DU Admissions: In Light Of Sky High Cut-Offs, Here’s How CBSE Class XII Students Can Score Good Marks In Board Exams

The cut-off marks for different Delhi University (DU) colleges released yesterday maintained the usual shock-value of being too high. The political science stream at the Hindu College maintained a cut-off of 99 per cent in class 12 boards.

In the light of this, it becomes important for students aiming for admission in prestigious art and humanities courses to score extremely well. While board examination papers are not designed like entrance examinations, which allow most students to score decent with relatively less hard work, it requires something else to score above 95 per cent in all subjects.

To score above 95 per cent in all subjects, board students will have to maintain the same consistency and regularity in their preparations as competitive exam aspirants.

To score well in boards, students to try to prepare NCERTs extremely well. The students should start with a rough reading of the chapter, to get a bird’s eye view, then follow up with a focused reading. During this, students should prepare notes. These notes would come handy during revision. Also, many students feel that class notes are sufficient. Even if it’s the case, it is good to give a separate reading and make your own notes, only that the notes need not be detailed, but should contain keywords and all important points.

The notes-making of NCERT should be done in a manner that student remembers all important points of a topic. Notes should always be made point-wise, and include all the keywords used in that topic. Some keywords are highlighted in the NCERT books themselves. Their meaning are given in the side. Students should memorise these and use them in their answers. Apart from these, students should themselves look for important keywords that are not highlighted.

All the while reading, students should think of material in terms of which questions can be asked from it. And then write the answer point-wise. While candidates can write answers in their own words, using the same phrases and words as used by NCERT fetches good marks.

The students should also make time for revision of the notes they have made, and incorporate answer-writing in their routine. Students can pick out each Sunday to solve one question-paper, or in general do answer writing practice. This will not only increase their confidence but also help in understanding the material better.

Since board students are also pursuing sports and hobbies, time management is very important. It is not advisable that students let go off their leisure time completely. A good idea is to prepare a timetable. Time table should be long term and short term. Most people make the mistake of micro-management. They prepare timetable like 6.00 am wakeup, 6.15 am bath, 6.30 am studies. This is not a good approach.

An ideal timetable should contain your daily, monthly and three-monthly targets. You should know in the morning that you will finish a certain portion that day. Achieving a set target will also boost your confidence. Make sure that the targets are realistic and achievable.

Parents should help and support their children in following the time table. A good practice is to have a family routine itself and discipline for everyone. Late-night TV watching, parties etc can hamper children’s routine. Also maintain boundaries with relatives, friends spending time at your house that they do it in a way that doesn’t disturb the child. Never involve the children in adult issues. Little words of encouragement mean a lot for the children, so parents should try and find opportunities to compliment and cheer their children.