Tips and Tricks to Excel in ICSE Papers

Scoring well in ICSE papers is no easy thing considering the vastness of the ICSE syllabus! Scoring good marks in ICSE papers really takes a lot of effort. A disciplined study-regimen that includes regular revision sessions and is backed by good health is a pre-requisite to scoring well in ICSE papers.

To help all you students out there who are preparing for ICSE papers or for that matter any other board papers, here are a few tips and tricks that can help you excel in your exams.

• Study regularly! An important secret to scoring well in ICSE papers is to have a consistent approach towards studies. Regular study sessions will help students stay abreast with the overall pace required to complete the syllabus within the given time-frame. When compared to the various other educational boards operating in India, ICSE has the most expansive syllabus for class 10 examinations. As a result many a times students preparing for ICSE papers find handling the sheer volume in so many subjects, a little difficult. As a precautionary step to avoid last moment chaos and to facilitate effective understanding of concepts, students are advised to study regularly for their ICSE papers. Students can also seek help from various websites that provide ICSE curriculum aligned study material. The study material by these websites provide study content in interesting and fun format in order to accelerate the pace of learning.
• Stay in touch! Ideally, students should study all the major subjects regularly in order to excel in their ICSE papers. But keeping in mind the time that is typically spent by most students in extra curricular activities, tuition sessions, relaxation activities etc. leaving them with very little time for self-study, it may be a little unrealistic to be able to touch all the subjects in a day. However, in order to score well in the ICSE papers students are advised not to lose touch with any of the subjects for more than 2-3 days. If students do not study any subject for a longer period, chances are that recall for that particular subject will be far lesser, and as a result they will lag behind. To help students schedule their studies better, a few websites provide online Study Planner. The Study Planner by these websites is an online organizer that helps students stay abreast with their progress and their level of preparation for each chapter.
• Self-study is a must! Self- study does not mean completing homework, but investing time in studying alone with the primary objective of improving grades in school. To perform well in ICSE papers, students should devote majority of the available time to self-studying. This will help in better and instant understanding of the subjects and lead to a speedy memorization of concepts.
• Study with breaks! In order to break the monotony that is usually a result of long study sessions, it is very essential for students preparing for ICSE papers to inject short breaks in-between their study routines. These short study breaks will help the mind to stay fresh and focused for a longer period. As a result studying for ICSE papers will become easier and also more fun.
• Revise using past year ICSE papers! One of the very important tricks to score well in ICSE papers is to test your knowledge using previous year papers and sample papers. An activity like this helps students assess their preparation levels for the final ICSE papers. As students practice using previous years’ ICSE papers, they can also identify their weak areas and evaluate their time management skills and accordingly work upon it. Students can browse through a lot of websites that provide ICSE curriculum aligned practice and model tests to prepare better for their ICSE papers.
• Eat healthy! The last and the most important tip to score well in ICSE papers is to eat healthy and stay fit. Students should try to increase their intake of fresh fruits and vegetables as it keeps both the body and brain healthy. With ICSE papers approaching, students should restrain themselves from eating food that can hamper their health in any way.

I hope all these tips and tricks will benefit students in many ways and will help make scoring good marks in ICSE papers easy. All the best for your exams!

How to prepare for ICSE Board Papers

ICSE Board papers are considered to be difficult papers in comparison to the papers set by the other board papers across India. The ICSE Board offers students an extensive variety of subjects to choose from. More emphasis is on literature than any other aspect of learning in ICSE Board curriculum. The ICSE Board is also the generally preferred board by students who wish to pursue their undergrad studies from foreign countries. One of the major reasons for the same is that the curriculum for ICSE Board Papers is more compatible with the syllabus of other Common Wealth countries. 

If you are a student of ICSE Board and you are nervous about your Board Papers after reading the above mentioned facts, you don’t need to worry! Here are some snap tips on how to manage your time and excel in your ICSE Board Papers. 

• The first and most important step for any student of class X intending to appear for ICSE Board Papers is to choose their elective subjects wisely. The subjects chosen by the student should be aligned with the individual career choice and as per the individual caliber. Students should not choose subjects under peer, school or parental pressure. Once subjects are chosen, try sticking to it.
• The next important step is to prepare a customized time schedule. The schedule should be such that it clearly lists down all the activities you perform in a day against the time available. Try to include some variety, as it will help keep away monotony. It is important to clearly demarcate your personal study hours in a day from the time allocated for completing your homework.
• Build in flexibility into your time schedule. Try to adjust your missed study hours during the weekend as a fresh mind allows learning to be fast and effective.
• Prepare a fresh time schedule for exam time. Schedule the difficult subjects first and the easy ones for a later. Schedule your time in such a manner that you complete the syllabus before the exam commences and are able to judiciously use the time available in between the exams for revision.
• While revising, try your hand at ICSE Sample Papers. It provides students appearing for ICSE Board Papers with an idea of the question pattern, instructions, marking scheme etc. In the process these ICSE sample papers equip students with the confidence that is required to perform well in these exams.

