How can you be misguided by past tests material!

The purpose of the title is not to undermine the importance of Facebook groups and past papers in
preparation for the test or interview, which are in fact very helpful, but to emphasize to use the
information wisely.
When you see past papers or interview experience of candidates you unintentionally develop a
sensation of the topics covered in the tests or interview as the most important ones and spend most
time on them. Those are of course important topics that’s why they are included in test, but note
that these are not the only topics. Therefore, you must see the past test for the level and type of
questions that can be taken from a particular topic. And you must prepare all the important topics
from which conceptual mcqs can be taken. Not all the mcqs are very difficult which require a high
level of understanding, and in fact can only be answered by ones who have gone through those. For
example in last year test one question was the definition of plant capacity. Another one was “Bus
admittance matrix is used in, (power flow studies) or (fault studies)”.
I share two examples related to the topic.
1. In 2018 General Portion majority of questions in mathematics were from conic sections, so
most people prepared this topic very well for 2019 test. We were surprised when we saw that
there was even not a single question from conic section! So you must prepare all the topics.
2. I have been shortlisted for interview in 2018, while preparing for the interview I found the
interview experiences of several candidates on Facebook group. I prepared those topics very
well, but during the interview the panel did not ask me a single question from that
topics/subjects. So in 2019 I did not prepare just selected topics but tried to revise as much as
I can and with the help of Almighty Allah I got selected.
So the point is see past papers and try to figure out the types of questions that can be asked and
prepare accordingly. Try to cover all the specific subjects and all the important topics related to your
field. Do your best and seek help from Almighty Allah.
Following are some (not all) topics in Electrical Engineering which I think are important:-
 Electrical Machines (Fundamentals of Electrical Machinery by Stephen J. Chapman is good book,
any other good book on electrical machines).
 Transformer equivalent model parameters, open/short circuit tests, autotransformer
(very well explained by Chapman), and other important points about transformers which
you find.
 DC machines, types of windings, series and parallel dc motors and generators and
specifications of every combination as load and torque requirements for motors and
output voltage drop in case of generators etc. There are great many points.
 Induction machines are also rich in points. Do remember you need to clear your basics
first, a question can be as simple as slip is given and speed is asked so if you know the
basic formula you can answer this.
 Similarly synchronous machines are also rich in points. Exciters, syncing procedure, V-
curves, operation of synchronous machine with infinite bus (load and reactive power
control) etc are few examples.
Note: I am afraid of misguidance from this post, I reiterate that please try to cover all the major
topics and try to clear basics and develop understanding of things. It would be easy to clear the test
Insha Allah!
 Power System Analysis (Power System Analysis by Grainger and Power System by Haadi Saadat
are very good books).
 Transmission lines inductance and capacitance. Try to remember the effect of increasing
or decreasing the distance between the lines on inductance and capacitance. Final
equations for inductance and capacitance are simple, try to remember them as it is easy
to discover the previously mentioned relationship.
 Basic terminology in power flow analysis as what is load bus, slack bus, voltage control
bus. Basic understanding of power flow methods.
 Transmission line models long, medium, short, reactive compensation of transmission
lines and Surge Impedance Loading (SIL). SIL is very small and very important topic.
 Power system faults, basic idea about stability problem and economic operation.
 Similarly,
 High Voltage Engineering
 Power System Protection
 Power Electronics
 Power Generation, Transmission and Distribution
And of course basic questions from general subjects of EE as Circuit Analysis,Basic Electronics, DLD,
Electromagnetism etc. There was one basic question from programming as well last year.
Just revise all the subjects and important topics. The test is not set for the purpose that no one would
be able to solve it but it is set to check whether you know what you have studied during your studies.
Best of luck!

Best Regards,
Sohail Ahmed Khan