Things you must remember while preparing for an entrance exam

Over the past few years, the interest amongst students to pursue a career in management has increased, according to this report by the Times of India. It states that the number of students appearing for the Common Entrance Test (CET) in Maharashtra has increased by 85% in the past five years. It is just one of the many instances that paints a picture of the level of competition in India to excel in entrance exams. 

If you wish to stand out in this competition, you must remember certain things while preparing for an entrance exam, which will help achieve a high percentile. Let’s take an elaborate look at them.

• Create a practical study plan - A practical study plan depends on the number of hours you can allot for studying in a day. In case you’re a working individual, you must look to optimize the limited hours you will get to study in a day. Whether it’s early in the morning or burning the midnight oil, plan to study topics that are conceptually harder to understand. By maintaining your consistency, you will gradually complete your portion and create a buffer to revise as well. On the other hand, if you’re a student, use your advantageous position to spend as many hours as you can in a day to study. Divide your time equally to cover all sections asked in the exam.
• Identify your strengths and weaknesses - It is nearly impossible to think that you will excel at every topic in an entrance exam. However, the prospect of studying weak topics shouldn't deter you from the objective of excelling in an entrance exam. Upon creating a study plan, you will be able to identify your strong and weak topics. Develop a strategy where you master your strong areas at a very high level while working harder on your weaker areas on the same topic. By the time your exam arrives, you will be confident enough to develop a strategy, where you can play to your strengths and sail through your weaknesses.
• Attempt mocks and previous year papers - After putting in hours of work to complete your portion, the next step is to test your preparation. How do you do that? By attempting mocks and previous year papers.

When you attempt numerous mocks, you steadily understand how strong your preparation is, and where you can look to improve. It will help you filter down the topics you can look to focus on after attempting each mock. By doing so, you will be able to correctly attempt the type of questions that were unattempted or incorrect in the previous mock. 

On the other hand, solving previous year question papers will give you an idea about the examiner’s mindset. You can find out the type of questions that are repeatedly asked over the years and accordingly focus more on such questions. 

By solving plenty of mocks and previous year papers, you will be able to attempt maximum questions with high accuracy in the given time limit. On the day of the exam, you come across as a confident exam-taker.
 
By following these tips diligently, you will find yourself cracking a top level entrance exam, and subsequently converting your desired B-school. All the best!