It is 2020 already, and students who are preparing for NEET exam have to gear up to attend one of the toughest exams in India. NEET examination is like the gateway to a career in medicine. Be it MBBS or BDS; students have to crack NEET in order to get into any college.
How to Prepare for NEET (NEET Preparation Strategy)
If you are someone who is wishing to attempt the NEET exam, then it is important for you to know how to prepare for the exam in the first place. The number of seats available in medicine is very less, and with every passing year, the number of aspirants is applying for this exam.
This is the reason why it has become very important to have a solid preparation strategy in hand which will help aspirants to crack the exam. In this article, you are going to see some dos and don’ts along with best preparation strategy for NEET 2020.
1] Know the Exam Schedule
Most of the students immerse themselves in the preparation that they forget about the important dates regarding the examination. The NTA has already released all the important dates, and they stopped taking any more applications on December 31st itself.
Now students have to wait for the admit card which will be issued on March 27, 2020. The exam will be conducted across the country in 157 centres on May 3rd, and the results will be announced on June 4, 2020.
These are pretty important dates, and you have to mark them in your calendar so that you won’t miss out on any of the important stuff.
2] Know the Syllabus
The syllabus that NEET covers is vast. You should know about the syllabus beforehand so that you can perform better in the final exam. NEET covers three subjects- Physics, Chemistry and Biology. There is a total of 180 questions out of which 45 are from Physics, 45 are from Chemistry and 90 are from Biology.
These biology questions can be further divided into Botany and Zoology questions. NTA gives the syllabus beforehand for students, and the first thing that you have to do here is to compare it with your 10+2 syllabus.
There will be some common topics, and you can study them along with your academic preparation. There will be some topics that you won’t find in your 10+2 syllabus, and you have to spend separate time for the preparation of these topics.
If you are a dropout, then you can spend a good amount of time preparing for the exam. However, the first thing that you have to do here is making a schedule. The schedule should be perfectly curated considering your holidays too. It should be flexible enough to make some small modifications in between.
There should be enough time to prepare, attempt NEET online test series, revise and practice. You have to spend separate time for everything so that you can get a hold on the entire exam.
3] Subject Wise Preparation Tips
1) Biology
You should be thorough with every topic that you find in NCERT syllabus. Do not mug and make sure to understand every topic by heart. Mark the points that confuse you and discuss it with your faculty, friends or anyone who is familiar with the subject, and you can rely on.
There are so many videos available on the internet which will help you with the topics too, you can check them. But stick to one source only, the more you research, the more you get confused.
You will get distracted by some fake articles and videos online, so be careful. Keep attempting NEET online test series to know where you stand.
2) Physics
Physics is all about problems, and you cannot just remember the formula and solve the questions. Learn the topics first; you should be familiar with the topics and understand them perfectly. This way, you can answer the questions without any worries. You can use a notepad to pen down all the formulas for quick review.
3) Chemistry
In organic chemistry, you have to understand the basic concepts and chemical reactions. Takedown the notes while you are studying a chapter. In physical chemistry, you have to be clear about the topics.
4] Exam Pattern
It is important for you to be familiar with the exam pattern first. There are a total of 180 questions that must be answered in 180 minutes. The subject wise division has been mentioned above.
The exam is for 720 marks which means that each right answer will carry four marks. There is negative marking, and for every wrong answer that you bubble, you will lose one mark.
This entire exam is conducted offline only, and you have to learn how to bubble properly. Once you bubble the wrong answer, there is no going back, so you have to pretty careful about that too. Keep practising the NEET online test series for accuracy and speed improvement.
5] Preparation of Timetable
More than 16 lakhs students apply for NEET exam every year, and there are a total of 1,02,586 seats (MBBS and BDS combined). These figures are enough to understand how fierce the competition is going to be. It is not easy for the students to stand atop in such competition, and this is the reason why you have to manage your time effectively.
With the time you have in hand, you should properly plan all the things and execute them perfectly. Spending 5-6 hours a day prepping for the exam will surely have good results. It is not easy for the school going students to spend this much time, but you have to try and allocate separate time for preparing and focus on it.
6] Smart Work Matters
Working hard is important, but smart work is a mandatory requirement. You have to divide your syllabus into easy, moderate and tough topics so that you can prepare accordingly. Here are some of the smart things that you can do during your prepping.
- Spend a lot of time on difficult topics, mugging or just reading them for the sake of it is nothing but a waste of time. Understand the topic, prepare it and ensure that you gain the required grip on the topic without fail.
- Break the lengthy chapters into topics and subtopics. This will ease out the entire learning process.
- If you see any relatable topics, make charts and comparison tables for them. This makes it easy for you to understand two or more topics at the same time. It becomes easy to remember them too.
- Have a notepad with important formulas, definitions, derivations and diagrams in it. This way, you will have all the information in one place, and it becomes easy for you to prepare accordingly.
- Flow charts, mind maps and ray diagrams are another way to boost up your memory.
- Keep goals for yourself and track the progress. This helps you in understanding where you stand and how much you have to work to reach these goals. Appreciate yourself in one way or another once you reach these goals.
- Sticky notes, flashcards are nothing less than a boon, make use of them.
7] Study Material
The study material that you are going to pick is very important. There are a lot of books available in the market, but not all of them are right and up to the mark.
So, it is better to do research and take suggestions from your faculty about the book that you pick. Once you choose a certain material for your preparation, stick to it. This is very important.
8] Revision Matters
Understanding and studying a concept is just one part of your preparation, and if you are unable to remember the things that you study, then everything is waste. This is the reason why it is important for you to revise.
Students prepare for some months for NEET, and it is not possible to remember everything that you read in the initial days right before your exam.
This is the reason why you have to make simple points of all the things and revise them at regular intervals. There is no need for studying things in depth; just read these points and memorize the concepts all by yourself.
9] Practice and Assess
Just reading all day is not going to give you the results that you are expecting. You have to practice and assess to know your knowledge. There are NEET online test series that you can take right from your home.
This way, you will get to know what are your strengths and weaknesses, and you will also learn how to perform in high-pressure situations too. Take these tests as soon as you are done with a topic. The online tests are highly customizable, so you can take a test for a particular topic and know how good you are.
As soon as you are done with studying, you can take the entire test. By that time you will get habituated to appear for tests, and it becomes easy for you.
You may also like: Subject-Wise Analysis of NEET Question Paper.
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