The TOP THREE Biggest Mistakes That Students Make While Preparing For Exams

In a world where you have "advice" available at every corner of the block, listening to the correct advice matters a lot. With that out there, let me just clarify that by no means whatsoever do I deem myself qualified enough as someone you should take advice from, but I have given countless exams and believe me when I say that I've tried each and every piece of advice that has come along my way.

I've made my mistakes and have rightfully learnt from them, so, here are the top three biggest mistakes that students make while preparing for exams.

1. QUANTITY > QUALITY

When I tell people that it took me three hours to finish a particular chapter, they think that they've missed a part of the chapter because it literally took them half the time to finish said chapter. When my friends ask me how many hours I study in a day, my answer ranges from anywhere from five to eight. But wait, shouldn't a tenth grader study more than eight hours everyday? We live in a society where it does not matter how well you have studied, it matters how much you have studied. But at the end of the day, it doesn't matter how many tasks you complete if you don't complete them properly. Anyone can read three chapters in an hour and get average marks, but only those who take three hours to read a chapter once - but read it well - can get good marks. Your goal shouldn't be to read as much as you can, because then you're only skimming the surface. Your goal should be to understand as much as you can, because then only will you dig deeper. Till date, I have doubts in chapters that I've read probably more than four times, but that's good, because that means that I'm digging deeper and understanding it. And guess what, once you understand the concept, no matter how hard the question is, your answer will always make sense.

2. MORE REFERENCE BOOKS=MORE MARKS

I know people who have more reference books in their cupboard than the number of marks they get. I mean, I get it. Who can resist those brightly coloured books which guarantee you "short and concise answers and 100% marks"? I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with studying reference books, but in my very strong opinion, studying the official textbook first is a very important step...and a step which most students often ignore. If you study your course book properly at least two to three times, then I can guarantee that you will get above 90% without even looking at one of those reference books. The problem with reference books is that students don't use them for their intended purpose. They are for REFERENCE, you cannot use them to study. You need to use them to revise, after you have studied the main course book at least three to four times. Reference books are good only for two reasons:

1. They have short and concise notes which prove useful for revision

2. They have question banks

I believe that reference books help you to boost from 95% to 98%, and that's because of the immense variety of questions that they have. So whenever you choose a reference book, always make sure that they have questions according to your syllabus, especially MCQs, and make sure to thoroughly complete that reference book before moving on to the other. But don't forget, you need to get to that 95% first in order to access that extra boost, and that 95% can only be achieved by reading your course book (in my case, NCERT), again and again and again. Because while the questions may be twisted and as they are called now, "competency-based", they are only based on the concept and no one explains that concept better than the course book.

3. MATHS - THE COMMON ENEMY

For a long time I thought Maths had issues with me, and I'm still not fully convinced that it doesn't. Remember how in third grade, your math teacher tells you to practice at least ten sums everyday? Well, they are not kidding. My friend recently told me something that haunts me every time I think about it, "Never abandon maths, or it abandons you." Well, guess what, that's true! Maths is like learning a musical instrument, you need to practice it everyday - there's no other way. You need to specifically take some time out for maths. Pick up one chapter every day and take ten random questions and solve them. That way, you're never not prepared for a maths exam because you know that you have been practicing regularly. I've been doing this since the past two weeks and this is going to sound unbelievable, but I do feel that I'm getting more confident and that the fear of maths in me is slowly fading away. After all, the best way to get rid of your fear is to face it, and there's no bigger fear in students than the fear of maths. So face it, by practicing it.

So to just sum it all up, of course there is no sure shot method of studying and getting full marks in every exam. Everyone has bad days, but what matters are the lessons that you learn from them. No one can be productive everyday for eight hours, after all we are but humans, teenagers in this digital age to be exact. Even the best students waste time scrolling through YouTube just to watch the video of retarded running horse on repeat, but what separates them from the average students is that whenever they study, they study effectively and efficiently, but most importantly, they study to understand, never to get marks.

https://youtu.be/dn2c61VGCoQ?si=u-RTtc11v6WnliU_

a little something to make you laugh before you sit down to study :)