Exams are always scary no matter what type of exams these are and what is the level of their toughness. Entrance examinations for schools, colleges and top professional institutions are even scarier, because here you have to compete with the best of the best. This brings in the element of fear in the minds of students. Furthermore, social and parental pressure is the cause of even more stress for the students. As a matter of fact, more than 90% people and students are clueless about how to prepare for entrance exams such as college entrance exams, IIT JEE, medical entrance exams and other entrance tests. Parents do not know where they should step in.
In this article, we are going to discuss some of the ways in which parents can help students prepare for competitive entrance exams.You might have seen your children go through cram sessions, take practice tests, and refer to many books to prepare for school tests and entrance exams. We are not asking you to go for micromanagement, but you can act as a very good supervisor for your inexperienced kids. In fact they need your help and support. It is also true that 50% of their stress is caused because their parents are unable to help them either because of their busy schedule or because of lack of knowledge. However, both these excuses are lame, illogical and silly. You can very well intervene and help them perform better.
First of all you should monitor the eating habits of your kids by taking the following steps:
Ask them to quit unhealthy eating habits, such as eating junk food, eating at irregular intervals and eating fried, sugary, and packaged food
Ask them to drink a lot of water
Ask them to reduce caffeine intake
Ask them to relax and take proper sleep.
Ask them to stay away from smart phones, computer games and other time wasting habits before exams
Sometimes parents cannot provide expertise, but they can provide their love and support to the student. It's extremely helpful and motivational. He needs it more than your expertise and supervision. Remove the fear of exams and ask them to prepare in a positive manner regardless of the outcome. It would take a lot of stress out of their young minds and would help them perform naturally. While preparing for any entrance exam, 50% role is played by reduced stress levels. When they are stress free, they exhibit their natural skills.
In any exam, more than hard work, it is massive focus that guarantees success. Massive focus and proper execution is the key to success in any type of exams in the world. So, train them to increase their focus and don't push them to work like donkeys. Mindless hard work never yields any results.
Practice plays a major role in success in entrance exams. Therefore ask your kids to practice more and more, do drills and exercises, solve model test papers and previous years’ test papers. Math and physics both need practice. Sample papers are available in the market and you should devote more time to these sample papers, once your syllabus is covered fully.
Planning is very important for any type of exams. You can have them plan how to study for a particular test/exam. It includes how much time should be devoted to each subject and which books and reference books to be studied. Time should be allocated to each topic and subject according to your kids’ weaknesses and strengths.
Tell them how to save time. Share your own experiences and insights to save time. Time-management is an important skill and it should be taught properly to the young students.
Train them to improve their accuracy. It doesn't require you to be a subject expert. You can just provide them a test and check the answers. You can also check their ability to solve objective type questions.
Never say to them that if you had the same privileges, you would have achieved even more. This is humiliating and belittling a person. Furthermore, it doesn't solve any problem, because in every age and time people have different sets of challenges. The challenges your kids are facing are different from the challenges you faced when you were students.
When it comes to planning for college and stream of study, you should start planning early. It helps your kids to make up their minds and prepare for the career early in life.
Your kids should be communicated properly about what you expect from them in school as far as performance and behavior are concerned.
Talk to your kids regularly about their schoolwork, interests, achievements, goals in life and how important it is to focus upon their coveted careers. Having conversation is always helpful and productive.
Motivation and encouragement is the biggest factor responsible for success. All high achievers are highly motivated individuals and they have someone encouraging them to achieve big in life. As parents, it is your duty to motivate your kids to try something new, take part in extracurricular activities and perform better in studies. Extracurricular activities are very important for overall development of a child and it should be taken seriously.
So, when it comes to prepare for entrance examinations, parents should not act as passive spectators. You have a big role to play in your kids’ success. Always be informed and involved as far as their career options are concerned. Help them in their homework and read at least one of their books every week. Make short visits to their school and discuss their progress with the teachers. There're a lot of websites helping students to prepare for entrance exams, so utilize them. Arrange a tutor, if your kid is weak in any particular subject.
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