Making It Happen

"How to prepare for engineering competitive examinations?"

This is a very common question. XII standard is a very crucial year for most of the students as their career takes a decisive turn this year. There would be pressure to do well. Though candidates themselves have to decide their interest and future, many students look for guidance in this process. Role of parents become very important as they need to carefully guide the child in either case.

Is the role of parents really so important? Yes, If one goes by the data of JEE2010 and JEE2011. It can be noted that wards of parents, who are in government services or teachers, appeared in these examinations in high numbers. The number of qualified candidates, from these categories, is also amongst the top three. The surprising part is that engineers do not seem to encourage their children to be engineers. It is likely that some of the percentage under government services category may fall under engineering service but so far as the available data is concerned, engineers do not seem to prod their children to follow their footsteps.

There is a lot that parents can do to help their children. It is important to add that every child is different and has different inherent abilities. Therefore, it would be best if the child and parents could judiciously decide the long term career goal based on interest, abilities and preferences. The decision would be easier if child has interest and inclination for a particular career. The interest can transform into motivation to perform even better for the dream career.

Choice of career after PUC level is getting broader these days. There are a number of courses offered at this level now, which are either integrated with post-graduation level (like Dual Degree) or which have become now available at undergraduate level (Law etc.). This makes career decision more important than it used to be in earlier days. That means a wrong choice would take even more time to correct, provided it is possible.

It is important to realize the capability of the child and strategize to get optimum out of his capability. There are many ways to gauge their capabilities – through teachers, performance in Olympiads, performance in class etc. The role of teachers is very crucial and parents need to interact regularly with teachers. An experienced teacher’s assessment would normally be the most significant as the child spends a lot of time in school and teachers gets the best opportunity to watch the child’s performance as compared to his peers. I would recommend participating in Olympiads to gauge one’s standing at State and National level. However, there is a word of caution- one should not blindly appear in all the Olympiads. You should be selective and choose it based on your interest and preparation level. Low scores in Olympiads may dampen your spirits, so be careful.

There is no need to worry if you have a starting trouble. If one plans and strategizes one’s study well in advance, one can attempt to recover. It is very good if one can identify one’s strengths and weakness. It would be great if you can work on your weaknesses and self-correct yourself. If there is any particular chapter/area, where you are not able to improve (despite spending enough time and attention), I would suggest focusing on your strengths instead and try to ensure good performance there. All the examinations have balanced distribution and coverage of different chapters. In competitive examinations, it is not necessary to attempt everything but it is more important that you attempt correctly, whatever you know. One needs to keep the expectations at an appropriate level. If you aim too high, you may get demotivated if you do not attain it, and if you aim low, you will end up being an under-achiever.

Parents can play a constructive role to support the child. There will be many ups and downs in this journey and it is very essential that parents make sure that the child is doing his best. Not only should they motivate him when the chips are down, they should also make sure that the child is having regular breaks. On the other hand, if the child is getting too casual with studies, they should not hesitate to give a piece of their mind to him.

It is important to prepare yourself psychologically before any examination. Please make sure that you harden yourself through mock tests thoroughly against pressure, nervousness and anxiety during the final exams. Most of the good coaching classes do a good job in preparing yourself for examination through practice tests. It is your job to take it with all seriousness and you will gain in the end. With every mock test, you should demand certain takeaways from yourself. You may want to make sure if – say, you are able to at least go through and attempt all the questions, you are able to have less than x% of unforced errors (silly mistakes), you are able to attempt chapters of your strength with at least yy% score etc. These takeaways will largely depend upon your own self-assessment, nature of mock test etc. I would want to caution that there should be proper checks and balances between the time you spend on study and on mock tests. Initially, you should focus on completing the syllabus with fewer tests. Subsequently, you need to change the gears. You should regularly check on what kind of study vs. mock test bandwidth, you need to arrive at.

Coaching institute do give better results than self-study for JEE exam as per JEE data. For other examinations, your board syllabus should be sufficient. There are certain advantages and disadvantages and one needs to evaluate one’s preferences before making a decision to join or not to join a good coaching institute. Coaching institute demands time and you might get less time for self-study and other routine work. Even school study may get compromised, which may prove costly as the new format of AIEEE/JEE have stricter minimum std. XII qualifying marks threshold from this year (BTW, BITS-Pilani have relaxed its std. XII qualifying marks threshold last year).  Please keep in mind, coaching institute cannot significantly improve your inherent abilities but can provide you proper direction. A good coaching institute provide a more competitive environment, with an advantage of interacting with your colleagues from other schools giving your broader perspective. They help you overcome your examination jinx, if any. In short, they make sure that deserving candidates do not miss out (and to some extent improve their chances of success) but they do not significantly enhance your chances of success.

This year, the exams conducted by Government funded technical institutes may get combined, but private institutes will continue to take their examinations separately. Therefore, there may not be a significant reduction in number of exams. It has been observed that government tests are more inclined towards the CBSE board syllabus. It is always better to check the syllabus of each examination and figure out the differences in syllabus and pattern early on.

In short, proper choice of career, hard work with proper planning & strategy and mental preparedness play a key role in success. This article is primarily from parents' perspective- the next article will cover the story from a student's perpective, who has been there and done that.

Stay tuned- Study hard and study smart. All the best.

- Sandeep