Success Mantra: HS an important part of preparation for Competitive Examinations, say students who cracked them

This is the time of the year when students who have passed the School Leaving Examination will start seeking admission to senior secondary, erstwhile known as the Junior College. The thought that is obvious to strike the mind is, do we really need senior secondary school as the primary goal has shifted to cracking the competitive examination. 

Engineering, Medical, Chartered Accountant, Science, Commerce or Arts, there are plenty of examples for the aspirants to look up to. Students from Silchar are taking a competitive examination every year and each one of them has their own mode of preparation. There are many who have cracked the toughest of the examinations to get a berth in most premium educational institutions. 

Barak Bulletin brings this new series called the Success Mantra, where we will ask the students who have been there and done that, to share their journey to cracking the competitive examination and most importantly, how their junior college or senior secondary education helped them.   

The students were asked to share their journey of preparing for the competitive examination and at the same time, highlight a few aspect of their journey that can help the aspirants. Here is what the students featuring in the inaugural series had to say:

Amritakshya Purkayastha, IIT Kharagpur 

I started my preparations for JEE after my 10th boards only. For all the subjects, I followed a similar approach (more or less always): I used to go through a specific topic, tried to understand the core concept as deeply as possible and then I tried to solve some MCQs/previous year questions. If I found myself struggling at MCQs for quite some time, I used to go and revise my (in most cases, my teachers’)  notes and then reattempted those same questions.

As for highlights, I am just gonna list down a few from the top of my head. When I finished the entire syllabus for the first time – I was having a weird sense of accomplishment for some reason…! When I gave my KVPY for the first time (failed miserably in that) – I realised how different it was to solve MCQs from the comfort of your home and actually give a competitive exam on a monitor in a test hall. When I finished the 2nd paper of JEE Advanced – The 2 year long tiring journey of preparations with so many ups and downs finally came to an end.

To be completely honest, I believe my Senior Secondary School/Ramanuj Gupta Junior College played a decently significant role in my preps. I feel doing the classes helps you to stay in touch with the theory and you might as well get to know some new stuff you didn’t get to know from your coaching classes/tuitions. Frankly speaking, I did find some classes boring (won’t use the word useless) and in those cases, I used to skip them at times and just do my own thing.

I understand that many people find XI/XII boring/unnecessary since studying for boards doesn’t really help you a lot in your JEE/NEET/other competitive exam preparations but from a personal point of view, I feel that one should not completely neglect the boards. People need to understand that there is a life beyond JEE/NEET where they will no longer get any MCQs. In my case, I felt that preparing for my boards helped me quite a lot when I was in my first year of college. But again that’s my own take and might not be true for everyone.

My final piece of suggestion would be to prioritise your competitive exams, of course! But at the same time do not completely neglect the weekly/semesterly tests of your colleges. Do prepare for them well. They will hopefully help you in the long run. You may choose to skip classes you don’t like, but don’t make it an excuse to bunk classes. In the end, all candidates get 24 hours in a day: it’s how you utilize them that determines how you fare in your exams.

Rajarshi Choudhury, IISER, Bhopal

My journey for the competitive exams was consistent. I did not have formal coaching for the competitive exams. I took a crash course at a coaching centre in Silchar after my class 12. So throughout the two years of HS and after, class notes and reference books were my

only companions. I appeared in many entrance exams which helped me gain experience of the pattern and level of the questions asked.

First is consistency. If you are serious about your studies throughout, exams don’t feel like a burden too heavy. Stress will be there of course, but you will have confidence in yourselves too. One should try to use the time after HS exams and before entrance as much as possible. Efforts during this time turns out to be the deciding factor. One should have a clear understanding of the basics of the subject. Without understanding the subject well, only problem solving won’t help much.

I can’t emphasise enough the importance of role senior secondary school plays during these two years. As I mentioned, I did not have formal coaching, so my Senior Secondary school (Ramanuj Gupta Junior College) was all in all for me. The teachers put enough efforts made sure that we understand the subject well, so that we learn to enjoy learning rather than thinking of it as a burden. Their advice turn out to be helpful not only for the entrance exams but for life as well. What I feel is through their teachings, discipline and the short stories that they used to share, they were preparing us for the life ahead of teenage not just for the entrance exams. 

Class XI and XIl can never be optional. They are the foundations upon which you grow and become able to choose your path wisely. The process of evaluation in Class XI, XII gives more importance on your understanding and your writing skill upon the subject which proves to be helpful in all areas of study.

Aditya Dutta, CA

Being a student who belongs from the commerce stream ,the culture of entrances is not the same as that of the science stream. Unlike the science stream most of us don’t go for competitive exams right away after Senior Secondary School. In my particular case I opted for CA course which is not a competitive exam. But with that being said, it would be highly inaccurate if i said that senior secondary school does not play any part in it for us as well. My time at my school is an integral part of me preparing myself for the exams. It is the pressure you go through during this time that moulds you to become disciplined and consistent with your studies which goes a long way in cracking any exam. I haven’t yet appeared for any competitive exams but if i had to share some highlights from my personal journey of appearing for CA i would point out my ability to be consistent over a long period of time i.e studying everyday no matter if it is 1hr or 10, the second one is the ability to study for long hours when needed and thirdly it would be having the right understanding of proper time management. All this has been possible due to the time spent at my school.

I have studied in Ramanuj Gupta Junior College ( Now Ramanuj Gupta Senior Secondary School) and i can confidently say that one of the biggest factors in me converting any exam now or in future will be because of my school. At my time there i had to undergo a rigorous curriculum and had to give exams on a weekly basis. This puts a lot of pressure on a student and forces him to learn how to be disciplined and consistent with studies. And the constant exams every week makes sure that the student is well versed with the subjects and has a proper idea of how the exams are gonna be and till the time the actual exam arrives he must have given like a thousand exams which makes him really confident to appear in the main exams. In my opinion, senior secondary school is of utmost importance and noone shall skip it as it builds the base on which you can later build upon. A strong base is of utmost importance in my personal opinion as it helps you to develop the values and skillsets which are extremely important for sitting in any exam be it competitive or not. So treating XI and XII as optional is not the right approach and i would suggest everyone to go through this experience and while it does become extremely frustrating at certain points because of the pressure but the eventual outcome and the person you’ll become is just worth it.

The second story of the series will be published on June 12, Sunday