Nagpur : With just eight months in hand for the NEET entrance test, here is a guide as how one can start preparation and crack the exam as the registration for National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) 2019, for Medical and Dental admissions to under-graduate courses is scheduled to begin on November 1 and will continue till November 30, 2018 and the NEET 2019 examination will be organized on May 5, 2019 in a single session in the Pen and Paper mode only.
Srinivas Bisala Director and Chemistry Faculty at ABHYASA coaching institute Nagpur informed about the steps students must take while preparing for the exam.
To crack NEET UG entrance exam, you need to have a deep conceptual knowledge. Having a comprehensive knowledge of the syllabus is a must before you start your NEET preparation. NEET syllabus is quite vast, and therefore, it is advisable to divide the syllabus of different subjects into small parts for a better understanding.
Knowing the syllabus completely will enable you to segregate the topics that are hard and time-consuming from the quick and easy ones. It gives you a brief idea about conceptual, application based and interconnected topics.
One should not start the preparation at the last minute as it will not help one to crack the exam.
10-Point strategy for cracking NEET:
1. What should be my first step?
A detailed knowledge and information about the exam will help one to crack NEET, Apart from keeping a track of NEET latest News & Updates, you must focus on becoming familiar with the NEET exam pattern, topic-wise marks distribution, time duration and best NEET books to refer. Knowing all these details beforehand is the best way to prepare for NEET.
2. What should be my priorities?
When it comes to the question ‘How to Prepare for NEET’, it is quite important to set your priorities right. You should make a proper study schedule so that you can keep a track of your day-to-day activities. Devoting considerable amount of time to each subject should be on your priority list. While studying, priorities your subjects according to their weightage and the time required for preparation.
3. How much time should I study every day?
A well planned 7-8 hours of self-study is enough to crack any entrance exam. One need 6-7 hours of sleep every day for effective study during the day. Anything less than 6 hours would affect your memory retention. Use the remaining hours to prepare for the NEET exam.
4. Which subject should I start first?
Students who studies Biology for one complete day, Chemistry for next day & Physics the day after, loses their motivation level gradually. Physics being more analytical gives mental pressure when not studied regularly. So, it is advised to study some topics every day from all the subjects so that you can keep your motivation level high.
5. Which study material should I refer?
Try to refer the books which contain the complete syllabus as prescribed by CBSE. Students should prepare from the best study material for the examination. NCERT is the most reliable book for learning theories and concepts for NEET. Make sure that you go through NCERT contents atleast twice in your preparation. Referring NCERT ensures that you do not miss out on any concept/topic.
6. Which subject I need to focus more?
Some students are very strong in one subject & weak in others. You have to focus on your weaker areas. You have to work hard & try to solve the weaker topics. This will help in overcoming the fear of your weakness effectively. The study sessions should be a mix of theory, problem-solving and revising all previous years’ papers. Ensure that you give equal weightage to all subjects.
7. How to make a study plan?
Prepare a weekly study plan and assign a fixed no of chapters to each week. You must challenge yourself and try to complete the decided chapters on time. This will ensure that syllabus is completed well in time. You must identify your strong and weak areas from the examination perspective. You may be good in Biology, average in Chemistry and totally clueless in Physics. This analysis will help you to create an exam plan to improve upon your weak areas and to strengthen your strong areas.
8. What should be my plan for different subjects?
The suggested subject-wise planning should be like this:
For Biology be sure that 90% of the MCQs are going to come from NCERT book. If you have read Biology books from start to end, you can try to get more than 75 out of 90 questions correctly. Do practice MCQs from atleast one reference book.
Inorganic chemistry also come out of NCERT book only, so read those chapters straight away from NCERT book. Physical chemistry & Organic chemistry are application based, so that you have to read the theory & practice more MCQs from these chapters.
Physics is about formula and its application for numerical problems. If you have memorised the formula and the relationship between the elements in the formula, it would become easy to solve MCQs related to it.
9. Should I revise?
Revision is the key to success. The nature of NEET questions demands clarity on concepts. Revise each and every topic you have studied during the two years of your preparation. Revision not only helps you in checking your knowledge, speed and accuracy but also boost self-confidence.
10. What should be my final step of preparation?
The final step, which completes the process of any exam preparation, is its evaluation. Without evaluation, your preparation for NEET will remain deficient. In order to evaluate your exam preparation, practicing sample papers and mock tests on a regular basis. You must take the mock test to familiarize yourself with the actual test environment. Time is the most crucial factor where you have to solve 180 questions in 3 hours. Solving full-length mock test is required and you need to improve your time management skill. Apart from that, proper guidance from your mentors and seniors can help you immensely.
Abhishek Tiwari
