Joint Entrance Exam, commonly known as JEE, is one of the most difficult entrance exams in the entire country. Students often devote months to prepare for this exam. After all, this is the exam that grants you admission into the top colleges of India.
It is extremely important to keep your preparation level at maximum. Clearing this exam wouldn’t be a cakewalk. Preparations alone won’t be enough to help you. You also need to exercise caution. There are a plethora of mistakes that JEE aspirants often make. These mistakes are often very silly in nature, along with regrettable. The saddest part though is that they are also avoidable if only students were to exercise a little caution.
Since JEE Main 2018 is not too far away, and you are preparing for it, keep reading. Below is a list of commonly made silly mistakes by JEE aspirants. Kindly go through the list and see for yourself what mistakes you might make, and how to reduce them, or avoid them if possible.
1-Reserving a Stockpile of Books
Many JEE aspirants often have the common habit of buying lots of books for JEE Main Exam preparation. Spending thousands of rupees on extra books is never helpful, it only results in waste.
Only if you have exhausted your current stock of study material, should you plan on buying more, otherwise do not bother with any more than you already have. JEE preparation isn’t done by practicing a thousand different techniques. It is one by practicing a technique thousand different times.
2-Avoiding the Basic Concepts
Some students try to mug up everything rather than understanding the working of the concepts. Not working on the basics makes the foundation of their preparations weak. The students get puzzled when the questions are presented with slightly twisted information.
Make sure that your preparations walk you through every basic concept of every subject and section. This will ensure that no matter how a question is presented, you are prepared for it.
3-Preparing a timetable for studying, but not following it through
Students often prepare a schedule for their preparations, but then generally end up ensuring that daily schedule. The timetable becomes a mere note stuck on the wall. Ignoring the timetable also means that students aren’t dedicating proper time to every subject.
Simply making a schedule is not enough to help you clear the exam. You must follow it through with full dedication. To create an effective time-schedule, save the important dates for the exam and plan up your activities accordingly. Do not deviate from the schedule unless absolutely necessary.
4-Not sleeping properly before the Exam
Students often lose sleep before an important exam. It is extremely harmful, both to your mental health and physical health. You might feel weak or lose focus during the exam. Memory also tends to get cloggy and even calculations bring up wrong results.
It’s essential for a student to take a sound sleep of 6-8 hours at least one night before the JEE Exam. Try to sleep early and wake up early too. This will ensure that you are at your peak during the exam time.
5-Self-Doubts before or during the exam
Self Confidence is the key ingredient for success. Lack of it can make you lose even the smallest of scuffles. On the other hand, self-confident people shall win almost every battle, provided they were prepared for it.
Trust yourself and remember, if you have sincerely prepared for this exam, nobody in the entire world can beat you. Keep your positive vibes up and relax. If you maintain your confidence, you will perform well in the exam.
6-High levels of Stress and Nervousness
This might be the most generic advice offered to any exam taker. Regardless, many students become nervous when they find the level of difficulty to be tougher than expected. This leads to loss of confidence and motivation.
Try to maintain your cool in the exam hall. Don’t get nervous and put your best effort into your work. If the level of difficulty is harder than expected, it is harder for everyone present alongside you. Ultimately it is the relative performance that counts.
7-Too Little Stress
Just like too much stress can create problems, too little or no stress at all is also harmful to a student. Many students get so relaxed that they do not bother even with revisions. It isn’t healthy to be so carefree.
Make sure that you don’t get lazy or start giving excuses for why your preparation is complete and you shouldn’t bother with it anymore. Such casual attitude will kill your chances of success.
8-Stay calm and read the complete question
This seems like a generic advice that everyone offers to everyone else, but it is still one of the most helpful yet ignored advice. Students have a tendency to get impatient with the exam, especially when the timer is ticking. Still, it is necessary to stay calm and read the complete question without missing a single word. It is necessary because the answers you will be choosing from would appear to be true at a cursory glance. Unless and until the context of the premise is clear, attempting the question will most probably result in a wrong answer.
9-Not understanding all the provided options
In order to determine the correct choice, you must understand all the provided options. As pointed out previously, all the options might appear correct at first, but as is the case with every exam, only one actually is. Remember, the obvious answer is often the wrong one.
10-Prioritizing your questions
Students often begin their exam blindly, going about it in the order provided to them in the question paper. Although not a bad strategy, it isn’t the most confidence inspiring one. Quite often, if students are answering all the questions correctly, but then are suddenly unable to answer one, they break their winning streak. This reduces their confidence and hampers performance.
Pick your strongest area and attempt it first. Pick your weakest area an attempt it at the end. The rest of the paper should be attempted in a manner that fits the above pattern. In other words, attempt the exam in the descending order of your strength in a particular area or subject.
11-Missing the key points in the question paper
Many students don’t read the question paper carefully, thereby missing the key points of many questions, which results in wrong answers.
Ensure that you read the entire paper carefully in the first 5-10 minutes. Read each and every word of the question paper very carefully and try to understand what is being asked. Do not begin solving it until you have read the entire question and established everything you need to understand.
12-Time management
This is the most important factor responsible for making or breaking your paper. Students often make the mistake of not allocating proper time to each section of the paper. This leads to students often wasting time one section and then being unable to finish the entire exam properly.
You should make sure you have proper time management in the exam hall. Do not waste your time in a single section. If you get stuck, try other questions and come back to this one later. Experts suggest that you should give 45 minutes to each section.
13-Falling for the traps
In the paper, examiners try to give questions which are tricky and distract the student. These questions are there to confuse you. If you are not careful might waste time, or worse, lose marks.
Try and be very attentive while attempting such questions. Exercising caution while attempting these questions is advised. Remember to revise your answers before finalizing it, as it is easy to accidentally chooses the wrong answer.
14-Not revising your answers
If you have calculated the answer properly, you have probably arrived at the correct answer. Still, it is necessary that you revise the answer before submitting it. Make sure you are confident with the choice you’ve picked and that it is the correct option among the ones present. It is easy to accidentally mark the wrong answer.
15-Do not randomly mark answers on the OMR sheet
One thing to be kept in mind during the exam is that you cannot cheat the exam. If you randomly start filling the OMR sheet, the probability of getting a reasonable amount of correct answers is near to zero.
16-Discussing the Paper with Friends
Lastly, as you exit the hall, try to keep your discussions about the exam to a minimum. Often, asking other people about their answers would end up confusing both you and your friend. It wouldn’t help better your score, but it would definitely raise your stress levels.
The only thing on your mind after the exam should be to reach home and relax. You probably did a lot of hard work up till that point. You deserve a little break.
This was a breakdown of common mistakes made by JEE aspirants. Make sure you try to minimize these mistakes or eliminate them completely if possible. Hopefully, this article has helped you and cleared whatever doubts you might have had in your mind. Keep your spirits in good shape and stay focused.
All the best!
