Useful Articles 

Why most students fail to crack competitive exams?
Here are 8 things you should be clear about before attempting any competitive exam. Implementation will definitely lead to success.


1. Lack of proper guidance and usage of improper material

                One of the major causes students are unable to crack competitive exams is lack of proper guidance and usage of improper material. Let us suppose, you wish to go from Chandigarh to Delhi. But your route is chandigarh-haridwar-agra-mumbai and so on… in such a way you will never reach Delhi and even if you reach, you will be wasting a lot of time. So, usage of proper material is utmost important along with proper guidance for usage of the provided material.  You may be shocked to know that bestsellers books available in market for preparation also contain mistakes and wrong answers to many questions.  

2. Lack of speed, practice and accuracy

                Another reason for students to fail in competitive exams is lack of speed, practice and accuracy. Speed cannot be achieved only though practice. There are many candidates who connect speed only with practice without realizing that in competitive exams, we are going through a high level competition in which lakhs of students will be appearing. The only trick to defy speed is use of shortcut tricks. In books, the method to solve is a stepwise method to make you understand but actually in an entrance exam, there is usually no need to calculate the exact answer. You can rely on the nearest closest answer but it needs to be calculated and figured out under an experienced guide in a careful manner. 
Once you are done with speed and practice… accuracy will follow automatically. 

3. “NON-USAGE” of Time saving techniques

                Most students waste their time during the exam in solving the full question. When you prepare for competitive exam, you should be fully aware that you should not solve questions using normal methods. Rather you should concentrate on learning time saving techniques and shortcut methods which actually help you in saving time.

4. Sectional Cut-Off

                If you think sectional cut off is a big hindrance towards your success, then you are definitely in the wrong lane. There is no substitute to hard work. Everybody is weak or strong in some or the other subject. But you have to work hard to turn your weakness into strength and there is no excuse acceptable against it.

5. Aspirations

                I have heard people saying, I attempted 150 questions out of 200 or 85 questions out of 100, but question that arises is “why are most of these students unable to crack it up?” The simplest answer is “low scoring”… but why? 
Let me explain…. Actually, most of the students make a common mistake of making wrong guesses. They make guess, when they think that some question has 70 percent (or may be even more) chances of getting correct, which actually gets wrong. So, the one who was estimating 150 correct questions, ends up with 50 wrong ones, downgrading his marks to 100 and then negative marking has a separate cost when it comes to marks. 
…And then we end up blaming corruption, wrongly checked or may be many other reasons.

6. Follow correct strategy of attempting an exam

                Whenever going for an entrance exam, you must do your swot analysis first. You should know yourself deeply, your weaknesses and strengths both. No one is perfect. You have to decide your way to success. Do not pick questions of those topics in which you are not very comfortable. You may tend to loose more marks there. But be sure you do not miss many questions because of the same as sectional cut off is an important part of almost all competitive exams. 

7. Never skip marks-rich questions

                There are atleast 25% questions in almost all kinds of entrance exams which are bit difficult, lengthy or high level questions which students tend to leave unanswered owing to difficulty level or time consumption. Such questions are usually bar graph, chart type or paragraph reading that are linked to 5 questions which means if you are able to solve crux behind that single question, you will get next 5 or 7 questions correct. So, try NOT to leave such questions. 

8. Always cross-verify the background of your mentor or teacher

            Just attending coaching classes at renowned coaching centres can't get you success. If teachers were actually so well qualified there, they would not have been working for someone else to earn 12K-20k per month. Before enrolling you should know, how many competitive exams has your teacher cleared? Know his qualification. If he is well qualified, then has he completed his/her education from a renowned institute? Is getting admission in that institute easy or difficult? It helps you to know your teacher better and decide wisely. 

Compiled by:
Pratyush Ramdewar
Awarded Best Career Counselor at Pride Of Indian Education Awards'20 by Mandira Bedi
Ex-ICF Member {ICF- International Coach Federation}
MBA (Regular), UBS Panjab University
{Cracked CAT Exam, UPSC twice, Bank PO twice, SSC Once}
Appreciated by Ex-Mayor Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA
Founder & CEO, PRCC Career Makerz