Everyone knows how important mock tests are for preparation of competitive entrance exams. No matter which exam you are appearing for like JEE, NEET, AIIMS, NTSE, Olympiads or any other competitive exam, online mock tests play a vital role in your preparation.
After all the studying and making notes and photocopies, how much have you actually learned? How much have you understood? How ready are you to tackle the questions that NEET 2019 or JEE 2019 might throw at you? All these questions can be answered through online mock tests!
Given their importance, it can be disheartening for many students when they fail to perform well in mocks or when their performance is not as good as their peers’. It can be even more frustrating when, even after being thorough with all concepts, you are unable to apply them during an exam.
If you relate to this problem even a teensy bit (and are having a full-blown panic attack), worry not! Below we have a few helpful pointers to turbo-charge your performance during mock tests.
Pinpoint the problem
This step can be completed right during the exam. Just take note of where you get stuck when you sit for the mock.
Most students have a vague idea of the approach they will take to solve the paper – If you don’t, however, that is a problem in itself. For example, you may have decided that you will solve the paper in an orderly manner. This might lead you to miss out on the easy questions that could solve, but couldn’t since you decided to solve the question paper in order. In this way, you will lose out on marks that could easily have been yours. You will learn, after this, not to approach the paper this way again.
This is just one instance. You need to figure out what your personal brand of mistake is. You might sit for the exam in a scattered state of mind. Or you might be sleep deprived due to the copious amounts of caffeine that you consumed. All of these have a detrimental effect on your performance.
Seek to solve it in the same paper
Since this is a mock and you can (probably) appear for it again, pick up the question paper one more time and get solving.
You may figure out a new approach. And then you can attempt to the easier questions first and leave the hard ones for the last.
Analyze your results properly after you take the mock. Are you able to solve more questions? Does it help you score more? Make a list of where you stumbled and why. Recognize knowledge and strategy gaps. Implement a variety of solutions to fill them.
Manage time effectively
No matter what the problem is, follow this simple principle always: use your time in the direction of scoring more.
Take 2-3 mocks to see what your time distribution is. Is it optimal? Is it helping you to score the best as you can? Are you answering enough questions to hit your target score without fetching any negatives?
Practice your judgment
Mocks are a great way to hone your judgment and decide which question is worth spending time on and which isn’t – and if it is worth solving, how much time to allot to it.
Some questions look really tempting and easy on the surface but their answers might not be that simple. Even if you do solve these, you have to know at what stage during the exam you have to solve them. This can only come after repeated practice and from solving a variety of mock papers that expose you to a diverse set of questions.
Go through the performance analysis provided after the mock tests
Most students declare the mock test to be done after they check the score. However, there is one step pending: go through the performance analysis reports that are generated post the mock test. See the ratio of your right answers to the wrong ones. Figure out their pattern- which topics you consistently get wrong, which topics you get right, which are hit-and-miss. They will give you useful insights into the actual state of your preparation. Going forward, you can use those insights and perform better in future mock tests.
Most of all, begin solving mock papers as early as you can! A common mistake among students is to wait until the nth hour when their preparation is pretty and complete. That day is, was, and always will be, an illusion. Start solving mock papers right now so that you can refine your preparation to align with real-time, valuable insights drawn from your performance.
May the Force be with you!
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