Official Edubilla Blog

As the popular saying goes, “Time and tide wait for none”. Yet, both can be tapped efficiently with the right technique. While tide can be harnessed to generate electrical energy, effective utilisation of time inevitably generates positive results in all walks of life. All that such a feat demand is proper time management along with a goal-oriented strategy and focus to achieve the favourable outcome.

With board and competitive examinations fast approaching, students are becoming more conscious about their exam preparations. With ample time still remaining, a lot can be achieved provided students exercise the right time management approach. Just implement the following tips to boost your performance in the exam:

Time-table

Study your daily patterns for at least a week. This includes each and every activity from dusk to dawn. Note down all such activities and their time consumption. At the end of the week, sum up the total time that you devote to an individual activity and minimise the time wastage on pursuits other than study. One of the biggest mistakes that students often make while devising their time-table is that they set steep goals for themselves to follow and make drastic changes to their lifestyle, which they cannot cope up with. Make the time-table more realistic by keeping goals that you can meet and allocate adequate time in the beginning to your other day-to-day activities, while gradually decreasing it. Moreover, look towards strict implementation of your time-table as it will help you to structure yourself for the upcoming exam and will enable you to channelize your complete energy on the preparation.

Prioritise

While some students find it easier to grasp conceptual topics, for some, the numerical section is easier to cover, and some are more adept in learning theoretical portions. First, understand what style of learning you prefer the most. Moving on, prioritise these subjects in accordance with the time that you require for their preparation as well as their weightage in exam.

Assign yourself goals

Analyse the total time that is required by different areas of ability to improve in order to generate optimum results. Set weekly and monthly goals with respect to each and every aspect that needs improvement as well as with respect to individual topics and subjects. Mark deadlines on the calendar for all topics and activities that enhance your performance. Also, make sure that you spare a month before the exam for full-syllabus revision.

Rearrange your daily activities

Many day-to-day activities can be rearranged in order to generate an ideal result. For example, studying right after an exhaustive physical exercise session when you can barely manage to concentrate or taking a long break at night when your home is quieter is hardly logical. Switch your daily activities in a way that they help you optimise your time.

Weekly reviews

Right from the beginning, make a separate review sheet that includes tracking the progress of your weak areas, revision of strong areas, time spent on recreational activities, implementation of time-table, and meeting your time-bound goals. Make appropriate changes to your time-table and weekly goals accordingly. Such reviews will increase your level of preparedness and hence boost your confidence greatly as the exam approaches.

Expect the unexpected

The most important factor that plays a big role in exam preparation is the right mind-set. Students often make the biggest mistake by delaying their preparations believing that they can easily cover up for the delay they are causing. While, this belief may or may not become fruitful eventually, the examination, nevertheless, constitutes of broad topics from the syllabus. Some of these topics require in-depth study to obtain a meticulous understanding of the concept and higher level of preparedness in order to solve the given question. Often enough, students complain that most of the question paper was ‘out of syllabus’ or was ‘too lengthy’. In reality, all it required was the right approach, which a student could only have acquired through constant practise and revision. So, most essentially, prepare your mind-set that though you can cover given topics even if you delay your present schedule, by doing so you are also simultaneously reducing your scoring ability in the exam and hence, substantially reducing the scope of achieving your end-goal.

Calm down

Examinations have an obvious psychological effect on students. They give rise to anxiety, fear, restlessness, and loss of concentration. This, in turn, decreases the brain function and overall efficiency of the student. Calming down your brain becomes most essential as there is no point in rigorously studying for 6 long hours, when you cannot retain the information that can be grasped in 2 hours. Maintain a good physical and psychological balance by taking part in physical activities as well as activities that boost your overall performance such as meditation and yoga.