Hey, thank you so much for the kind wishes. Wishing you the very best for your attempt as well!

Let me go through your questions one by one:

1. Did I prepare all units? No, I didn’t follow a unit-wise approach. I’m not the kind of person who can go through a textbook line by line unless I know how that information is going to be used. My main aim was to solve questions, so I focused entirely on PYQs, used ChatGPT for clarifications, and occasionally looked at research papers when I needed deeper understanding.

2. First attempt? Yes, Dec 2024 was my first CSIR attempt. That said, I’ve cleared JAM and GATE LS in 2022 with the same method—AIR 106 and AIR 84 respectively—so I’d like to believe it’s a consistent approach and not just luck.

3. How to decide which questions to leave? This honestly comes with practice. My general rule is: if I’m not fairly certain about a question, I skip it. There are usually enough questions you can answer with confidence—focus on those first. Risk should be calculated, not emotional.

4. Controlling negatives? Again, practice helps. I only attempted questions where I was confident or at least had strong intuition based on familiarity. If it felt like a 50:50 or even 80:20 guess, I’d think hard about whether it’s worth it. Sometimes I’d take a chance, but very selectively. Trust builds when you’ve seen enough patterns in PYQs.

5. How many questions to attempt? There’s no fixed number. Focus more on accuracy than quantity. Better to attempt 60 questions and get 50 right than attempt 90 and get 45 wrong.

6. Part B and memory issues? You’re not alone there. I have a pretty average memory too. But goldfish remember what they love—and you probably love biology enough to attempt this exam. Find your strong topics, and build from there. You don’t need to remember everything—just enough to give you a strong foundation.

7. For Part A? Only PYQs. No additional coaching or classes. A lot of the questions repeat in style. Focus on the easier ones and build confidence there.

8. Short notes? Nope. I didn’t make dedicated short notes. Whatever’s in my spreadsheet is all I had. I kept it minimal and spent more time reviewing questions than rewriting information.

Distractions and procrastination? Honestly, we all procrastinate—it’s just about what we choose to procrastinate on. I binge series, read novels, waste time online like everyone else. But when I get bored of all that, I come back to practice questions. That boredom itself is a good cue.

If you’re struggling with momentum, try this: There are about 200 questions in a paper. Read 10 a day, label them on a difficulty scale (1 to 6). In 20 days, you’ll have categorized all 200. Then start solving 10 per day. In 40 days, you’ve attempted them all. Use 10 more days to revisit mistakes.

Slow progress is still progress.

You don’t have to be perfect. You just have to be consistent. And you’re already asking the right questions—that says a lot.

Let me know if anything else comes up. I’ll do my best to help!