Hey readers, I recently got my CBSE class 12 results and got 96.2%, so I figured that it’d be a good opportunity to share a few of my personal anecdotes and a few do’s and don'ts if you want to join the 95+ league.
Okay, so first things first, 95+ is difficult, but it’s possible, so keep that in mind, and on the top of that our batch had to give 2 board exams, so be ready for a lot of stress and self-doubt but don’t worry it’s a part of the process. Now coming down to the actual issue, HOW TO SCORE BLOODY 95?
1) Choose your own subjects, yes, you read that right, autonomy is extremely important when it comes to what you want to study, your calling, passion, talent, whatever you want to call it, is exceedingly crucial, no amount of relatives and their love for ‘science’ can make up for the fact that ‘you’ are the one who is actually going to the do the hard work not ‘them’ so approach what do you want to with some clarity, ask yourself this, “do I want to be mediocre while giving in to conformity only to end up bitter and blaming somebody else for my failure” or “be excellent in a field I decide for myself while being socially frowned upon but come on who gives a damn”.
2) Design your own study plan, so, once you’ve decided what you want to do, then comes the ‘stressful’ part, look I don’t want to sound all snooty and preachy and say cliché things like “work hard” or “you can do it”, everyone already knows that, what I am going to say is, every individual is different, don’t get frightened after seeing TV interviews of toppers saying “I studied for 29 hours every day”, that’s neither achievable nor healthy and is toxic to be honest. So, design your own plan, study 2 hours a day or 4 or 1 or only on weekends, but make sure that it works, keep testing yourself, keep track of the syllabus and the rate at which you’re progressing.
3) Avoid competition with friends, it’s bad for both your relationship with your friends as well as your grades, and ends up helping no one, even if some sort of competition exists, let it be friendly and take it sportingly, don’t get bitter and grind your teeth when someone performs better than you, it happens to the best of us, no need to be at each other’s throats for a unit test.
4) Revise a lot, revision is much more important than you might fancy, keeping in touch with your textbooks is important, don’t go on for long spans of time without revising, it has severely bad consequences. Read them as storybooks or treat it as bed time reading, but do it, complete dissociation can deteriorate your performance and sabotage all your efforts, so keep revising at fixed and definite intervals.
5) Self-Study is key, no number of tuition classes can suffice if you’re not indulging yourself in self-study, keep doing it repeatedly, whenever you get long stretches of free time, it’s what actually pays in the end, study your core subjects at the most minute level possible, but if you have actually taken the first point seriously, you will do the next four automatically, because when passion meets clarity and hard work, excellence is always at the horizon.
And then, with your own decision, and your own efforts, you will have made it, but don’t feel sad if you didn’t, it’s not the end of the world, there’s CUET now, treat your boards as a stepping stone, as a foundation and not as the final destination itself, if you do well in your boards it’ll just boost your self-confidence, and help you crack CUET or any other entrance exam. Signing off.