Cracking a competitive exam seems a daunting task. Accomplishing a huge volume of study and solving a number of complex problems in a limited amount of time is really a tough job. Competitive exams require a certain mindset and understanding which is quite different from a regular school or college academic test. However, following a smart study strategy and keeping the right mental attitude can make the whole process a lot more manageable.
Here we are providing five powerful tips to make the competitive exam preparations an easy and effective task:
1. Know the syllabus, weightage of topics and pattern of exam
The first step is to know and understand all the examination related requirements. You must thoroughly check the syllabus of the exam which you may easily acess online. After going through the complete syllabus, next you must make a note of the weightage of various subjects and topics, so that you can plan your preparation accordingly.
After that you should understand the structure or pattern of the exam you are going to take. Scanning through a few previous years' question papers will help you acquaint with the exam format. This will help you get an idea of the type of questions and marking trend followed in the exam.
2. Make and follow a timetable
Once you understand that what you have to prepare for the exam, next you have to plan that how to prepare. First thing in your plan should be ‘proper time management’. A time table makes you more disciplined and focused. Scheduling your work is quite essential to help you remain on track of right preparation for one of the most important exam of your life.
Given below are some important tips to consider while making an effective timetable:
- Set realistic goals that you can achieve in each study session.
- Schedule most of your study sessions for those parts of the day when you find yourself to be more productive. For example, some students can learn better during early morning while some others study more effectively during late night hours.
- Allocate more time to the difficult or complex subjects.
- Do not forget to block some time for short breaks in between.
After creating a timetable, following the same is more important. Procrastinating the tasks will lead to a bulk of pending topics which would be difficult to prepare during the last days before the exam.
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3. Keep a set of reliable study resources
Here we are talking about the study material, i.e., the books and guides which you study to prepare for the competitive exam. Most of the students keep a number of books of each subject but while studying a topic they get confused shuffling between all the books. Actually, different books would explain a topic differently. However, the concept followed in each book will be the same. So, students must study those books which emphasise on explain the basic concepts and fundamentals.
Having a stock of good study material can make your preparation easy and effective, saving your time from shuffling between variour books. Students can also avail good books and study notes online from some reliable education websites like jagranjosh.com.
4. Eliminate all the exam related fear and stress
One of the major prerequisites for the preparation of a competitive exam is to completely eliminate fear and stress as this would take out most of your learning power reducing your concentration. By applying some healthy techniques like meditation and yoga, you would be able to preoare your mind for every challenge. It will boost you to continue practising the topics you are not confident about.
Try to convert all the fear and pressure into excitement and positive thinking. Eliminating nervousness and stress will also help you focus clearly during the preparations for competitive exam.
5. Never try to study anything new in the last days
Last few days are to revise your study notes and clear the slightest doubts you may have. Make sure you have studied every important toipic and revised it as well before the exam. Do not start anything new as studying a new topic in last few days will have two consequences, first you would not get enough time to recall that new topic and second you would even lose time to revise the old topics. This would make it difficult to sustain the learning in brain which may result in a bad exam.
So, during last few days, you just need to clear your doubts and brush up your preparations for the exam. Do not bother your mind with added pressure.
Following the study tricks explained above will definitely help to organize your study making an easy and effective preparation for the exam. Just keep one thing in mind that cracking any difficult exam would become easy and simple if you study not only hard but smart.
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