Successfully tackling exam preparation

One of the biggest challenges Class 11 and Class 12 science students face is managing Board and entrance exam preparation side by side. The pandemic has only added to their problems. Here are a few suggestions that would better equip students to face entrance exams like NEET and JEE without disrupting their preparation for the Board exam.

Syllabus: Students must understand that the course for Board and entrance exams is the same. Only the level of questions vary. While National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) books are sufficient for the Board exams, they need extra practice for entrance. Students preparing for NEET must have already heard the importance of NCERT textbook, almost everything in NEET exam can be attempted if you have read and understood NCERT books line by line.

Exam pattern: CBSE changed its Board exam pattern in 2020 and now multiple choice questions (MCQs) and assertion reason questions are a part of the CBSE Curriculum. Not only does it favour the student who has conceptual knowledge but also helps them practice on the pattern of upcoming entrance exams. However, there is no negative marking in Board exams. And some other Boards still have theory based exam pattern.

Twin challenges

Now, how can students collaborate preparations for Board and Entrance exams?

Covering NCERT examples, intext and back exercise questions should be the first priority for both exams. In entrance exam, any theoretical or numerical question can be made into an MCQ question. NCERT books have been designed to give you a concise exposure of each and every type of question that can be asked from a given chapter. But it is important to understand that you will rarely find a direct question from NCERT.

So, once you have satisfactorily completed all questions from NCERT, it is important to pick up the relevant practice book of the exam you are preparing. You should always first practice papers from the past 10 years for any exam — Board, NEET or JEE.

If you have difficulty in understanding past year’s questions or NCERT concepts then you require a refresher to help you study topics in a simplified language with topic-wise questions.

How to master Class 12 course for the entrance exam?

If you’re preparing for Class 12 Boards, you can only collaborate your Class 12 topics with entrance exam. Since it has been a year since you have passed class XI, you might feel less confident in those topics. So the plan should be to only focus extensively on Class 12 topics till the Board exam. As soon as the Boards get over, you would need to prepare a crash course for class XI topics. Follow the same pattern — NCERT first, past year paper second and refresher if required.

So, it is important to understand that this time is valuable and when you are already preparing for your Board exams, just a little extra effort can also prepare you simultaneously for upcoming entrance exam.

(The author is an educator)