By Shreeprakash Sharma
Representational Pic
Unlike other students, Simaran, a 17-year-old girl student of class XII, was very sincere, ambitious and diligent in her study and so she always topped her class. All teachers in the school loved her and wanted her to be the topper of the school. In the first week of December last year when the pre-board examinations commenced, she took it very lightly and as a result she ended up doing very badly. The impact of her unexpected bad results of pre-board examinations became a matter of great anxiety not only for Simaran but also for her parents and teachers. But due to credit of her parents’ rational and sympathetic behaviour and caring attitude of her teachers, she succeeded to come out of the vortex of the problems she had surprisingly fallen into. She came out of her shell and took all pains and listened to the parents and teachers to recover what she had missed in the form of bad performance and embarrassing results. The time was so scarce and the task was so tough for her but due to her indefatigable will-power, she finally stood as the topper of her school.
The aforesaid story of the poor girl Simaran, in the first instance, may appear as an anecdote but the bitter truth of not taking the pre-board examinations very seriously by the XII class examinees cannot be ignored. In fact, the pre-board examination is reckoned as the dress-rehearsal of the board final examinations which usually commence in the first week of March of the next year. The importance of the pre-board examination does not cease only here. The results of these examinations bear great impact on the results of the coming final examinations. Keeping in mind the significance of the pre-board examinations, the subject experts and the eminent academicians categorically believe that the marks percent obtained by a student in the final examination is somewhat 10 percent more or less than the marks obtained in the pre-board examinations. But unfortunately, the students do not take these so-called crucial examinations of their lives pretty seriously and that is why they end up faring very bad not only in this test but also in the final examinations. There is no gainsaying the fact that repercussions of these results of pre and final board examinations pervade beyond the figures of marks percentage and badly affect the prospects of careers and status of life also in the years to come.
From this perspective, it is very essential to seriously ponder over the various flawless strategies to score the most-wished marks percent in the pre-board examinations. But this is a harder task because it calls for a string of factors which help mould the students to a situation of better performance and most-sought-after results. So from this perspective, students need to take the pre-board examinations very seriously and plan meticulously in keeping with the following flawless strategies in mind –
KNOW SYLLABI OF ALL SUBJECTS THOROUGHLY
Syllabi of examination are tantamount to the beacon light of a ship. In its absence, it is very much difficult to determine the tasks to be done. It also means in the absence of knowledge of syllabus, students remain ignorant of what and how much of a particular subject needs to be studied. Consequently, they fail to answer all the questions asked in that subject in the examination. For this a student must do the following homework-
– Have concrete knowledge of the marks allotted to the each chapter of the subject,
– Make a list of chapters of high marks and low marks.
-Find out the chapters in the subjects from which numerical questions are asked.
-Choose the chapters which have questions on the sketching of diagrams and graphs.
-Choose long-answer type questions in each chapter very carefully and prepare their answers rationally. The long – answer – type questions are usually 6-8 mark questions and from this point of view they do play crucial role in scoring very good marks.
-Make ready-reckoner like notes of important facts, figures and formulae of each chapter and paste them at a vantage point in your study room.
PREPARE PLAN ON DAY-TO-DAY BASIS
Since the time period for the pre-board examination is very meagre so you need to make a plan on day-to-day basis. Identify the various chapters which you find as hard nut to crack and devote entire day for their mastery.
You may even take a few chapters together for the preparation over the period of a particular day. This would hasten the learning and accelerate the process of preparation to dovetail the time running so fast.
But we must mind to make all these plans very realistic which can pragmatically be implemented with the resources and time available. Avoid burdening your day with the tasks which you cannot accomplish and handle. This sort of ideal plan is nothing but the wastage of time and efforts. You also must take care that day wise study plan must not be unduly influenced by the unrealistic and highly ambitious dreams of your parents and peers.
STICK TO NCERT TEXT BOOKS
There is no gainsaying the fact that NCERT books make what we may call the base of the study materials and so the questions asked both in the pre-board and board examinations are directly and indirectly related to them. From this perspective, it is very essential to master upon the syllabi of the subjects from these books. It does not mean that students must not study other books than NCERT. However, the students should not ever forget that NCERT syllabi work as the road map and so it is essential to go through them thoroughly. Besides, the questions in the exercises at the end of all the chapters of these books too require to be solved essentially. This sort of preparation for the examination fills the students with confidence which further helps them score the marks percent as dreamed by them.
BE SPECIFIC ABOUT OBJECTIVE AND MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS
However, multiple-choice and objective-types of questions are generally of one-mark each but they are asked in a sizeable number in the pre-board examinations. As per the latest guidelines of the CBSE, the 25 per cent of the theory portion of all the subjects of both the classes of X and XII will have objective questions of one mark each. It means total number of objective questions in each subject now would be 20 and this can play vital role in the making of overall results and marks percent of a student. The objective questions are of quick-fix nature which can substantially help a student score easy yet very crucial marks for the excellent results.
To prepare for the answers of these types of questions, you must study each chapter very intensively. Keep on jotting down important concepts, theories, inventions, rules, laws, formulae, equations, and step-wise methods of measurement or calculation, units, year, date and a lot of other facts and figures while going through the chapters. This would substantially help you having firm grip over the topics and concepts learnt.
SEEK THE HELP OF TEACHERS, PARENTS AND FRIENDS
In case of any difficulty to understand the topics of a particular subject, it is always advantageous to seek the help of the subject teacher. In another situation, the friends too can be of great help because sometimes they may help us understand and master a particular topic more easily and shortly than otherwise. The role of the parents in motivating and destressing the students cannot ever be underestimated. So, during the pre-board examinations, speak openly to your parents and share your problems that may haunt you and which you cannot reveal to others. The parents know their children more than anyone else on the earth and their help and guidance may make them courageous to cope up with the various challenges of examination.
TAKE CARE OF TIME
Keeping the key role of time management in the success of all the endeavours of human life in mind, it has now become a proven fact that rational time management is also a prerequisite for the success in examination like pre-board.
Every student has his own favourite subjects which he or she loves to study and finds easier to prepare than others. On the contrary, some of the subjects seem to be very tough for the preparation of which you may need to labour hard and struggle a lot. For such subjects you need to allot relatively more time and resources. This type of rational time management makes the task easier.
BE PATIENT AND STAY CONFIDENT
When time runs so fast and the tasks to be mastered are so immense, students start getting the feelings of fear and frustration. Panic starts overwhelming them and finally they succumb to mental disturbance and depression. This is really a fatal condition which must be avoided at all costs.
Stop worrying for the examination because it is only the assessment at the school level and not at the Board level. Despite poor performance in this examination, you must understand that you still have another big chance to prove your mettle in the final examination. So there is no use worrying for what has already gone. So it is very essential to keep patience and maintain the confidence level high and intact to continue to prepare for the final examination.
BELIEVE IN YOUR ABILITY
It is said that having a positive mental attitude means asking how something can be done rather than saying it can’t be done. It also means you must always stay optimistic even if the situation does not seem to be brightly in favour of you. Always believe in your ability and stop underestimating yourself.
No one is perfect in this world and so are you. But it does never mean that you stop trying to labour hard for what you have set your eyes to achieve in your life. Do not let early failures of your life hold you back from trying and trying to achieve your goal.
Success in pre-board examination is, in fact, the reflection upon how you are going to do in your final examination. So labour hard and stay passionately confident to realize your dreams of making your career bright and promising via splendid successes in the pre-board examination. Wish you all the best!
