Class 12th CBSE Board Exam: MATHS AND 85

Taking Maths was probably one of the best and most overwhelming things I did in my senior secondary school. I had six subjects and I hardly ever went to school. The first time I failed in life was this first Maths exam of Class - 11. It was dramatic and devastating. But I guess all's well when the end is well. I did fail every exam except tuition tests and promotional exams and yet I scored 86 on Maths boards. How did I do it?  

First of all, I started my serious preparation only after I failed pre board-1 and my teacher had no hopes left for me. So all my preparation happened in one month while I had to prepare for the rest of the subjects as well. Here is what I did.

My first step was to research. My goal wasn't to get a 100, it was to reach from 12 to 60. So, I watched videos, looked at marking schemes and previous year questions, and marked all the kinds of questions and the difficult ones that came. I felt extremely unprepared but I hardly had a month, so starting the syllabus from scratch wasn't possible. What I did instead was to see where and how can I get those extra marks easily. I left all the thick maths books and concentrated on NCERT only, making it my target to solve all the questions in it.

I started by trying to perfect the chapters, which were easier like Probability, Inverse Trigonometric functions, differential equations, and linear programming. Once I was thorough with this, I took a few more difficult ones like Integration and Differentiation. They look difficult but they have a very similar approach and only certain kinds of questions come in the boards from them, each year. The right thing I did here was solving each and every question, not by visualization but by writing. So I ended up attempting examples, exercises, and miscellaneous questions. I couldn't solve it multiple times but what I did instead was that the more difficult I found a question, the more practice I did for it.

When I was 10% confident and done with the syllabus, much to my discomfort and regardless of my protests, I also started giving the mock test, at tuition and home. I know I was biased so my family checked them for me. Then I started analyzing every paper I attempted, with my mentor. Shockingly, I realized, most of my mistakes were silly calculation mistakes( like "2+2=2") and I could score much better if I solved the paper with the presence of mind and confidence.

Honestly, giving tests regularly was scary because it made me see how many errors I did, it was playing with my confidence yet I didn't stop giving them, because, well, they were helping me as well. I could see my score improving drastically, my silly mistakes were fewer, my concepts were better and more importantly, I was passing my tuition tests. But that wasn't enough, because at that point in time I had majorly given chapter-wise tests so now I had to switch.

And then the last thing I did was that I started solving previous year's question papers. They didn't lie when they said the questions repeat. I did at least 7 of these papers and this is it. This is all I did to prepare except of course, learning all the formulas. They give marks if your formulas are correct, and I had to pass. Moreover, halfway down checking your papers and understanding mark distribution, it becomes easier to know how you can score.

Lastly, more than my preparation, my budding confidence helped. I wasn't extremely confident till my board paper finished on time, and I had to drink a cold drink to calm my nerves before the exam but by solving and practicing regularly by writing, I was much less doubtful and much more hopeful that I could pass. So in the end, it is equally important to go out and give the exam with confidence, comfort, and positivity. That helps

adios.