Grade 12 Board Exam Preparation Strategy

My mother constantly drilled it into me that working hard over a period of time was always beneficial over doing things in the last minute. During this extended break that I have had due to COVID - 19, I still am able to recollect most of facts from multiple chapters as I prep for my entrances, though I haven't done a deep study of the theory to these chapters in the past four months. Similarly, the last month to my board exams was not wasted in just studying the theory over and over again, instead I had the luxury to go through thousands of questions.

The very first step to my preparation was putting up a list of all the chapters from each of the five subjects - Physics, Chemistry, English, Biology and Mathematics - on a big piece of chart and stick it up on a wall near my study. I told myself that each chapter must have been scored at least five times before I appeared for the exam. It did feel like an overkill at the beginning but I did end up studying each chapter almost 8 times.

Once this was done it was up to me to start studying and scoring off. Every time I had a school test I made sure I did not just do a peripheral study of the chapter. This did not mean I knew every nook and corner of the chapter the first time but neither did it mean that I just aimlessly flipped through the pages. I also made it a practice to at least go through the 'in text' and 'text back' exercises, if not work them out before a test. To be very honest, especially in Chemistry, quite a few theory based questions were directly from these exercises.

I was also taught from a young age and believed in the fact that working out mathematics sums were very important and just glancing through solved sums from the text book and class work did not equal it. This was very beneficial to me - after a while I did not even have to work out the sums manually, I knew how to do them mentally as I had worked the problems out so many times.

I was also very serious about English. A lot of people online say that they studied just a few days before the board exam and scored above 90%, but I'm not sure how true that is. 12th standard poems and a few lessons are on the harder side in terms of depth, comprehension and, the outcome of the story/poem. This requires complete attention in class and trying to write down answers to questions. Writing skills are also important, one that they weigh for about 40% of the total marks and second, there is a specific format that one must follow to score the entire mark. All of this required my attention and practice from day one and I think the effort was well worth it. (I scored 99/100 to my joy!)

During test and exam times I never used any extra books or guides. I simply stuck to my NCERT textbooks, and found that both the content and questions were enough for the initial stages of preparation. This kind of chapter - wise, daily studying went on for most part of the year (with the rigorous test schedule set by the school). I had finished studying each chapter about 4 times by the end of my revision exams.

An intensive study routine began around January when most of the school exams were done and I had a month to pre - boards and about 50 days to the board exam. During this time, I would do a minimum of three chapters a day, about an hour to go through the theory and then the text back and in text questions. Following this I would work out chapter - wise previous year board questions. This I found particularly useful for Physics, Chemistry and Math. I also worked out previous year board papers from the CBSE website. Due to the introduction of MCQs/1 mark questions for my batch I also had a separate question bank just to work out such problems. I had also bought sample question paper books from which I worked out questions as well. Thus, I had been exposed to an adequate variety of questions before I faced my board exams. 

Summing up the different stages of my preparation:

1. Thorough study of NCERT textbook theory
2. A good idea on how to work out all the examples, in text and text back questions
3. Working out previous years, chapter - wise board questions
4. Solving of previous year compartment and normal board papers
5. Trying out additional mock papers and objective questions

At this juncture I must say that my preparation strategy worked well as it gave me a 97.2% in my board exams. Whether it will work for everyone out there I'm not sure, but I will definitely assert that persistent hard work does pay off and that we don't realize it until we see results!