In addition to your external assessment exams take your internal assessment seriously, as it carries a twenty percent weightage. A good performance in the internal exams is the key to a good overall score.

NCERT Questions

A study guide can give answers to the NCERT questions but seldom can it do justice to the length and breadth of the syllabus for a given subject! Students often consider writing the solutions to the NCERT questions as wasteful time-consuming and futile activity. However, a thorough understanding of the various aspects of the NCERT questions and its utility can change their existing notions.

NCERT questions are typically the questions printed at the end of the chapters in the NCERT text books. Sometimes, questions by other private publishers based on the content in the NCERT text books may also be referred to as the NCERT questions. The end-of-chapter NCERT questions are made available in array of formats with the purpose to accelerate students’ pace of conceptual understanding. Therefore, while writing answers to the NCERT questions students should try to attempt all the questions since doing so will help them gain a thorough understanding of all the concepts present in the NCERT textbooks and give them the opportunity to assess their understanding of the said topics.

Apart from the overall understanding of concepts in the chapter, most of the problems that are asked in the CBSE board papers too are either from these end-of-chapter NCERT questions or are based on the topics addressed in them. For subjects such as Social Sciences and for some topics in Science these NCERT questions are hot favourites for the examination paper setters. It has been further observed that for application oriented subjects such as Maths and Physics the questions posed in the CBSE board papers may be loosely based on the NCERT questions–often the core concept being tested remaining the same, with variations in the values therein.. Therefore, all the students out there who are preparing for their class X and class XII CBSE board papers better take these NCERT questions seriously!

Students should essentially start tackling these NCERT questions once they are through with the entire chapter. A thorough understanding of the concepts in the chapter will help students frame conceptually correct and complete answers. If possible students should try to support their answers to these NCERT questions with neat and well labeled illustrations. While writing answers to the NCERT questions, students should also stick to the prescribed word limit.

While attempting these questions, students can seek help from the readymade NCERT solutions booklet. However, students should be cautioned to use the solution booklet as a reference book only. Complete dependence on such readymade material could be detrimental for students learning as it could hinder the ability of students to comprehend text and write answers in their own words. While seeking help from these readymade solutions booklets for NCERT questions, students should look for the following factors: clarity in language, , relevance to the chapter, word limit etc. There are various websites that provide free NCERT solutions to the NCERT questions for classes VI- XII.

So go ahead and use these free NCERT solutions to improve your grades.

Wishing you all the very best for exams!

NCERT Online

NCERT goes online! The NCERT textbooks can now be viewed online. Even a decade back something like this would have been difficult to imagine.

The NCERT was set up way back in 1961 by the Government of India as an autonomous organization to assist and advise the centre and state on policies related to education and help in the implementation of the same. Over the years, the council has increasingly taken on the role of the introducing innovations in the field of education in areas of reforms and curriculum framework.

The NCERT online textbooks have made life easier for a lot of students. The availability of online NCERT textbooks has taken the student-focussed educational initiatives of NCERT to new heights. The NCERT as an organization is not new to initiatives in the area of educational technology.  The Central Institute of Educational Technology set up in 1984 is a constituent organization under NCERT that undertakes several technology-based educational initiatives. The knowledge explosion of the last decade has enabled a situation where the knowledge-base doubles every 2-3 years (source: UNESCO “ICT in Teacher Education”). The Council’s decision to introduce NCERT online textbooks can also be rightfully viewed as a first step towards weaving knowledge in a multi-disciplinary fashion.

With the introduction of online NCERT textbooks the Council has made an effort to make the source of learning more flexible than the traditional ones. The driving force behind a move like this may well be the increasing awareness that knowledge does not come from a central source, but that it actually emanates from all around us. The move to make available online NCERT textbooks is a step that recognizes the huge potential of the internet.

As expected, the NCERT online textbooks are a huge hit with both students and teachers. The students can now easily access the textbooks for all classes from class I to class XII. They are free to read these NCERT textbooks online or download them for free, as they are available in PDF format. Each chapter is available as a separate PDF file and can be opened by clicking on the chapter title in the table of contents. With the textbooks going online, students who were previously likely to use ‘non-availability of textbooks’ as an excuse for their poor performance in schools, now had no one to blame but themselves! So, it was time to dig in their heels and study. That is a good job done by NCERT online textbooks!

Cheers!