Top 5 mistakes students make in a board exam

With barely a week left for the board exams to begin, Dr Ruchi Seth, Principal of DPS Sushant Lok, Gurgaon appeals to students to best utilise the time available at hand and avoid these mistakes to score well.

Even though students spend more than a year preparing for the board exams, there are times when candidates ignore the basics due to which they find themselves struggling with time during the actual examination.

Here are some common mistakes students make while attempting board exams and how to overcome them:

1. Not reading the question paper

One of the most common mistakes students make is not utilising the 15-minute reading time properly.

Students should read the question paper carefully so that they can organise their thoughts and manage their time well through the exam.

Illustration: Uttam Ghosh

Also Read: Board exams: 10 tips to revise better

Board exams: 10 tips to improve your memory

Please click NEXT to continue reading...

Time management is equally important to ace the board exam.

Otherwise, you will find yourself struggling to complete the paper that might create anxiety and panic towards the last few minutes of the exam.

While writing the paper, students should stick to the word limit and time limit they allocate for attempting questions of different weightage.

The paper is usually spread into these categories -- Very Short Answer, Short Answer I/Short Answer II and Long Answer.

Plan in advance how much time you will dedicate to each question and category and stick to it.

If you realise are struggle for too long, move on to the next question, and return to answer if you have the time.

Illustration: Uttam Ghosh

There is much to be said regarding the content of the answer.

Often long, essay type questions are answered without properly planning the order in which various points are to be covered.

The answers should be relevant to the questions and depending upon word limit, must follow a hierarchy of relevance, from the most important to the least.

Schools usually give enough practice to students during internal examinations, so that they are clear about what value points, technical terms and keywords are required in the answers.

Referring to the marking scheme for checking and analysing their own question papers as well as analysing the model papers, during internal assessments is practiced in most schools, at least in classes 11 and 12.

If the students regularly analyse the content of their answers by keeping in mind the value points given in the marking scheme as well as compare their answers with model answers, during the internal assessments, they will be able to develop the skill of determining the hierarchy of relevance of content and will able to score better marks in the Boards.

In numerical questions we find that students copy the data incorrectly from the question paper, or from one step of the problem to the next.

Also often they do not convert the data into appropriate units.

Examiners also deduct marks if you fail to add the unit of measurement in your final answer.

Illustration: Dominic Xavier

Diagrams where required should be neat and labeled.

A final word: It would do well for a student to present an examiner-friendly answer script with legible and neat handwriting, sequential presentation of answers and their sub-parts, underlining/highlighting keywords and technical terms.

Finally, re-checking the answer scripts before submitting the same to the examiner.

Illustration: Uttam Ghosh