JEE Preparation Tips: How to Increase Your Concentration Power

JEE Main 2015 is just round the corner and JEE Advanced 2015 is less than two months away. This is the time when you really need to shut off all the distracters and focus on your studies. Here are some tips to increase your concentration power and study more in the little time available to you:

• Choose study material carefully: Right kind of books and study material makes it easier to follow the subject and hence, keeps you more focused on your studies. The moment your brain stops understanding what you read, it tries to wander off. Here are some JEE preparation books that we recommend.
• Study alone, Revise in groups: When you are trying to understand a new concept or learn formulas and definitions, it better to study alone in a noise-less environment. But for revisions, you can study in groups. Group revisions keep you awake for long. You can quiz each other and give clues to each other to remember confusing facts. Helping each other out during revision sessions help your brain to cement lessons well too.
• Understand, do not just read: Unlike the popular myth, engineers are more ‘doers’ than ‘readers’. So, if you want to become an IITian, know the action a topic is referring to, try to visualize it, and studies will never be boring again.
• No gadgets or computers: Now that JEE entrance exams are on your head, you just cannot take time off to call your friends, check Whatsapp or Facebook or play that addictive computer game. Use your 10-minute study break to munch on healthy snacks and play a round of badminton instead. Give your eyes a break too.
• SQ3R method: Now that you have almost completed your curriculum and have solved at least 10-year previous year question papers, you can still follow the SQ3R method to track your preparation level:

   – Survey: Skim the book for titles, sub-titles, captions, diagrams, formulaes and important facts.

   – Question: Question yourself on these headings and sub-headings and all that you skim through to see how much you remember about them.

   – Read: For topics you don’t remember, give a quick read to answer your questions. Also, try to read through points-to-remember given at the beginning or end of chapter and try to answer questions at the end of chapter (especially those given in NCERT books).

   – Recite: Writing all the questions may not be possible at this stage. So, just answer your questions orally – preferably in your own words. It will also help you to gauge how much you have understood concepts.

   – Review: Review the test papers you have solved earlier – and pay special attention to the mistakes you made and how they could have been corrected.

For IIT aspirants who are going to appear for their JEE Main exams or JEE Advanced exams next year, you still have ample of time for damage control. Concentration exercises such as looking at a round dot on the wall and yoga can be of great help in increasing your ‘power to focus’ on your desired goals.

Best of Luck!