NTSE is one of the most competitive and prestigious exams conducted at school level all over the India. A programme to identify, encourage, promote and reward academic talent, NTSE was restricted to the students of Delhi when started initially.
NTSE is conducted in two stages for the students of class 10. 1000 scholarships are awarded every year out of which 250 are reserved for SC, ST and physically challenged students.
Follow the below tips to ensure an efficient preparation strategy for NTSE:
- Give self-study its due credit
To score well and be awarded with the prestigious NTSE scholarship, it is important that one spends a substantial amount of time in self – study. Whether or not you have enrolled for coaching classes, spending a minimum of 2-3 hours a day in self-study is a must. To do this effectively, create a well-structured study timetable. While making this plan, keep several pointers in mind like your school exam schedule, your learning capacity, the days left for the exam, etc.
- Stick to NCERT
To prepare well for the NTSE, it is important that you stick to the NCERT. It keeps your concepts strong, helps you learn faster, score better and eventually when the NTSE results are declared – get a good rank. The simple and easy to understand language helps in building a strong base and strengthen the understanding of concepts.
- Section-wise strategy
The first thing that you must do is plan your study in such a way that equal time is divided between both the sections of NTSE. The NTSE and board exam syllabus are similar. So, plan your study schedule accordingly.
MAT (Mental Ability)
The best way to build your preparation for the Mental Ability section is to practice as much as you can. To make sure that you are practicing enough to build your speed and accuracy, set a designated time on your daily schedule. The quant based questions specially need a lot of preparation and effort. Try and gather NTSE exam sample papers, or the previous year papers.
SAT (Scholastic Ability)
To score well in this section, divide your study time equally between Mathematics, Science and Social Science.
Mathematics
While learning and practicing concepts and questions for mathematics, try and aim for questions that qualify as HOTS (higher order thinking skills). Apart from solving all questions from your NCERT textbook, you can also refer to R.D. Sharma or R.S. Aggarwal for additional clarity on concepts or practice questions.
Science
Out of Physics, Chemistry and Biology, first identify the subject you are least comfortable with. For the NTSE, begin with the subject that will be most time consuming. Here are some subject-wise tips to study better.
Social Science
Studying the social science subjects will help you the most as the NTSE exam syllabus and the board exams syllabus are same. However, this will take a lot of time as social science is a theoretical subject.
- Online Test Module
To effectively prepare for NTSE and test yourself, it is important that you use a proper test series. Only solving NTSE exam sample papers and NTSE previous year papers is not enough. The online test series will help build your speed and accuracy. To ace the NTSE exam, it is imperative that your question solving speed is competitive and at the same time, you do not make any mistakes.
- Keep Calm and Be Confident
Confidence is the most important ingredient in the mix for NTSE success. It is important that once we set our minds to something, we work hard to accomplish that goal. Students tend to load themselves with study material from almost every possible source and end up being unable to balance their school work with the preparation for the NTSE. This results in low scores on school exams and below average performances on mock NTSE papers. On days such as these it is important that you keep your head up and remind yourself about the honour of being known as a NTSE scholar. All you really need is to take a breath and start afresh. The biggest key to success is believing that you can! So, don’t stop believing in yourself, no matter what! Keep reminding yourself – your hard work will yield results.