5 myths of success while you prepare for competitive exams

One of the stress periods for parents is when their kids complete their 10th exams and are about to go into his 11th standard. This is the time when parents look to understand the skill sets of their kids and advise them on which stream would be beneficial for them to pursue further.

The obvious career paths can be in four streams.

Most of the time, most parents choose “Engineering or Medical” paths for their child.

Now, this is where their nightmare starts.

Getting into prestigious colleges is a herculean task. One has to go clear the difficult competitive exams to get admissions to these colleges. If it is engineering, then it’s IIT JEE, and if its Medical, then it is NEET. There are again state level exams that seek admissions to state universities and colleges.

There are millions of students who start preparing competitive exams after 10th board exams.

Therefore, while it is good to know how to prepare for competitive exams, it is important to know what one should not be doing while preparing for these exams.

“Meera’s daughter studies 16 hours a day” Anuksha’s scolds her daughter Preeti regularly. For many parents, only hard work is the reason for success. This is where the biggest mistake lies. No. of hours does not decide the preparation. It is the quality of time that is more important while preparing for competitive exams. It’s not about learning. Its always about understanding. If the subjects are understood properly, and the basic fundamentals are very strong, then the applicability of those principles and fundamentals becomes easy. So, just spending hours together in front of the books doesn’t guarantee success. It’s the quality of time that is spent matters. Of course, regular mock exam practice of questions helps a lot rather than hours of hard work.

Many coaching centers proudly display that their students start their day at 4 AM at their centers and attend coaching class till 9 PM. Others display the photos of the students who cracked the exams. It’s a lure that brings many parents to a coaching center and spends a ton on getting that coaching. But, is it really the coaching centers teaching, or is it a combination of many factors that enable the students to crack the exam. If we analyze carefully, while there might be good faculty whose teaching will immensely help, but so is online tutorials. What makes the difference is student continued persistence and practice. It is the will of the students who help them succeed in these highly competitive exams. So attributing that to only coaching is a false mapping. It is the students’ preparation that at the end of the day matters. You can have similar coaching near your house but if you put in a similar effort, you would still crack it. So a good coaching center is not the only way for success.

If you want to crack JEE, NEET or any competitive exam. You should stop playing, visiting friends, pursuing hobbies, and venturing out for birthday parties. This is what most parents often end up telling to their children’s.

Think again, is this the mantra for success. Clearing competitive exams is not just about knowledge but also mental frame and presence of mind. It is about interest, quality time,and being healthy. It is also about being happy too. A happy and healthy mind is better prepared to take the stress easily than a stressed mind. One doesn’t have to stop doing things which they were doing as regular activities. What is required to become a successful is the disciple and a plan. A plan, which clearly says that what time you will be studying, how long, and what topics you would be learning. With each learning, how would you assess your learning also matter? Mock tests and practice questions especially online would really help because they provide a birds-eye view of your preparation. The dashboard reports they provide clearly shows your weakness and strength. So, continue doing what you are doing but maintain disciple and use the right tools to learn,practice and prepare well for exams.

The doyen of the IT industry and founder member of Infosys stirred up a controversy when he said that the quality of IIT engineers has come down while addressing former IITians in a summit at New York, USA. It’s important to know that the skillsets required for the Industry and the education that students get in these institutions need to be in sync always. Today, while the education systems remain more or less the same, the skillset requirement in the fields has changed a lot and keeps on changing. Mr. Narayana Murthy’s comment reflects that reality.

So, while it is important that clearing the competitive exams will enable you for an engineering or medical seat, but it is not necessary that you struggle too much to get into the top ranks because ranking is just one-day performance in an exam. You might make a small mistake and your ranking would change dramatically.

Even if you do not make it to IIT or AIIMS with a decent rank you can get into many other good colleges.

What matters is that you are clear about what you want to achieve post your engineering or medical degree. If you are very clear about what you want to achieve in life, then good colleges are just good means not destinations for your vision.

So, keep yourselves motivated and stress-free. It is completely fine, if you don’t get into IIT or AIIMS but it’s not good if you are not clear about what you want to achieve in life post education.

Some where someone doing better than you? Parents generally say to their childrens that “see, how your classmate is doing well while you are not focusing on studies”. Whether it is parents or yourself. It’s not a good idea to compare you with others. Your competition is with yourself. know how many marks you need to score or to clear an exam. You have enough time to plan and work towards it. You can leverage the online mock test series platform to see your progress.

Just because someone is doing better during preparation in a coaching center or school, it does not mean that they are better than you. What matters is whether there is progress in your preparation on regular basis. Finally, what matters is how you spend those 3 hours in exam hall and encountered questions with confidence that makes the difference. So comparing with others is just a waste of time and effort.

After reading this comprehensive guide, I believe you will understand the importance of pre education and post education. Indeed cracking exams requires knowledge but also depends on many factors as we discussed above. Comment your thoughts how you are going to start your preparation.