Soon it shall dawn upon many hibernating 2017 Pre-takers that the 100 days countdown to the Prelims has set off. There shall be panic and chaos with magazines of last one year bought, dozens of practice tests to be solved, previous year question papers to be taken, notes to be made and revised and what not! And at the end the result shall be ‘nil bate sannata’.
Yes the task is uphill, time is limited but still it is not intractable. If the situation is bad now, it shall be worse few weeks down the line and will keep deteriorating thereupon. So take few steps to contain this insidious flow of events now.
The pernicious impact that procrastination can have on your chances of crossing over the cut-off is well documented and many a flustered candidates owe their condition to procrastination.
Ok, now that the ominous part of this article is over let’s see what can be done to ameliorate the situation. It is nothing that you don’t already know but still let us enumerate the steps one more time or let us say for the sake of completing an annual task:
1. Resilience and hope are your bailiwick. Take stock of your preparation. Even before you pen down what you still need to cover, make a list of what you have already done, revise it and then move on to the list of the syllabus that still needs to be covered.
2. Chart out a plan, week-wise (day-wise shall be even better) and stick to it. And refrain from making plans that can make your progress turn ponderous. Make plans that are realistic.
3. Devise a plan where you include at least two subjects to be covered together. Only one might make you bored and too many might make you confused. Having said that, take it as it suits you.
4. Practice. The significance of practicing the MCQs can never be overstated. The more you practice, the more you get adept at hitting them right. It is this practice that comes handy when you use techniques like elimination in the exam hall.
5. Do not lock yourself in your study room but cut down on socializing. You will get enough time to socialize when you host parties to the whose-who of your district or get invited to such functions. But that is, only when you crack this tough nut.
6. See if you can make notes. It is not indispensable, as few of you might like to read from the book itself, but if you can make notes it is always easier to revise them and update them with the new information that keeps pouring in incessantly.
7. Truth be told, it is ineffable for a third person to know exactly what shall work for you. Since you are the only one who know your preparation level well, devise your own way to go about things. You can always read a to-do list, as this one, but you must always tweak it to suit yourself.