, constitutions and office-holders are off by a year or a number.
The domain rewards precise recall (which constitution, which year, which amendment), but candidates revise by reading narrative chapters passively. Passive reading produces a feeling of familiarity that is mistaken for knowledge, and the exact date or article number is never actually retrieved until the exam.
What to do instead
Build a one-page timeline (1947 to the present) and a separate table of constitutions (1956, 1962, 1973) with key features and amendments. Revise by self-testing with the sheet face down, writing dates and article numbers from memory, then checking. If a fact cannot be verified from a reliable source, do not memorise it at all.
Confusing Pakistan's geography and administrative units, mixing up rivers, passes, and which province a city or district belongs to, and losing several easy objective marks.
Maps are studied visually and briefly, and candidates memorise lists of names without attaching them to a position on the map. Under exam pressure, similarly named features (e.g. two passes or two rivers) collapse into each other.
What to do instead
Draw the outline map of Pakistan from memory once a day for two weeks, filling in rivers, passes, mountain ranges, and provincial capitals, then compare with an atlas. Convert every list into a location question ('which river is west of the Indus?') rather than reciting names in order.
In Islamiat/Ethics, writing long general essays on a topic such as prayer or honesty without citing the specific Qur'anic reference, Hadith, or the exact wording the question asks for, so the answer stays at the level of a sermon.
Candidates revise from lectures and devotional material, which supply inspiration but not the precise textual evidence and structure that the marking scheme expects. They also misread command words such as 'state', 'explain' and 'discuss' and give the same essay for all three.
What to do instead
For each major topic prepare a fixed card: definition, two or three textual references with the surah/ayah or hadith source, one example from the Prophet's life or a Companion, and one application to daily life. Practise underlining the command word in the question and matching the length and depth to it: 'state' needs short points, 'discuss' needs arguments on more than one side.
In Comparative Religion / Ethics items, answering from a single tradition's perspective or from personal opinion when the question asks for a neutral comparison, and thereby marking the 'correct' option as wrong.
The syllabus requires knowledge of other faiths' beliefs as those faiths state them, but candidates have rarely studied them formally and default to defending their own position or to popular stereotypes. The question stem often asks 'according to ...', which is easy to overlook.
What to do instead
Prepare a comparison grid with one row per religion and columns for scripture, concept of God, key figures, and major festivals, filled strictly from neutral reference sources. In the exam, circle the phrase 'according to' or the name of the tradition before reading the options, and eliminate any option that expresses a judgement rather than a belief.
Leaving General Knowledge and Current Affairs to the final week and revising only headlines, so questions on organisations, appointments, and recent events are answered from half-remembered headlines or not at all.
Current affairs feels unbounded and candidates assume it cannot be prepared, so they read news passively without recording facts. Headlines give the event but not the who, where, and when that objective questions test.
What to do instead
Keep a running one-line log: for each major event record what happened, who, where, and the date, plus the full names of key office-holders and organisations (with expansions of abbreviations). Review the log weekly and self-test by covering the right-hand column. Pair it with static general knowledge (capitals, currencies, organisations' headquarters) so current items have a frame to hang on.