Balancing lessons with exams

The boards are around the corner and soon after it gets over, many class XII students will be taking up the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main in 2017.

At this stage, they are anxious about simultaneously balancing the boards with IIT JEE preparation that requires in-depth knowledge of concepts whereas in board exams students need to memorise these concepts at length to produce desirable results.

Some important and handy tips to help students to optimise their performance in both the examinations:

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Section I

 

*Prepare without losing tempo: While the students are preparing for two distinct examinations, the good thing is that the syllabi and the paper setting authorities are common. The JEE paper as well as the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) board paper both are set by the CBSE. Sometimes considering the proximity, students tend to focus exclusively on the board type questions and start losing touch with the IIT JEE questions.

However, one must understand that if one is preparing for so, one is automatically preparing for the boards. The focus should be on understanding the concepts rather than mugging them up. Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics remain the same, if one has a thorough understanding of the subject, one should comfortably be able to answer the questions in both types of examinations.

 

* Attempt mock tests to clarify doubts: Students should not be scared of trying new problems. More the problems we are exposed to before the exam, the more is the likelihood that we would get it right if similar ones were asked in the actual exam. Sometimes, students are scared of taking mock tests thinking that they might not do well and starts feeling less confident due to low score. However, it is important to understand that not taking the mock test is not the solution. Rather than avoiding, it is important to ensure that if we don't get a certain problem right; we must clarify it as soon as possible. It is like the compass which tells us exactly what we need to focus on.

 

* Give special emphasis to the exclusive board questions: There are certain sub-topics in various subjects which generally get more importance during boards because the questions are subjective type.

There are also some topics which are part of Jee Main but not part of the Jee Advanced exam which some students tend to ignore during their preparation. For example, in physics the chapters on Semiconductor Devices, Communications Systems and Electromagnetic Waves are part of Jee Main and the board exam but not part of the advanced exam. Students should carefully study these chapters along with the questions from the sample papers so that they can comfortably handle descriptive questions.

A good source to prepare these chapters would be an archive of JEE Main or AIEEE questions of the previous year's along with a good collection of Sample Papers for Board.

 

* Communicate clearly in the board type exams: JEE is an objective type examination where it is not important to go through the steps of calculation; one may do all the calculations mentally or can do some rough scribbling on the question paper. All that matters is that you tick the right option. It does not matter, whether you do it by eliminating other options, or use any other trick.

However, in boards there is step-marking and working out of the intermediate steps is as important as getting the final answers correct. Some students tend to lose marks in boards not because of their lack of knowledge, but for their poor presentation and skipping the steps.

 

* Take tips for board from the writing style of the toppers: As previous years' toppers answer sheets can be found on the internet for all the subjects, students should try to go through them in order to get an idea of the writing style and pattern of answering. What is important is to write to the point and do neat and clean work. When a teacher comes across a neat and clean work answer script, he or she gets the first impression of the student and in a way it does influence the examiner’s evaluation of the answer script.

On the other hand shabbily written answer scripts with calculations scribbled all along the margin and inaccurate free hand diagrams made with a pen gives a negative impression on the evaluator.

 

(Ramesh Batlish, Expert, Fiitjee)

 

To be continued

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