For all students taking their Class XII Boards and the JEE Main exam in 2017, Ramesh Batlish has some tips that they can use to ace both tests
The Boards are around the corner and soon after the Boards get over in March, many of the students of Class XII will be taking up the JEE Main Examination on April 2, 2017.
At this stage, many students are anxious about simultaneously balancing the Boards along with their IIT JEE preparation. Though for a layman the syllabus remains same for both but JEE requires in- depth knowledge of concepts whereas in Board Exams student needs to memorize these concepts at length to produce desirable results.
Here are some important and handy tips to help students to optimize their performance in both the exams.
Don’t lose tempo: While the students are preparing for two distinct exams, the good thing is that the syllabi and the paper setting authorities are common. The JEE main exam paper as well as the Board paper both are set by the CBSE. Sometimes considering the proximity to the Board, students tend to exclusively focus on the board type questions and start losing touch with the IIT JEE type questions. However, one must understand that if one is preparing for IIT JEE, one is automatically preparing for the Boards. The focus should be on understanding the concepts rather than mugging them up. The Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics remain the same. One should continue to take JEE type mock tests even during this period.
Attempt mock tests: The more problems we are exposed to before the actual exam, the more is the likelihood that we would get it right if a similar problem was asked in the actual exam. Sometimes, students are scared of taking mock tests thinking that they might not do well and may start feeling less confident due to a low score in the mock test. However, it is important to understand that not taking the mock tests test is not the solution. A test only exposes our weak points. Rather than avoiding the mock tests, it is important to ensure that if we don’t get a certain problem right in a mock test; we must clarify it as soon as possible.
Board questions: There are certain sub-topics in various subjects which generally get more weightage in the 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 from these chapters.
Communicate clearly: While the Board exam as well as the JEE Main paper, both are set by CBSE, the approach required for attempting the exams is entirely different. A JEE exam is an objective type exam where it is not important to go through the steps of calculation, one may do all the calculations in one’s head or just some rough scribbling in the question paper. All that matters is that you tick the right option. However, in Boards there is step marking and your working out of the intermediate steps is as important as getting the final answer correct. Some extremely bright students tend to lose the marks in Board exams not because of their lack of knowledge, but only because of their poor presentation and skipping the steps/doing the intermediate steps in their head or just scribbling around in the margins.
Take tips from toppers: Previous years’ toppers answer sheets can be found on the internet for all the subjects by simply Googling best answer sheets. In fact, we have tried to analyse some of the best evaluated answer sheets and what we find is that the student who secured the best marks displayed an extraordinary understanding of the subject. What is important is to write to the point and do neat and clean work.
Understand temperament: For the JEE,what really matters is not how much we know, rather what matters is that how much are we able to deliver in those three hours of the exam. Many students make the mistake of attempting the questions sequentially and finding that there is not enough time left to attempt the questions that they otherwise knew how to do. One must remember that JEE is a low scoring exam. Scoring even as low as 60 per cent marks will get a student an excellent rank. Rather than aiming at solving all the questions, the aim should be to attempt all the questions that you are confident of doing correctly.
Stay cool: It is important not to panic. Worry and brooding have a negative effect on our ability to study and our test performance. The test should be written without any kind of tension or worry. Stay calm without any thought about past or future.
Manage your time well: Time management strategy can differ from individual to individual however on an average, the effective attention span of a JEE aspirant is about two hours, so it is a good idea to take a small break after every two hours of continuous study session. Smaller study sessions should be avoided because every break in study session means about 10 minutes being spent as warm up time and about 10 minutes as cool down time. One must be selective about the problems one solves during the self-study sessions. Do not spend too much time on solving same types of problems. Also make sure that you memorise all the important results so that you don’t waste the exam time in trying to derive these results.
The writer is , Expert, FIITJEE