Sunday, 30 October 2016

Happy Diwali!

Wishing all readers a very happy and prosperous Diwali.Wish that God gives you the energy and patience to battle out all the odds,work hard and fulfil your dreams.

Thursday, 27 October 2016

Revision Strategy : Class 11 Chemistry

Greetings Readers
First up in the revision series is Class 11 Chemistry - 
Physical Chemistry - This part although quite conceptual and not involving much mugging up becomes a problem when you forget basic formulas and approach to solving the problems.Topics like Equilibrium and Thermodynamics(which are the main weighing topics of Class 11 Physical Chem) give you the most problems.I myself used to struggle with Keq and concentration problems in Equilibrium and Entropy,Work calculation in various processes etc. in Thermodynamics.But,you know you can solve these problems with quite a simple approach. Choose a topic,focus your mind and extract all you can from your class notes,solve the problems again which the teacher made you do.Do the questions again in which you had got doubt or were unable to solve(A very good concept for efficient revision in future is that mark all those questions with like a box or circle or red pen,that you felt were "achha questions" or good or tough or teaching some important concept).
If coaching modules are not sufficient,take up Narendra Awasthi Physical Chemistry book,solve the new problems.Generate doubts and go to your teacher and ask them.The best thing revision does it to make you generate new doubts and once you separately got o the teacher and clarify them,you will never forget that concept/question. Our teacher used to say,"Ye jo tum doubt puchh rahe ho na, ye hi aayega asli exam mein,baaki normal questions to sab solve kar lete hain" or "The doubts you are asking are quite probable to come in the real exam,as common questions can be solved by all".
Summary for Organic Chem : Teachers notes,coaching modules and practice more and more questions.Ask doubts freely and improve upon your concepts.

Organic Chemistry - One of the most interesting parts of Chemistry which can be made uninteresting if the way of teaching or learning is not conceptual,explanation giving rather plain,boring and mugging up type.As such there is not much of Organic Chem in Class 11 as compared to Class 12,but still basic concept chapters like IUPAC Nomenclature,POC,GOC and even Hydrocarbons are still there. GOC is like "ABCD" of Organic Chemistry and once you master that, you can even do some questions indirectly using its concepts.Anyways,for revising Organic Chemistry the best way is to read,understand from you teacher's notes the mechanism,the "why this is happening" part of all the reactions and other basic concepts.

Organic Chem is more about concept building rather than mugging up.People who mug up often fail in the final exam if the question is asked in a slightly different way,as those people remember the reaction like A + B gives C and not that what to react with A to give C as major or like C can be made by which reactions.These twisty questions can be conquered only by thorough practice,which can be done by coaching modules,DPPs and also Organic Chemistry AIPMT/AIIMS of MS Chouhan.MS Chouhan contains a lot of questions to quench you thirst of Organic Chemistry.Doing it while revising is recommended.Also,regarding doubts the stand remains the same.Ask doubts,make concepts,ask more doubts and make more concepts.
Summary for Physical Chem: Teachers notes,coaching modules,understand the underlying mechanism and concepts of all reactions,practice and ask doubts,improving you concepts gradually.

Inorganic Chemistry - Probably the most dreaded part of Chemistry felt by most of the students.S-block,P-block and what not?But wait,two very interesting and conceptual topics of 'Periodic Table and Periodicity" and the greatest - "Chemical Bonding" are included in it too.For the conceptual part,revising those concepts that your teacher has taught and practicing a good amount of questions is sufficient.For the more mugging up part,I can say that have 2-3 good reading of NCERT, try to link if their is any underlying concept or even popular mnemonics that can help you learn those series and orders of reactivity,boiling point,melting point,stability etc.If not try to write down again and again to remember them.Do all possible questions so that no important fact/concept/order is left.Stick to NCERT book rather than going in much detail
Summary for Inorganic Chemistry : NCERT book for theory,writing down to remember,making self concepts or mnemonics and practice a lot.
Post for Physics and Biology Revision is coming up in the next few days.
UPDATE : I am back on Quora.
Till then
Bye!



