This is exam time for students of Class X and XII across all state and central boards. The countdown has begun and all the academic preparations are on. Of course that is most important. There are some brownie points that the student can score, if there is a balanced approach to the non academic preparations as well. Well, 15 to 18 years of possible studentship and at least a minimum number of such preparations in the student’s life or on the higher side 50 to 70 such examinations does prepare one for this board exams too. So what is new that is being told, may be useful and interesting.

Dear Examinees, please take the above in a new perspective of knowing one s own learning skills. Remember this is the last 3 to 5 weeks of preparation for your boards. Keeping this in mind, the academic revisions can be thus

a) Prepare a time table : A time table which includes right from your Waking up to sleeping routine as well. In academics it should include Subject, chapter, concept and time to get the “essence for One self”. Understand it the way you want to understand first.

b) Strengthen your strengths: An important aspect to remember in this last mile, This means that you continue revising those subjects, chapters and topics that you are good at. And try to invest time in learning those which you feel you can learn in the next few hours only. Many a time, students in a bid to be master all, tend to take it for granted with a self statement of “Oh, I know this well”. In the process of prioritizing trying to learn less well known subject areas or complex areas, tend to become complacent .

c) Understand the theory and practice the application : Many a times, specially for Arithmetic/Mathematics/Accounts or logic subjects, doing them is a better idea than reading them. More important to follow is the practice of those problem sets, which you are confident of doing yourself. Silly mistakes happen in writing answers you know and fail to remember at the most important time and place, the exam hall.It is pertinent to reiterate at this juncture , the importance of practice.

d) Write the key words: While reading subjective papers, this practice of writing the key words in each chapter and each paragraph in a note book( not underlining or highlighting please) is a great one. Again , it is not the meaning of the word or your understanding of the concept, just the key words or important words in each paragraph, which you must reproduce as is.

There is an important part of this process of evaluation you must understand. Examinations or evaluation is not a race. You are not competing with anybody. If at all you are competing with is only yourself, in the sense, you are bettering yourself in each area than you were yesterday. Therefore statements from parents, he or she has prepared so much or can answer this and you cannot, are at best to be heard out and not acted upon. These cause disruption in preparation and anxiety .The bench mark or standard that a student is today, he or she needs to become better tomorrow. Thus the need to compete with oneself and not with anyone around.

Remember you are preparing to be alone in that 3 hour time slot. You have to prepare for this everyday. Saraswati Puja is round the corner and the meaning comes to use to one and all of the name Saraswati, as mentioned earlier. Know where you stand today. Strengthen the ground that you are in and create knowledge for your self.

Examiners are those who are going to evaluate you and your level of knowledge in each subject. This is the reason for point d) mentioned above. Write a language or words the way they would like to understand. Your performance excellence is measured by the marks you score. The marks are given by the impression your answers, cleanliness and solutions, make on the examiner. Therefore the non academic part of preparations are equally important as much the knowledge , that you have gathered over the years from your institutes, teachers and books.

The time table a), mentioned above is the key.

The only mantra for the next 3 to 5 weeks is a few steps

This is to ensure that your examination stamina is built. This will condition your body and mind and bring in your writing practice to 3 hours. Remember, the forearm muscles need at least 21 days to develop for writing continuously. And most important is the same time slot ensures both physiological and psychological excellence to the best of your ability can be achieved.

This for the pre exam preparation. The next shall be on how and what to prepare for the examination time. Wishing you all the very best in terms of the pre examination preparation.