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Top 6 Revision Tips for Board Exam and IIT JEE

revision What is the biggest revision mistake all students make? Believing that a particular subject or topic is ‘boring’. Once you have decided that the subject in hand or the topic you are going to study is not interesting, you will find it incredibly difficult to learn it. Our brain – which is hardwired to keep only unique, amusing, important and interesting information – will also classify it as something that can be discarded right away.

We hardly ever forget fun times we had with our friends, vivid imagery of our sister’s wedding and life details that stir up our emotions but it is hard for us to learn, revise and retrieve dull facts – whether you are preparing for board exam, JEE exams or NEET (AIPMT) examHere are some of the fun revision tips that will help you develop a new perspective and reorient the way you study and learn:

No Subject or Topic is Ever ‘Boring’

No Subject or Topic is Ever ‘Boring’If it has been included into your books, it means that it must have quite a bit of history, mystery, research, exploration and practical value. If you found ‘History’ boring, it was probably you never really delved into the stories that made it up. Imagine how the topic at hand would have thrilled researchers and scientists who came up with it. You find it dull just because you haven’t figured out the right way to learn it, or do not realize how many new pathways it opened up.

Many engineering aspirants call Maths, Physics or Computer Science ‘boring’ just because they find it ‘difficult to understand’. If you don’t understand a concept, it is natural that you find it boring. Imagine seeing a 3D movie without 3D glasses. It is difficult to decipher hazy images on screen and you would want to walk out of the movie theatre. But if you are wearing the 3D glasses, you will be able to enjoy its full effect. This is what that happens with the concepts too. Once you realize what concepts actually mean, you will learn to enjoy them.

Other reason to find a subject ‘boring’ is that it has just too much information to learn. Medical aspirants often find ‘Botany’ and ‘Zoology’ as overwhelming subjects because the vast syllabus they cover have just too many facts that they have to learn by heart. In this case, we just do not realize how facts connect themselves to real-world contexts that we are interested in. Once we understand the connection, it becomes easier to remember them.

Figure out why a topic you studied in class is important, relevant or useful. You may want to refer to Wikipedia for it. It is not very time-consuming but it will surely make your revision work much more interesting.

Get Creative with Stories and Mind Maps

Get Creative with Stories and Mind MapsStories, narratives and visual imagery (such as diagrams, cycles, 3D animations, flowcharts, and cartoons) are easier to remember than abstract information and isolated facts. When you revise a topic, try to come up with timelines, mind maps and visual representation of facts and concepts you learn. This pumps up your insight & intuition and helps you make effective revision notes to study at the last minute before exam.

askIITians Revision Notes include interesting mind maps for most of the important topics in JEE exam.

Find a Good Teacher

Find a Good TeacherI remember that I would fall asleep in the classes where teachers would walk in the class, deliver their lectures in a monotone voice, give us assignments and walk off. We hardly ever interacted with them…and we were as ‘uninterested’ in their subjects as they were in teaching us.

Thankfully, today, we have access to best teachers and learning material available as online coaching classes, MOOCs offered by IITs and Ivy League Universities, and study forums where we can freely interact with faculty and our peers anytime we want.

Finding a teacher who is ‘passionate’ about his or her subject is an invaluable investment of your time or efforts as they can definitely fire us and inspire us about a subject. This is the very reason that ex-IITians we hire as our faculty are a mix of young and old techies that have relevant industry and academic experience. They can tell you much more about a particular topic that relates it to the real world.

Use Mnemonics – Mental Hooks to Hang Your Data On

These days, memes are immensely popular to help you remember facts and data for JEE preparation or NEET (AIPMT) preparation. But as IIT alumni will share with you, funny (and naughty) acronyms, rhymes and songs were quite effective ways to learn formulae or data sequence. 

A fun way to revise a topic is to make slide shows (powerpoint presentations) with data flying in point-by-point to make it easier to remember on the day of the exam.

Revision Groups

Revision GroupsWhile it is better to study alone when you are learning something, revision in groups is incredibly helpful to make cement it in your mind. You can discuss the topic with your friends and quiz each other about it. Race again your friends to solve problems and bet with each other (and invent crazy punishments) as you quiz each other on a topic.

For difficult-to-remember information, try to mimick it in the voice of different actors, sportspersons or celebrities. You will never forget this fun revision session and what you learn in it. Often in such revision sessions, there are comments and jokes that bring a smile on your face when you read a question that sparked them in the examination paper.

Chill Out the Study Area

Chill Out the Study AreaYou should neither be a monk on fast when you study nor have too many ‘distractors’ around you. Clean and de-clutter your study table, put on mild instrumental music or pop music and keep a bowl of healthy snacks (nuts and fruits) and a bottle of water on right within your reach.

Make sure you have a comfortable desk and chair arrangement, good lighting and proper ventilation in your room too. When you are relaxed and comfortable, you are able to focus better on taking tests, revising concepts and solving problems.

You may thread together post-it-notes or flash cards with facts and formulas to remember to decorate the walls of your study room. It will help you learn and revise them as you walk up and down the room. You may also put up posters with bright-coloured diagrams in your room. Making these wall decorations will make your revision work much more interesting.


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