HOW DO I BEGIN ? WHERE DO I BEGIN ?
Long long answer ahead, but I’ve tried to include all the points I feel are essential.
Important things to keep in mind during the upcoming year –
- physical and mental stamina:
This is very important because in this one year you have to keep on studying the same thing which you studied over and over again which can be at times boring and you might get distracted in between study periods. Take regular 15 minutes break after every 1 hour of fully focused studying (or whatever time period is comfortable for you) but time your breaks strictly (use an alarm if you want).
- Discipline:
it is necessary to study 10-12 hours everyday from the beginning itself . You may be surprised at this figure. But yes , if someone and many more are doing it , you also can . It is crucially important that you study EVERYDAY and be consistent. A time table , a log book of what is completed and what is could not be is essential . Whatever the backlogs are , should be covered in the next couple of days . This discipline is extremely important as it is all about revision . Finally , on the .last day, you have remember all chapters of all three subjects . Such an amount of recollection is only possible if you gradually step up the portion that you can remember at one time . And this is only and only possible with repeated revisions. . If you follow a time table strictly for 21 days it becomes a habit (scientific fact).
- Exercise:
This is something which is ignored by many but is actually very imp.
exercise increases your blood flow to the brain which in turn helps you concentrate and be more energetic and productive . Do at least 30 min exercise everyday may it be yoga, Zumba, sports, etc. The time for physical activity should be at a time that you are anyways likely to get bored with studies .
- Good food:
Please do not skip home cooked meals. Food is ESSENTIAL for your brain to function well. At times you can eat ice cream to give an instant boost while studying. Keep some handy nutritious stuff in your room . I would advise dry fruits and energy bars. They are dry and have a good shelf life .
5.How to deal with each subject:
PHYSICS:
- NCERT physics is not really user friendly but a few theoretical qs have been asked directly from the book in previous year neet. So read each chapter atleast two times and whatever theory part catches your attention or feels important ( like examples, uses etc) write it in a loose sheet of paper and staple it at the end of each chapter so that you don’t have to read the whole 20 pages chapter again.
- SOLVED EXAMPLES are the most important qs you need to practice from ncert as they are frequently repeated in the exam. Do only those back exercises which have short solutions as long answer questions cannot be asked in NEET. . Mark the qs which you feel are important and how do you know which qs are important? This skill can only be acquired by practising a lot of MCQs and understanding the pattern and type of qs asked in neet.
- do not try to memorise steps and solutions to a qs . The most important thing is strengthening your concepts and this you can only do by practising questions EVERYDAY for atleast 1 hour. It is advisable to practise 100 MCQs daily . It’s fine if you don’t study chemistry and biology everyday but with physics you cannot do that .
- For practise you can use Marvel and MCQs for coaching class material . If your physics is weak do not try to jump into really difficult questions as 80% of neet has easy qs only.don’t waste your time running behind the 20%. Moreover, instead of doing thousands of different types of questions , redo the qs you have marked as important so that you know your progress. Do the previous year questions as well to get an idea of what is important.
it is crucial that you understand the mistakes you made while attempting qs. Do not simply look at the solution . Try to do the qs again and understand why you made the mistake and write the reason in a notebook so that you don’t do it again.
for eg: if you did a mistake in remembering the formula , write that particular formula in that nb.
So in conclusion, for physics the most important thing is BUILD YOUR CONCEPTS THEN PRACTICE QUESTIONS BASED ON IT.
remember that physics is usually the most difficult part for many NEET aspirants , so start practising from day 1 so that you can get an edge over others .
CHEMISTRY:
- for chem. the most important thing is ncert . Unlike physics do not waste your time referring to extra books which will just confuse you and make your brain cluttered . .pls remember that when you refer to many books may it be any subject you only get surface information which is completely pointless , what is important isdeep understanding of the basic knowledge given in ncert, this can only be acquired after repeated reading of ncert.
- while reading ncert understand each and every line even for physical chemistry . All laws are important. Short sentences and examples are the most important especially for inorganic . Highlight them or write it in a loose sheet of paper for revision. The tiny texts written below tables are also very important.
- fororganic chemistry ONLY use ncert if you don’t have enough time as in the past 2 years qs have directly come from ncert. Read organic chemistry atleast 20 times from the ncert and practice solved examples, Intext questions and back exercises compulsorily.
- forphysical chemistry write all the possible formulas in a sheet and paste it on your wall and keep on revising and practice PYQs and internal MCQs from class . To save time during the exam you should also learn some shortcut formulas not given in ncert also. For example there are direct formulas to calculate molarity , molality etc which you can find on the Internet or coaching notes.
- forinorganic chemistry ONLY use ncert even if you have time. Learn all the tables , the tiny texts under the tables , everything.Also by heart the important numbers. For eg: in neet 2021 a qs was asked about the temperature of furnace in iron extraction.don’t blindly memorise all the points given, create a table where you have all groups/blocks of both class 11 and 12 and do comparisons related to oxidation states , rxn with water, etc. READ INORGANIC CHEMISTRY FROM NCERT EVERYDAY FOR ATLEAST 1–2 HOURS just like physics so that you can complete a sentence even before looking at it. Learn all the exceptions and write all of them separately on a sheet of paper and paste it on your wall.
BIOLOGY:
- this is the favourite part of every NEET aspirant and therefore it is even more important that you perfect your knowledge because students usually score 330+ in this section , not because it’s easy but they have read ncert many times.
- please do not refer to extra books as they are just a waste of time. As a good student, you might get tempted to study extra to get new knowledge, yes you can do that but after NEET .
- read ncert from top to bottom . Studying for boards is different as compared to when you study for NEET. For neet you need to study the summary, text under the diagrams, tables, scientist biography, intro to each unit, etc just as seriously as the chapter . The things that seem not so important are usually the ones that come in the exam.
- diagrams should be analysed properly. For eg- in the plasmid diagram you need to remember even the positions of BamH1, rop etc as they can give 4 options of the diagram in the paper and choose the correct diagram . basically you should know all the diagrams of both class 11 and 12 like the back of your hand.
NCERT is very volatile so even if you’ve read it 10 times you might still forget some pts .
- general instructions:
Two years of rigorous study can seem very long and tedious. You may watch medical research on bbc world , follow sports of your liking , watch nice shows like – the good doctor ,etc on Netflix so that you are motivated to keep on studying while at the same time , not distracted. Prefer TV or music over social media . Social media is a huge sucker of focus . You are an actor yourself when you are involved in social media . While watching TV , you are a mere audience . That’s the difference.
REMEMBER THAT HARD WORK ALWAYS PAYS OFF , and quality of study is always superior than the amount of time you spend on studying.
Cracking NEET recipe = Robust hard work + Right direction +Focus .
You don’t really need to be brainy and all. It’s a big lie that only genius students can crack NEET . You need just about normal intelligence and above formula .
ALL THE BEST !
Dr Himani Tapasvi MD , FRCR