In this blog, we share 10 effective tips for competitive exam preparation. Use these productive hacks to ace the exam and get the desired results.
Every year, thousands of students and aspirants appear for different competitive exams like CAT, GMAT, XAT, IIFT, SNAP, NMAT, MICAT etc. But not everyone achieves their goals. What do you think you need to crack competitive entrance exams? Only two important things: academic preparation and mental preparation.
While coaching can prepare you for competitive academics, you have to prepare yourself mentally. A strong mind, willing to dedicate one year to the preparation of competitive exams, can crack the exam successfully. Here we have mentioned effective tips and tricks to guide you to study efficiently for your entrance exams.
List of 10 Effective Tips For Competitive Exam Preparation
Preparing for competitive exam? You should know the syllabus well, understand how the exam paper is set, and the score weightage of every section. Keep updating your knowledge and follow these simple, productive hacks to help you prepare and crack competitive exams in the first attempt.
Availability of Resources For Competitive Exam Preparation
When preparing for any competitive exam, you should be clear which study material you will use. Getting a lot of books to read may hinder your preparations. Make sure to study the basic and standard books for the particular exam’s preparation. Too many books and study material from different sources can confuse you and slow your speed of learning, hence affecting the outcome. The key is fewer books and multiple revisions. Make your own book list to study. Ask the previous year’s toppers to help you with your book list for entrance exam preparations.
Strategy Planning For Study and Practice
Whenever you begin study for any entrance exam, the general rule is to plan a strategy. Now, how to plan a potent strategy? For this, it is essential to know your strong topics and your weak areas. Once you know which area/topic needs more attention, you can strategically make a plan to follow. Time management is an important aspect of creating a strong study strategy. If you fail to manage your time for the competitive exam preparation, you might not be able to cover some topics, or maybe you lose time on revisions. So plan thoughtfully and stick to the strategy.
Macro and Micro Planning For Exam Preparation
If you have more than 6 months to prepare for the entrance exam, set macro goals. With time at hand, and the benefit of starting early for preparations, you can make schedules for new learnings and revisions. Do not limit your hours of practice, and do not waste your time giving excuses. Set micro goals to achieve your daily targets. And use the last two months to rigorously practice previous year’s question papers and attempt online mock tests.
Follow Timetable To Study and Practice Effectively
A well-constructed timetable helps reduce waste of time. It gets you in a flow by establishing a natural rhythm and routine. An organized plan is necessary to prioritize your targets. Another benefit is that you can divide and dedicate equal time for all subjects, plus devote time for revisions too.
Self-Evaluation For Entrance Exam Preparation
Preparation for any competitive exam is useless without evaluating your progress from time to time. To continuously upscale the growth chart, it is essential that you solve as many test papers as possible from the previous years. Sit for online mock tests, analyze the tests, and work on improving by attempting the wrong answers again. Without knowing how far you have come, you can’t gauge your progress.
Work Through The Pressure
Your mental health and physical health are equally important. When students start preparing for any entrance exam, they get under pressure to crack the competitive exam. Many times, they compromise on their physical health and mental well-being. Stress is not good for your health. Make achievable daily goals to reduce pressure. Take short breaks at regular intervals. Stretch your body, go for a walk, meditate, or do anything that takes your mind off the exam pressure at the moment. If you still feel the pressure of exam prep, talk to your mentor, teacher, parent, elder sibling, or friend and seek support. Talk to them about what’s bothering you. Remember, take baby steps – one work at a time.
Make Notes When Preparing For Competitive Exam
Always make notes of significant topics. This is the best way to get a quick glance at the difficult concept. Making notes helps organize and emphasize the information. When you revise for exams, these notes become a critical part of revisions. Notes help you learn and practice simultaneously, and also get clarity on the difficult subjects.
Rigorous Revisions – Online Tests
Many students focus on finishing the syllabus. They spend more time learning new concepts. This does not leave them with enough time for revisions. This is the biggest mistake that should be avoided when preparing for any competitive exam. Revision plays a pivotal role in cracking any entrance exam. Keep the first half of your schedule for learning new concepts, and the second half for revision of older concepts. That way, you can achieve your daily targets without forgetting older concepts.
Coaching For Competitive Exam Preparation
Self-study is indispensable. But to keep track of your progress and for constant guidance, you need someone to mentor you throughout your exam preparations. Join coaching to stay motivated, and updated with the syllabus, exam schedules, online mock tests and 24×7 support from the mentors. At iQuanta you also get live video sessions, live practice sessions and recorded lesson videos, apart from lots of online study material.
Be Consistent and Persistent
Competitive exams require 6 to 10 hours of preparation each day. Nevertheless, there will be times when you study, you will find topics that you may not like. At that moment, it is easier to skip the topic, but it is crucial that you spend time learning it. Be consistent when preparing for an entrance exam. Staying persistent is the key. The fact that you can overcome your mental hurdles around certain topics is your biggest win. Know that one small excuse to skip a day of learning and revision can cost you dearly when you have a high aim to crack any competitive exam.
We hope you will use and practice these tips and tricks to the best of your ability. A suggestion, whether you are contemplating preparing for CAT, XAT, GMAT or any competitive exam, is to start early. It gives equal time for new learnings and revisions of older concepts.
Ace entrance exam by using these 10 effective tips for competitive exam preparation to get the desired results. Start early & stay consistent.
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