AKU Test Prep Guidelines by Subject

English

If you want info on how to study for English, alot of info about it has already been provided in the post: Format of the AKU test and Time Management!

If you really want to prepare something, i would suggest going through a few SAT critical reading and sentence structure questions for practice. But don't waste your time on this as you can never really predict what questions will come in the test. As for the argumentative essay, please pay attention in your General Paper classes in Alevels. If you don't take GP, try having a little interest with newspapers (preferably the international and letters to the editor sections) to broaden your scope of knowledge. I'm saying this because the argumentative essay we encountered in 2012 was something about whether or not
Aid is helpful for the development of a country with regards to education etc. and you had to support your answer with 2 relevant examples. In the flurry of the moment, i thought of Pakistan and Somalia, both of which are receiving aid but aren't really growing. With hindsight, I think Somalia was not the best of examples... but ah well.

 Physics

Know your Alevel Physics WELL. Read through a book of SAT 2 Physics. Make a formula sheet if necessary. Look at the AKU cirriculum and find the stuff you need to study (for example, the Michelson Interferometer, Black body radiation, etc). Once you've done that, look at the Inter Physics books and try to understand the concepts as much as possible. You don't need to go very deep with the details as its often hard to comprehend those mundane inter text books. What matters more is being strong in your concepts (being able to apply them to new questions) and being able to manipulate formulas and units with ease (a good mental-math ability is a plus).

Chemistry

Again, know your Alevel Chemistry with all its reactions really well. Benzene chemistry is a top priority as alot its questions come up in the test. I would advise having a good knowledge of inorganic cheimstry too (look at sulphur and it compounds more deeply). Try to understand why a reaction takes place and how its products came to be rather than rattofying (wrote memorizing) all of them. Chemistry, for the most part, is not ratta in the first place. (Don't agree? go talk to Sir Nicholas Jayanathan). SAT 2 Chemistry can be of help but I wouldn't recommend it. I found the book 'Advanced Chemistry' by Philip Matthews very helpful as it made alot of Chemistry make sense to me. I relied significantly on this book when using the AKU test cirriculum. Either that, or you could scan the Inter Chemistry books for more ratta-based info.

Biology

This may sound like the tough one to prepare for, and although i didnt delve too deep in the inter bio books, I scored 20/20 on this section, Alhumdulillah. (My few 'tukkas' were correct too. tukkas = calculated guesses). I studied my Alevel Biology quite thoroughly and also did a very good job with SAT 2 Bio (complete with notes on all the new and important stuff). The reason SAT 2 Bio is helpful is because it is really good at summarizing things into points and tables, especially when it comes to Taxonomy. 'Tax' is just annoying. Sopers has a good table with all the phylums you might want to know, but i didn't bother (doesn't mean you shouldn't too). I looked up and made notes of the intermediates of Glycolosys using the Inter Bio text book, but honestly speaking, it never came up in the test. Why? Because AKU doesn't just want rattofiers, it wants people who can understand, analyze and correlate. SAT 2 Bio also covers the Ecosystems chapter in a much more succint fashion, which means you don't have to waste excessive amounts of time reading that same chapter from the Inter book. Basically, go for Alevels Bio and SAT 2 Bio completely. If you really have time and feel like putting in the effort, study all inter books thoroughly. But after reading this stuff, im sure you'll run out of fuel eventually.

Here is a link to a SAT 2 Bio book. I used Barrons, but content should be the same in this too.

Mathematical and Scientific Reasoning

This section is probably what matters most. After all the studying and whining over the inter books and what to study, it boils down to this: the two most unpredictable sections carrying a total of 60 MCQs (thats equal to the number of MCQs for Bio, Phy, Chem combined!). Even if you've rattofied all the Inter books, this is where AKU seperates the wheat from the chaff. You can't clear this section untill you can think logically and a bit out of the box. This is because there isn't really much you could use to study for this, you just need good common sense.

Alright alright, lets downplay the anxiety a bit. The majority of questions in scientific reasoning were relatively easy. It even had questions from Bio, Phy and Chem. There was one about what bases to adenine and cytosine bind with. Come on, everyone knows that, (right?). Alhumdulillah, i scored 30/30 on this section. I didn't think it went that good after the test, but you never know what Allah has in store for you.

But beware! Mathematical reasoning has a few questions which really get you thinking. If you are decent at Kangaroo Mathematics competitions, you'll get a feel of the kind of questions that come up. Look at the sample paper again; it has good examples of the math questions. If your like me, who loves questions that get you thinking critically rather than just answering immediately, then this will be the best part on the test for you. It was fun, to be honest. (Disclaimer: these words are coming from the a guy who was the IKMC 2012 Gold Medalist at the Student Level, Alhumdulillah!)

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So basically, once you've read all this, what you've got to do is.... STUDY! But once you've reached the limit and are finding it hard to sleep in the weeks or days before the test, with your mind getting nightmares of a tough test, with your hands often up in dua with regards to the test, or you just get sick at the prospect of studying any longer cuz you feel its pointless now, consider yourself ready for the test. Yup, you're done. Stressing yourself further won't help, because the majority of the paper is based on things you can't really prepare for in the first place. And in the end, whatever happens is the decree of Allah. Put your trust in Him and get a good nights sleep on the eve of test day.

Sorry for the loooong post again, but im sure this will help you. All the stuff in one place.
This is the post where you should be asking more questions; so get commenting!