How to Prepare for Mathematics Board Exams

Board examinations aren’t easy, especially for students who have been attending online classes for a long time now. This is because the experience of online classes while giving an examination is entirely different from that of ICSE exams. A classroom app might have helped them have more study time because it eliminates a lot of offline distractions and traveling time. However, to ace boards this time, here are a few tips for students:

Also, Read: What is International Mathematical Olympiad?

Know the Format

Preparing for an examination means solving question papers, sometimes you can download them even from your certified college website. Students not from an ICSE background can also use this trick by getting references from the CBSE training portal. Therefore, it takes some time to get used to the format of the question paper by solving sample questions. Here is the format for most mathematic papers, so that you know how you are going to manage and divide your time:

• The paper consists of two sections.
• Section A has objective-type questions. It is the compulsory portion where you cannot skip any part. 
• The general marking is 1 mark for 10 questions under Section A and there are choices provided that students can refer to, after solving the sum and showing the working on the sheet.
• Section B is the optional portion of the paper, from which students can choose from among the given set of questions.

The difficult part is that no one knows whether the set of questions will consist of problem sums from the same chapter or not, which is why mathematics is not a subject where you can skip any chapter at all.

Also, Read to Know: Why Students of Class 6 Should Depend Upon the Utilisation of the NCERT Solutions for Preparation for the Exams?

Important Topics

If you don’t know the important topics, you will spend a lot of time practicing unnecessary things which might not be considered up to the examination standard at all. Every year the board marks the important chapters, which does not usually change from time to time which is why you will find your teachers referencing important sums and patterns of sums which are repeated through all board examinations.

This is only a calculated probability, students have to know all important basic topics so that they can improve their efficiency and maximize practicing on these topics as a majority of the marks will be allotted to the following;

• Mensuration
• Simultaneous linear equations, factorization, and relation of algebraic equations with geometry
• Commercial mathematics for students from a commerce background
• Trigonometry and all trigonometric formulas
• Circles, triangles, and construction from geometry
• Basic probability, statistics topics like data analysis and graph pointing
• Problem sums from most of the chapters

The above-mentioned topics are simply a broad categorization of things and not patterns of sums.

Consistency in Practice

When you are preparing for board examinations, you might be tempted to study only one subject per day because that will students can maintain a good pace. However, mathematics is something that you should remain consistent in each day. When students are out of practice, they tend to forget how to use the formula and apply it in multiple sums. This is because they are out of touch with the patterns. 

The same goes for accounts, for commerce background students. Accountancy could be practiced alternatively in awake, but mathematics is a must.

Time Allocation

Allocating your time will be very difficult because all board examinations don’t have a lot of gap in between them, and subjects like chemistry mathematics, and literature usually have an entire day’s gap. This is why expecting to make the most amount of revisions before an exam rather than allocating your time throughout the year is more necessary.

Here is how you can allocate your time right before an examination, not with the help of simple time management skills, but strategic ones;

• Don’t try to revise everything because you have merely a few hours or a few days which is not enough to cover the entire syllabus.
• Have a list of easy and difficult topics prepared beforehand which will come to use the day before an exam.
• Know your numbers, and keep the formula sheet close at hand so that you can look over something immediately if you want to.
• Don’t try to learn something new the day before an exam because it will only burden you with more information, making you forget the previous ones which were learned, and make you feel inefficient which is a demotivating factor.
• Sleep in early and revise chapters if you tend to forget something and need a boost of motivation beforehand.
• Don’t go into an exam hall under extreme stress because this will only make you forget vital information.