Former Indian cricket team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni often stresses the importance of following a process. Whether it is preparing for an event like the World Cup or preparing for a competitive exam, what you do until the event holds the key to what you can achieve on the day of the event. This process of preparation also helps in building confidence in the run-up to the exam. The performance of some students rises a few notches while that of some others drops down from their average, on the d-day. All this has got to do with the confidence they take into the exam hall and much of it has to do with the preparation or what they call net practice.
If you follow a process and stick to your plan there is a higher chance of overcoming the hurdles and coming out with flying colors. Here are 6 simple things that can help you in your preparation:
1. Know the exam
You must know the exam inside out. Sections in the exam, syllabus for each section, weightage of topics, marks per question, negative marks if any, any time constraints to complete a section, specific cut-off for each section – knowing all these details will help in your planning. Do your research on the exam, take a practice test and understand the weightage of each topic and the pattern. This will help you immensely.
2. Create a realistic schedule and stick to it
Prepare a schedule. But more importantly, you should implement your schedule. Your schedule or plan should also be realistic. There is no point in planning a 14-hour schedule and only studying for a couple of hours.
You need to have both a short term schedule as well as a long term schedule depending on the time to exam. For example, if you have 6 months to prepare, you should plan for the next one month, next 3 months and the next 6 months.
3. Understand your strengths and weaknesses
Know your strong areas and weak areas. Maximise your outcomes in your strong areas with little or no additional effort, simply by ensuring that you are not making any avoidable mistakes. When it comes to your weak areas, see if some of these can be learned quickly without much difficulty or wasting much time. There is no point in spending a lot of time on areas that don’t give any additional benefits. Also understand that one should always play to one’s strengths.
4. Review and re-plan
No plan is cast in stone. Your plans must be flexible and accommodate for any deviations and contingencies. Also, you should be able to re-plan based on the scores you are achieving in your practice tests. It doesn’t mean you junk the plan every week and start all over again, but you should be able to make minor adjustments that will
5. Get access to good study resources
Having access to good study material is of paramount importance to succeeding. If you are preparing for an online exam, subscribe to a couple of good online test series. They provide you a simulated experience and help in your online test preparation, though live exam-day experience could be slightly different with more people taking the test simultaneously in the same computer lab.
6. Get relief from exam-related fear and stress
Get away from your studies every day for some time to relax. Take a stroll, meditate, talk to a friend, talk to yourself, watch some greenery or blue sky, do some breathing exercises – all of these might help alleviate exam-related anxiety. More on this in a separate blog later.
These are not the only ways to manage your exam preparation effectively. You may devise methods of your own. The idea should be to make a plan, stick to it at least 90% of the time, review and improve.