Revision Strategy : Class 11

Greetings Readers
I am back to blogging after being a bit busy for Mid-Sem Exams at college.Anyways, this post is also dedicated to the demands of readers who wanted me to write on a revision strategy,which is workable and realistic.As such all of you must have completed quite a good stretch of the syllabus and those in Class 12 must be reaching the end of the whole syllabus
I am gonna explain this taking my own example.
First of all,basically all of us including me,were taught few chapters in all subjects,then weekly/monthly tests were taken,we scored and then again new topics,new tests and the cycle goes on.The problem arose at the end of the year(Class 11) that I couldn't solve many problems from Kinematics,forgot a lot of Chemistry formulas and didn't remember any examples from Animal Diversity and Plant Diversity.Did you too?
Now,next problem comes,the time.Everyone knows it's pretty difficult learning new topics at coaching that day and covering up old ones simultaneously.But, you have to inculcate this habit.This will help you even more in Class 12,where you have to revise the whole Class 11 syllabus simultaneously with Class 12.
For a broad plan,I would like you to make an index of topics(according to the sequence you studied them) for each subject,make a few columns to check/uncheck the facts that you covered NCERT, coaching modules,coaching notes,solving DPPs and even write a comment at the end that you are confident about it or not.I used to do the same to keep a track of topics that I was strong in and ones I needed to improve upon.Also,best time for first concise revision of  Class 11 is the ending of course around November,December,January and even Febraury. Plus, a final shot can be given in March post your Class 11 exams.Also,if possible,do revise in parts in like August and September what you were taught in April,May,June.It will help you maintain a continuity and picking up the initial topics again won't be so difficult at the end.
I am making individual posts for each subject.First up today is Class 11 Chemistry.

Tuesday, 11 October 2016

Race against Time : The Solution

Greetings Readers
All of you are in the middle of your preparation phase,right?Those in Class 11 must be doing Rotational Mechanics and Center of Mass in Physics and those in Class 12 must be busy with revising the complete course efficiently and repairing their somewhat broken concepts.
In my last post,I highlighted some issues that you all must be facing in some form or the other due to lack of time for preparation.This post aims to help you with those problems, as suggested by own experiences with these problems.This ain't gonna be any normal do or don'ts post.This will be in a way that's completely relatable to all of you as normal students.
First of all,the problem was "Time" and "Time Management".See,you don't need to do any course in Time Management to manage time.It's something that you have to build in you,yourself.
Firstly,this post is for regular school going students(as students in coaching institutes like Allen Kota have a different schedule,so will address their issues in a separate post).
Yours is a hectic schedule,robbing you of a lot of precious time needed for study and practice for NEET/AIIMS. Plus,these school people take a lot of assignments,practicals,file work,half-yearlies,term exams and the most hyped "Preboards"!
Those people just try to steer you away from NEET/AIIMS preparation to getting 90+ % in Board Exams(bitter truth).Yes,the only goal of majority of schools is making more and more students to get more than 90% marks in Boards,so that they can put up your picture in ads to attract more students. I and my batch mates witnessed it with almost all big schools in our city.Also, Boards marks will not get you anywhere except like B.Sc admissions in some State/National Universities,and those are places you don't want to go(definitely I think!).So first break the hype that Board marks matter.
For NEET(as off 2016) you need 50% in PCB and individually passing all the three PCB subjects along with only passing marks in English.For AIIMS, you need aggregate percent more than 60% of PCB and English combined.See you need barely 60% for even AIIMS,leave alone NEET. Although if you study conceptually for NEET/AIIMS and just work hard with derivations and presentation style in last 2 months of Boards, 85%+ is automatically assured.
So my first message to you is,"Stop worrying about Boards,rather lay stress on making each and every concept of your NEET/AIIMS syllabus strong,don't leave out on anything."
Next,avoid extra-curricular activities in these 2 years at school,which though may be good, waste a lot of your time. Avoid becoming prefects or monitors of class,as unnecessary burden is to be avoided in these 2 years. Do DPPs and coaching modules in school when free,even if teachers scold you or catch you sometimes. Don't be scared at all. A friend of mine did DPPs and modules only in school and also slept in the school bus rather than at home,to get rest along with saving time to study at home.See the determination! Today that guy is in SMS Medical College,Jaipur.
Also,I think minimum attendance required is 75% or 80% in most of the schools in the country.Try to take holidays on days you expect go useless in schools. Make a notebook and keep a track of your own attendance,yourself.Take holidays on days which come in between other holidays like yesterday,where Monday came in between Sunday and Dussehra-Moharram holidays.It will give you long stretches for undisturbed studies.Delay school written work till the last moment,don't become the "First to Submit the File" person, otherwise teachers will expect you to give the file first,each time.The main point is that you need to extract time from school to make your career,fulfill your dream and avoid wasting one more precious year of your life dropping for entrance exams.Those 'school wallas' will not remember you once you are gone after giving them a board percentage and a photo,when you drop for your preparation.
If you can get a "setting"(you know what I mean) done for attendance in school,atleast in Class 11 if not in Class 12,please go for it and study as best as you can in Class 11.The reason behind this is that if you make strong concepts in Class 11 itself,you will not carry the stress of it in Class 12 and revising topics will be way easier.I have seen fellow students spoiling their Class 12 time in learning Class 11 again and also those who completely forgot Class 11 in Class 12.So be very particular in Class 11 to improve your learning skill,solving skills and speed so that your Class 12 sails smoothly.
Next thing is that don't get depressed if you don't understand some complicated topics in one shot.Telling about me,I took at least 6 tries and revisions to make Diversity in Living World strong as a topic,learnt Plant Morphology properly only 1 month before NEET(AIPMT),did Rotational motion some 8-9 times to be able to solve all the type of questions and topics like Waves were something I completed properly only 2-3 weeks before AIPMT. So you understand some things just at the time you need them!
That's it for this post.Will update this post,if I get more "jugaadu" ideas or hear some more problems from you all.
You are FREE to comment your problems in the comments section. ThePMTBlog is for you,I will definitely reply(not just try) to your comments,provided I have the resources and experience to help you.
UPDATE(NEW) : I had deleted my Quora account about 18 days back,but with some efforts, things have worked out with Quora finally and I am back on Quora. Although I am still a bit angry on Quora banning me earlier but still a larger audience of the blog was from Quora and I had to get back to them, in case they couldn't visit the blog.I wish they don't ban me again(for useless reasons), but the risk has to be taken to reach out a larger number of students.
Anyways the blog, which is the main platform,will be remaining at the forefront.I will continue to post and write blog posts on various issue and topics exclusively here @ ThePMTBlog.  Quora will remain more as an interaction and communication platform rather than a content platform,because no one knows when those Admins get freaked out again.
Till next time
Bye!

