60 days to go

Updated on: Wednesday, January 11, 2012

After nearly two years of a tedious routine, the time has come to cross the last hurdle. Examinations are not to be feared at least for one reason: the questions come from your own syllabus! It takes only a few minutes to be mentally prepared. Spend some time immediately to map out topics in each subject into three categories — Easy, Moderate and Difficult — and assign the marks according to the examination blueprint provided by the PU Board. You would be surprised to find that most of the topics would fall in the Easy and Moderate zoneS, which should give you enough confidence about the marks that you can easily score.

I have got too much to read and there is so little time

If you have followed what is said above, you will discover that Easy and Moderate make up most of the syllabus which one can cover reading and revising within a well-planned study routine. Easy and Moderate normally make up 70-75 per cent of the syllabus and the rest is under the Difficult category. Students normally spend more time, nearly 80 per cent, on Difficult. That leaves only 20 per cent time to revise the other easier categories. Let the study routine emphasise on making the Easy-Moderate stronger. Forty per cent of the total preparation time can be allotted to the difficult topics. This way you won't feel that time is short and might rather discover that the difficult topics were not so difficult after all.

How to solve problems better?

“Problems” in Physics, Chemistry and any other subjects are meant to judge the students' understanding of the concepts. Each problem has the root and the method to solve it in the theory part. Understand the theory properly and the problems should be a cakewalk. Starting immediately, try solving a few problems in each subject without anybody's help. The joy you get once you solve even one problem on your own is immeasurable and in itself serves to boost your confidence a great deal.

Practice? What and how of it

Easier said than done! Now is not the time to write notes or to learn them “by-heart.” Instead focus on putting those notes in an accepted format of answers. Here is a hint: you already know the type of questions that would be asked from the previous years' question papers. So, what you need to practice is the art of understanding the question and writing the most proper answer. The question types give you a fair understanding of the answers expected. Reason well and chalk out dummy answers for each type of questions, then elaborate according to the marks allotted. In other words, create blueprints of the answers yourself and get them corrected by your teachers. Good answers get great marks.

Most important: Don't forget the “practical syllabus”

Pay proper time and attention to understand and be able to reproduce from your practical syllabus part in Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Electronics, Computer science etc. Not only do you have a 10 mark practical exam but there are 10 more marks in the theory exam coming from the practical syllabus. It is like having 20 marks in hand.

Those three hours

The simplest time management tip is “WEAR A WATCH”. The actual three hours of the exams are the most crucial and how you spend them is the deciding factor. Each question is worth only the amount of marks allotted, don't spend too much time on writing a lengthy answer if the question is for 1-2 marks; the same applies to the longer one: don't spend too little time on it. The method discussed in “how to practice” should help you. Start with answering those questions which you feel confident about but be strict in utilising the time. Spend a few minutes in the beginning to understand the complete question paper and making a mental map of how to begin, proceed and end. Do this for each answer, you will actually save time.

Remember a few things on the day of the exam: wake up early and do your walk! Wear comfortable clothes to keep yourself pleasant; since the exams are in summer, cottons should work best. Fill up your compass box with all the necessary stationery. Enjoy the day. Remember, the joy is immense when you finish the feat.

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