FREE Last-Minute Tips to ace Board Exams – Straight from the IITians

Most of us have gone through the phase where we had knots in the stomach, our hearts fluttered nervously, and anxiety made us sweat – as we faced board exams. All the pep-up talk by teachers and parents did little to soothe us at the time. But this ‘twice-in-a-lifetime’ experience taught us 5 big secrets which might help you score better than you think:

Tip 1: Get Your Hands on the Important Topics

How do we wish that we can get our hands on the actual board examination paper? But stay off any Whatsapp messages or touts who claim to procure the actual question paper for a few lakhs or even a few thousands.

Instead, go through the last 5 years’ papers [d1] for each subject and scout for topics that have been repeated across years. Cover these topics in extreme detail.

Warning: Do not try to spot questions asked more than once. Questions change frequently but topics preferred by board exam setters remain more-or-less same over the years.

 Tip 2: Smart Revision Techniques for Exam and Exam Gaps

We hope that you have your formula sheets and last-minute revision notes ready with you. If not, you can buy them from here.[d1]

5 revision tips for exam days are:

• Do the ‘learning’ part at the time when you work best – morning, afternoon, evening or late at night.
• Whenever you start getting bored one topic, switch to another topic. This will keep your mind alert and fresh for a longer time.
• Go for a 10-minute walk, eat food at the dinner table while chatting with your family or play a 15-minute badminton round with your friends after every 2-3 hours.
• Pouring over books does little good until you are able to concentrate on your studies. Be sure to learn actively. If you feel your mind going numb, start copying your notes or highlight main points in the book. You can also try to solve questions related to concepts you have just studied. Explaining the concept to a friend might help you to remember it more too.
• For rote learning, you can make mindmaps, flow charts or use mnemonics[d2]  to learn the information and be able to recall it more effectively.

  Tip 3: Solve a Paper and Review it:

You might have already solved 10 years’ board exam papers by now and a few sample or model papers as well. But it never hurts to practice some more.

Only cramming can lead to information overload. Solve a full-length paper and see which topics you need to focus more on during revision.

Tip 4: Sheet-after-Sheet does NOT Fetch you More Marks

We have all had friends and peers who take sheet after sheet in the examination hall and make everyone else nervous. Our tip is: Ignore them. They might just be writing film songs. In fact, many of them ‘flunked’ the exam because they hardly ever answered the question well.

Do not waste your time in writing long answers or trying to write bigger than your usual letter size. (Well, we have already said that we have been through that phase too.) Write your answers in a brief and concise manner- in bullets, preferably.

Organize them well. Underline the main points or highlight the keywords to score more. For paragraph-type answers or essays, maintain a logical flow in your writing

Tip 5: Browse through Pictures of Baby Animals Before Studying

Hiroshima University researchers have found that browsing through cute and adorable pictures of baby animals can make you more attentive and increase your performance on non-motor tasks like studying and revising.

A social networking company called the Draugiem Group used a time-tracking productivity app called DeskTime to find that the Top 10% most productive employees of a company took a break of 17 minutes to rejuvenate after every 52 minutes of intense work. You can schedule your breaks accordingly too and maximize your study performance.

Don’t forget to sleep adequately on the night before the exam.

Share the knowledge with your classmates and win friends forever!