Expected Weightage

The Common University Entrance Test (CUET) for Plant Physiology (under the Biology/Biological Studies domain) has shown certain trends in marking patterns and chapter-wise weightage over the last few years. Below is an analysis based on available data and patterns observed in CUET (UG) 2022, 2023, and 2024 :

1. Overall Marking Pattern (Last 3 Years)

• Total Questions : 50 (out of which 40 must be attempted).
• Marks per Question : +5 for correct, -1 for incorrect, 0 for unattempted.
• Total Marks : 200 (40 × 5).
• Difficulty Level : Moderate, with a mix of conceptual and application-based questions.

2. Chapter-wise Weightage (Trends from 2022-2024)

The following chapters have consistently appeared with varying weightage:

High-Weightage Chapters (5-10 Questions per year)

1. Photosynthesis (Light Dark reactions, C3/C4 pathways, Photorespiration)
2. Respiration (Glycolysis, Krebs Cycle, ETS, Fermentation)
3. Plant Growth Development (Phytohormones, Photoperiodism, Vernalization)
4. Mineral Nutrition (Essential elements, Nitrogen metabolism, Deficiency symptoms)
5. Transport in Plants (Diffusion, Osmosis, Transpiration, Xylem/Phloem transport)

Medium-Weightage Chapters (2-4 Questions per year)

1. Enzymes Plant Metabolism (Enzyme action, Factors affecting activity)
2. Water Relations (Absorption, Plasmolysis, Imbibition)
3. Secondary Growth (Vascular cambium, Cork cambium)

Low-Weightage Chapters (0-2 Questions per year)

1. Seed Dormancy Germination
2. Stress Physiology (Drought, Salt stress adaptations)
3. Biological Nitrogen Fixation (Rhizobium, Nitrogenase)

3. Year-wise Trends

• 2022 : Heavy focus on Photosynthesis Respiration (30% weightage).
• 2023 : More questions from Plant Growth Phytohormones (Gibberellins, Auxins).
• 2024 : Increased application-based questions (e.g., experiments on transpiration).

4. Key Takeaways for Preparation

• Focus Areas : Photosynthesis, Respiration, and Plant Hormones (cover ~50% of the paper).
• NCERT is Sufficient : Most questions are directly or indirectly from NCERT Class 11 12.
• Practice Diagrams : Questions on experimental setups (e.g., Ganong’s potometer) are frequent.
• Avoid Guesswork : Negative marking (-1) makes blind guessing risky.

Would you like a topic-wise important question list based on past trends?