Saturday, 1 October 2016

Race against Time : The Problems

Greetings Readers
It's the dilemma and confusion of all aspirants of competitive exams like JEE,NEET or AIIMS alike that how does one manage time.Questions like,"How do I best utilize the time that I have available with me?" or "How much should I study per day to get the best results?" and even "I am studying for x hours a day but it's not helping me,what should I do?"
See,this problem called "Time nahi hai" or "I don't get time" occurs with everyone,literally everyone.Be it the toppers,average scorers,struggling people and who not.Our teacher once used to say,"If I write a post on Facebook on the thing that time is inadequate for exam preparation and this is very unfair,that post will receive lakhs of likes from almost anywhere and everywhere!"
Jokes apart, still one can't sit and keep complaining about these problems and still ace the exams.Something has to be done.Changes have to be brought to yourself,your surroundings,your way of life for this preparation period.You have to change yourself according to the conditions.
Coming to the point,let's take an example of the life of a common school going student who wants to prepare for NEET/AIIMS too with coaching classes in evening.
The normal schedule - 
Wake up - Maybe between 5:30 or 6:00 in the morning.
Get ready and go to school : Between 6:30 and 7:00
School day :Varying between 7:30 to like 1:30 in the afternoon
Reach home : Around 2:00 in afternoon
Eat food,rest :About 1 hour
Go to coaching : 4:00 to 8:00(approx)
Come back home : 8:30 in evening
Study or do home work : Maybe from 8:30 to 10:30 or 11:00
Sleep : till next morning
So we see that this is a quite hectic schedule for a normal person and can be exasperating and tiring for a student.Also getting only 2-3 hours of self study,after a the busy day feels too less.
Topics may be taught at coaching,questions may be given for solving but one may not get the time to read the topics again,grasp them and resolve his/her doubts.Also,question solving,which is the most important part of this preparation,takes a toll as since if one doesn't understand the topic, how will he solve them?
Next comes the situation arises when school and coaching are going in opposite directions,teaching way different topics to the same student at the same time.It's like teaching "Cell:The unit of Life" in the Morning and "Diversity in the living world" in the evening.How will the student understand it?Many students aren't able to cope up this pressure(neither was I) and get depressed and demotivated.
Also,social media like Whatsapp and Facebook serve as "time-wasters",where students bored with this monotonous life seek some happiness,some joy or fun but result in eventually wasting more time and getting more demotivated.
Eventually,at one time,there comes a big lag between how much the student has learned actually and what topic the coaching guys have reached(following strict and fixed schedules).This creates a big backlog that can become a long term problem for the student.
This post is not meant for demotivating you,I just wanted you to have a look upon your problems, and the need to act upon them.Whatever problems I have quoted above have been personally faced by myself too and my next post will give an answer to all of the problems stated above,in the context of what I did to solve them and what result the solutions gave.
Till then,I request you to ponder upon these and get yourself motivated and encouraged to solve them.Nothing is impossible for you as an NEET/AIIMS aspirant if you have determination and patience.
Do post your queries in the comments section.I will try my best to answer them.
Till the next post
Bye!