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Tips for Successful Exam Preparation

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With the ongoing examinations, stress and anxiety increase tremendously. Here are a few tips and tricks to help you prepare well for your exams.

It’s that time of the year when the third-year students will bid adieu to their colleges to embark upon a new journey. This is also the time when anxiety regarding the future will be at its peak with the entrance exams approaching. Semester examinations and assignments have only added to the misery. Thus, preparing for entrance examinations is one herculean task.

Here are a few tips and tricks to ease this pressure and help you prepare for your entrance examinations.

Image Credits: Etoos Blog
Image Credits: Etoos Blog
  • Make a plan-Write down how many exams you have and the amount of time left for each of them. Allocate more time to subjects which you think are difficult. Do not leave anything for the last minute. We often end up making a plan which is unrealistic. Keep in mind your strengths and weaknesses while making a plan. This will help you develop better study habits.
  • Be strict with yourself- Execution of your plan is the most difficult thing. You are bound to get distracted while studying. But it is important to be strict with yourself and follow your plan rigorously.  Studies have shown for long-term retention of knowledge, short study breaks are vital.
Image Credits: Asana Academy
Image Credits: Asana Academy
  •  Prioritize  well- With a number of things going on- assignments, semester exams, internal assessments, party plans with friends, make sure you learn the art of prioritizing and decide what is more important for you. This will eliminate the waste of time.
  • Practice previous year question papers- The best way to know the status of your exam preparation is by solving previous year question papers. A mock test will help you understand the format of the questions. It is also a worthy practice for measuring the time you need for the actual test.
Image Credits: Pinterest
Image Credits: Pinterest
  • Keep calm and believe in yourself- Anxiety and stress tag along with any exam preparation and hamper your productivity. Thus, it is important to not lose your calm. Practice meditation to release stress.  Eat healthy food and stay hydrated. Most importantly, believe in yourself.

All the best!

Feature Image Credits: Institute Skill

Shreya Agrawal

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DUB Speak

How to Deal with Entrance Examination Results

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With many entrance examinations and their final rounds of interviews culminating, those who are eagerly waiting for their results must be feeling distraught and anxious over their future as the final semester closes off. While all the final year students await their results with their stomachs in knots, we need to remember that our lives have much more to offer even if we fail.

The tension is palpable in the month of April in every third year student’s life. Some students wait for their Indian Institute of Management (IIM) or Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) interview results while many others wait for results of Jawaharlal Nehru University Entrance Exam (JNUEE), or other post-graduation programmes’ entrance results. The minds of final year students are in a constant state of dilemma as to where exactly they will land up after leaving the comfortable contours of University of Delhi, where they have spent a very facile three years because of great grades in Class XII. Alas, third year students find themselves at the crossroads of another segment of life, breaking away from another cocoon, yet again after school. Also, many future plans for further entrance examinations are contingent upon the clearance of previously given entrances and the question of whether to take a gap year lingers.

The period in between the exam and its result is the most difficult period in any one’s life and this is where resilience, patience, and sanity of the student are tested. The distractions that are employed to deal with the stress, like last minute hangouts with friends, studies for the end semester examinations, farewell dress preparations, or starting a new sitcom are all half-hearted and the tension is always there at the back of the mind.

The panacea here is to understand the very basic fact that lives won’t shatter if you are unable to make it to our dream college or varsity. The world would not come crashing down if just one small entrance result is not in the affirmative. These words must sound hollow but the reminder that ‘this is not the end’ and there is always a ‘plan B’, is imperative. It is sometimes best to have failure happen earlier in life because it awakens the phoenix inside, and one can learn how to rise from the ashes.

In the end, while students wait for their results and apply to other places, just remember to hope for the best and be prepared for the worst.

 

Feature Image Credits: Tutorhub Blog.

Oorja Tapan

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How to stay confident and hopeful in the exam preparation frenzy

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All our existential crisis falls upon us during exams, we tend to procrastinate more than we should and after that, we tend to over burden ourselves. The key to sail through the exam period smoothly is to not overwhelm yourself with too many tactics. Here we bring to you 3 simple ways to deal with exam tension!

