What is the best time to opt for test series?

For last three decades, engineering has stayed one of the most preferred options in education. The JEE entrance invites almost 13 lakh applications every year. Other than JEE, there are various entrances that aspirants face in a year. Let’s know about some of the entrance examinations, which students attempt every year. Some of them are JEE-Main and advanced, Karnataka CET, BITSAT, VIITJEE, KEAM, and COMED-K.  For all these entrances, students prepare day and night and over the years, securing admission in the top engineering colleges has become an uphill task. Moreover, students find it hard to do time management for the entrances that come in quick succession in a year. This puts intense pressure on the candidates aspiring for success in the entrance examinations. It is an enormous task to keep tab on vast syllabus of study and appear the tests successively. As the sage advice goes-‘use your time wisely’, intense practice stays need of the hour for the aspirants in engineering entrances. As far as reality goes, all the students do not stick to one type of preparation and differ with various routine and exhaustive practices by self and group studies.

Time for various engineering entrance examinations

Let’s have knowledge about the time-period, when the entrances take place in a year. Before we go deeper about the ways students could make the most beneficial use of available time and come out with some most practical methods to do time management for the test series, it is important to know well about the time-schedule for tests of 6 top-ranking engineering colleges in India.

Schedule of examinations for TOP 6 Engineering entrances in India

How to devote time for successful preparation of Entrance test series?

1. Preparing for various entrances and different syllabuses

The toughest part of preparation is the entrance examinations vary with their syllabuses. Some entrances have only Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, while some have logic and English. Considering the syllabuses for different entrances, the context of study is vast. Therefore, time is less and load of study is more.

2. Effective time table-need of the hour

Confusion and inaction are the biggest hurdles on the path of success in entrance examination for engineering. Students need to form a time-table, where all the subjects would get due allotment of time. They need to begin hard preparation for all the subjects. Depending on the mental stamina, a student could prepare for 8 to 10 hours in a day. But while preparing, he or she needs to take at least 10-20 minutes break between subjects. As the subjects are tough, monotony and boredom could deepen mental stress.

3. Arrange the subjects as per the timing of the tests and marks

For instance, JEE-Main comes in the 1st week of April and JEE-Advanced is right there in the last week of May every year. Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics are the subjects for JEE-Main, while JEE-Advanced has questions from advanced topics from Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics. The important thing is when a student becomes successful in JEE-Main test, he would get only one and half months time to prepare for JEE-Advanced entrance test. For the limitation of time, the student needs to take expert’s advice about utilization of time for JEE-Advanced. Here, the advice from successful senior students, experts, and peers carry a lot of weight. Wrong utilization of time could make the student miss the real track for preparation.

4. Clarity in understanding concepts and writing the answers

While biding time in preparation for the basic and advanced topics, the students need to devote more and more time for understanding the fundamental concepts in basic and advanced topics. It is not enough, if he or she understands the concepts clearly. It is more important that the student is capable of producing the concepts in answers with clarity, precision, and accuracy. Systematic preparation means utilizing time bringing perfection in that dimension. Half-baked preparation with faulty answer writing would only get the worst outcome from the preparation. Here, every second of time needs to get spent towards getting clarity about the concepts and getting those reproduced in the answer-sheets with accuracy.

5. Practice the sample papers

Sample papers are important as those tell the students about the pattern of questions. Sample papers are usually available from the coaching institutions. But the important thing is, the concerned institute needs to have high credibility so far as quality of sample papers goes. The sample papers need to carry the true samples of question papers of the entrance tests. As we seen often, the coaching institutes produce heavy volumes in their sample papers but those do not have any quality.

6. Time-bound practice through mock-tests

Mock-test is part and parcel of every preparation for engineering entrance. Speed, accuracy, and correct production of answers in the answer sheet are important for success. Practice through mock-tests in the group of students gradually brings him or her complete success in the engineering entrance examinations. All the top-notched institutes for engineering preparation give training to the aspirants through intense mock-tests. It is important that students are very selective about the reputation of coaching institutes and be careful while seeking admission in them.

Time management         

As the famous saying from La Bruyere goes-“those who make the worst of their time most complain about its shortness”, it is an axiomatic truth for the students seeking admission in to engineering courses. Make the best possible utilization of time by adding value-based preparation to every second, every minute, and every hour. As the syllabus for preparation is heavy, every minute of preparation needs to ensure some value by the end of the day. Consciousness about time is essential, while lack of awareness could cost the students dearly.