Warming Up for the Boards: A Perspective

Dear Anxious Afraid Aspirants (AAA) from AAA

Imagine you are on a mission to develop your health and body to better fitness levels, you begin exercising.

Immediate result after Day 1?

Absolutely no change, in fact you will end up more tired, sore in the joints and fatigued the next day, quite contrary to the "purpose" you started the exercise routine with!

Pre-Boards is this initial jittery, painful and frustrating Day 1-Day 10 Exercise phase towards being "fit" for the Boards.

Pre-Boards scores may (in many cases) not be that great, up to your liking, may break you down, make you feel like a loser.

But just remember it’s the same as day 1 of your exercises, only if you stick up with the pain and get over the Give Up call, "consistently", you will be fit!

Here are some pointers to give a thought about:

Pre-Boards is an indicator of your present preparation, it DOES NOT predict your future performance in the Boards

Student statistics from multiple CBSE schools across the country suggests a minimum 20% increase in a student's total marks in the final boards when compared to their Pre- Boards, so a 70% here would put you up for a 90% in Final Boards (a high probability event)

T & C apply (Read on)

The Pre-Board papers shall be set a notch above the Boards standards conceptually as well as on the time management level. It also shall carry "out of syllabus" questions

the only thing you can do about it is: “Focus on attempting those questions from the topics to which you have given your 100% efforts"

This may or may not give you a great score, but it is anytime better than the next best option " Surrendering to the panic and anxiety and developing a negative attitude towards the exam itself "

When time is limited and the tasks to be mastered are so immense in number and diverse in nature, we start getting the feelings of fear and frustration. Most of us succumb to "Kuch nahi hone wala" mode and enter into a "Do Nothing, Helpless" Zone.

But instead a productive way to tackle this is to switch to “Replace Anxiety with excitement, Lose wars but win the Battle" mode.

Wars=Pre-Board and Sample papers

Battle=Your Boards!

Every student has favourite subjects which he or she loves to study and finds easier to prepare than others. On the contrary, some of the subjects seem to be very tough for the preparation of which you may need to labour hard and struggle a lot. For such subjects you need to allot relatively more time and resources. Something which very surprisingly is not followed by many students.

100 in your favourite subject is good, but 80 in the subject which you hate is the best (this elevates your confidence and gives you Winner Vibes)

While preparing for the pre-board examination you must make day-wise DETAILED & Precise plans to suit your time and resources. Emphasise on “Revision, Retention and Recall"-the RRR blockbuster strategy for acing any examination (Boards not an exception)

Do not ignore the previous year questions and NCERT examples because they are literally the fishing ponds for the examiners.

Solve in a test environment, ambience & time constraints a minimum of 8 sets of model question papers per core subject, this IS REQUIRED for you to know which section to attempt first, your strengths and weaknesses followed by a meticulous assessment of test result

Taking tests without result assessment is trying to lift yourself by pulling on your hair, pointless and an incredible waste of time

Do not get carried away by the unrealistic dreams and targets fixed by the parent- teacher-peer ecosystem.

By now, you know where you stand and how high a leap you can make, given the limited time & resources.

Tip:

You need not attempt the sections in the paper sequentially. Based on the feedback from many students, MCQs consume more time but fetches less marks.

So it is wise to do those questions which are relatively easier and carries more marks at the first!

Pre-Boards=Preparation for Boards quite literally!

Pre-Boards is not the destination of which you should be proud of or be sad about, that destination is the Boards to which Pre-Boards is a part of the journey!

Wishing you all the very best in managing the very best and worst outcomes of your efforts

Happy Strategizing!

PS: It is freezing out there, so warm up your preparations as well as your Health!