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PracBee senior teacher, Mr Amit Kumar, has a detailed conversation with Mayuresh Chandrasekhar Patil, who is very focused on competitive exams while still in grade 9.
Mayuresh wants to crack JEE exams and so he is actively preparing for Olympiads, NSEJS and other competitive exams since grade 8. He has been attending 1:1 tutoring at Pracbee for almost 2 years. As a Maharashtra Board student, besides national exams, he is also very focused on competitions that focus on Maharashtra students. Here we are talking about his take on the Dr Homi Bhabha Balvaidnyanik Competition conducted by Greater Bombay Science Teachers' Association since 1981. Mayuresh has qualified for the 2nd stage of the exam.
Throughout the discussion we will discuss with Mayuresh his study routine, his focus and time devotion to various subjects, his way of practice, and his strategies for various exams during preparation as well as on the exam day. He also has written Olympiads and NSEJS, which is the most reputed Science competition in India for students of grade 9.
Besides Mayuresh also discusses about the collaboration with his tutors, how 1:1 classes are helping him customize his studies to his need, how he handles doubt classes and interacts in classes to ensure he has learnt whatever the teacher is trying to teach him. Mayuresh has managed to effectively utilize the 1:1 tutoring by Pracbee, so he also discusses here the best strategy and methods to do that for other students.
Interviewer: Congratulations Mayuresh. Can you also give a brief information about the exam you have taken?
Mayuresh: Yes, so this exam is more focused on Maharashtra students, but people from all boards across the country can take this exam. The syllabus takes a bit from various class syllabus up to grade 9. Most questions come from there, along with some general knowledge questions. The exam pattern is MCQ-based with 100 multiple choice questions. The difficulty level is difficult to moderate.
The exam focuses more on testing understanding, reasoning, and practical application rather than just memorized facts. Questions come mainly from:
For 9th standard students, the question distribution is:
The exam tests how well students can apply scientific concepts and make connections, rather than just remember information. Questions relate to both textbook content and real-world applications of science.
The second stage of the exam is focused on Practicals. The third stage is an interview session and the fourth stage is an Action Research Project and its evaluation.
Mayuresh mentions that he prepared through Pracbee 1:1 tutoring support along with self-study. He enjoyed most of the subjects but found Biology challenging. For it he used NCERT books of CBSE board which helped him understand the concepts better.
Time management is something Mayuresh struggles with. So, he made a to-do list. This helped him focus on each task listed to ensure he doesn’t miss studying any subject or revising any subject. He also ensured that the list contained his chapter details a swell, so that the preparation was comprehensive without worrying about missing any important concepts or question type.
His to-do list was based on remaining days and allocated days for revision and previous year papers. This is something he recommends for other students as well seeing his own progress due to it. He also had a very clear revision plan. Since he has been with Pracbee for 2 years, his mentor helped him create this plan and he has successfully implemented it for his benefit.
In the last few weeks he just focused on revision. He created one page compendium of each chapter, which are basically short notes of the chapter’s most important points, concepts and formulae. These important points and keywords on one page were like a condensed version of the whole book, and then revised those notes. This ensured he saved time as well as he was confident of covering all the important topics and sub-topics of the chapter comprehensively without missing anything.
When it came to books for the exam specifically, Mayuresh used both NCERT books and the specific books for the Homi Bhabha competition recommended by the exam conducting body. Moreover, he practised from the hardcopy books provided by Pracbee, couriered to his home. These books had extensive practice questions of all different types to ensure he misses nothing for the exam. Besides these he also solved past years’ question papers of the exam. This is a method Mayuresh also recommends for any other exam in school or competition level that students want to take, including Board exams and Olympiad exams. They help him understand the syllabus overview as well as in detail since the exam doesn't provide an exact syllabus. Though questions rarely repeat, solving previous papers was helpful to feel confident on the preparation.
Solving Past Years’ question papers gives students the correct idea of the difficulty level of the exam as well as the most frequent types of questions as well as most frequent topics in the exam. It polishes the preparation and ensures students can get good marks in the exam even within limited time. This is highly recommended even for board exams of CBSE, ICSE, IB, IGCSE etc. PYQs are even very important in competition exams like IIT JEE Main and JEE Advanced as well as NEET exam for MBBS.
When it comes to preparation for competitive exams, students struggle the most with time management and balancing between school time and works with coaching and competition practice work time. Mayuresh handled this challenge through two pronged strategy. He ensures he has a fixed routine for his competition exam preparation, be it for Olympiad, NSEJS or HBBB. Moreover, he has had a clear discussion with his school regards his priorities and they have given him some leeway in school work. He missed a few days of school after Diwali vacations to focus on his exams like HBBB and NSEJS exams.
Mayuresh loved the 1:1 classes at Pracbee since these were totally as per his understanding level and pace. Also, the teachers helped him clear his concepts better and got him into a habit of practicing regularly. Also, he especially liked the fact that whenever he needed any extra classes, including for doubts, he could request on Pracbee’s automated portal and the classes were arranged promptly.
The books and modules provided by Pracbee helped him ensure he had enough practice. The regular tests and their discussions done by Pracbee teachers also helped him ensure he was thorough with not only the concepts but also applying those to solve questions in the exam fast as well as correct. He also utilized the PPTs and lecture notes of the classes to revise later in a very structured manner.
Entire Pracbee team congratulates Mayuresh on his success and wish him all the best for the next section of this exam and his school exams.
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