Pick your Poison –

No, it does not mean what you think it means. However, the fact is that our body must be replenished with fluids at regular intervals. Drinking water is a necessity which goes without saying, but everyone has one other liquid substance they survive on, especially during exams. My personal favourite has always been Bournvita, and many others swear by coffee, hot chocolate or chai. Avoiding cold drinks and carbonated beverages is always a wise idea, but in case you do crave a Fanta now and then, mix it up with something healthier and tastier, like mix fruit juices, milkshakes or smoothies. If you dose up on coffee heavily, do remember that an overdose of caffeine in our body is also not the best option in terms of health. Stay healthy and hydrated!

Get to work; put that phone down for a bit! –

Flipping through our phones during study hours as a break is not much of an issue, however there is an issue with us calling up our friends to get a quick update on ‘Kitna karliya?’ ‘Kaunse chapters nahi kare?’ ‘Yaar, I’m toh pakka se getting a back this time!’ Honestly, this is the worst way to ruin your confidence when you prepare for exams. Stop caring about what others are doing. Once you focus on yourself and prepare according to your abilities, aceing the exams will be a much easier task for you.

Breathe and have faith in yourself –

You might be studying six, four or even two hours a day. But, you should always have faith in your capabilities. Try to manage your time by making your daily routine a mix of serious studying and short breaks. You must also learn how to put the books down for a while, go to the balcony with a cup of chai and breathe the fresh air.Don’t compare yourself with other students in your class; they have a different skill set than you do, cultivate yours instead of eyeing theirs! Don’t look at your enormous syllabus and lose hope on your capabilities, choose what you want to do and work on it. Don’t let your thoughts overwhelm you; let them empower you to do your best.

Keep your chin up, drink water, study well and ace this semester!

 

Joyee Bhattacharya

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DUB Speak

Getting back into focus for exams

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Even though exams are just around the corner for students of Delhi University, most of us simply can’t resist the pull of social media, that new TV series you just started or, well, Game of Thrones. Some have attempted to start preparing; the smart ones have resisted all the temptations to procrastinate and are revising their notes, while the remaining ones are still hoping to make some sense out of all those notes they scribbled throughout the semester.

We know you cannot wait to get over with these exams to finally begin with the summer break! To get you through the last few days of the semester, here are 5 tips that can resurrect that focus to study for semester-end exams:

1. Time to block out the distractions

With only a few more days left, the first step must be clearing out as many things which stand in the way of you and studying with focus. Yes, that includes less use of social media and not finishing just one more episode again. Remember, it’s just about a few more days of hard work before weeks of freedom.

2. Keep your study material in plain sight

Having all your notes, books and other study material right where you can always spot them in the room will be a stark reminder of tasks at hand. If you aren’t already past this stage yet, do it as soon as you can. Make sure you’ve fixed up sufficient hours to study during the day with your piling notes as reminders of all that needs to be done. It triggers a small amount of stress which is optimal for narrowing down focus.

3. Getting ready with your study plan & acting on it

As clichéd as this tip is, chunking your syllabus into smaller bits to be done over a period of time can really help in keeping track of all that’s left to be done. After that, focus on finishing your first separated chunk of the course. Once the plan is in action, you will automatically move towards finishing what’s left of it.

4. Visualize the final goal to get the motivation

What’s the point of it all? Whenever you take a break, try to visualize the end goal of it all. You’re smart enough that you’ve made it here so far. If you manage to study really hard and somehow score well, it could actually impact your future in a good way. Think about it, if you manage to pass this, you can actually grow independently and be satisfied internally as well. All of that for the cost of just a few days worth of hard work, so get to it!

5. Go through previous year exam papers

This is extremely important as you gain a basic idea of how your paper might really be. Practice past exam questions papers, sample papers and revise answers for all of them thoroughly. Do remember, practice and thorough focus is the key to all of this. Just going through a few questions and their answers from past papers can trigger the need to finish a certain chunk of course, reeling that focus in.

Featured Image: bbc.co.uk

Shaina Ahluwalia

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