"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
