How to constantly improve yourself?

Many of the students who are preparing for GATE may have a lot of doubts regarding how to set up a schedule and what to study to maximize the advantage and score more in the exam. This idea is also popular as ‘smart work’ among the students who may have probably formed some opinions about what this actually means. This article contains some of my opinions and the general ideas about what practices could be helpful in increasing your level and could provide maximum increase in the performance with minimum efforts –

1) Preparing a basic timetable in the beginning of a topic might be very helpful. Keep an account of the time period in which you aim to finish it and also sort the study material that you will go through. Try to follow the plan no matter what the others are doing or following and this plan should be based on GATE Previous Year Papers.

2) Try solving the unsolved problems first rather than looking at the solutions of examples given as it develops the ability to think in an unconventional manner and builds up an approach towards facing new kind of problems. This may help you figure out some easier method than the one given in question and usually what happens is different questions may be solved by different methods but you may be able to figure out an universal methods that works best for you.

3) Revising the old practice papers that you have already solved before can be helpful. Carefully look into the mistakes that you made during the first attempt and rectify them. Learning from your mistakes is the best method to improve yourself in every aspect.

4) Don’t follow everything taught in the institutes blindly and use the previous year’s papers & GATE syllabus to figure out how much importance should be given to the topic.

5) Practicing tough questions might not be such a bad idea even when the questions asked in the GATE are relatively easier. They help in building up confidence if you are able to crack them.

6) Periodic retrospection can provide valuable feedback, help in identifying the mistakes made in the past and play an important role in improvising the style of studying.

7) If you get depressed too easily, then don’t  follow the above tip. Keep practicing and rely on your instincts for improvisation in the study style.

8) Try to include something new in the monotonous routine of studying. Experiment regularly by following different constraints like solving 10 questions at once and then checking the accuracy or you can set up a time limit for solving a particular number of questions.

9) Keep calm and maintain your confidence level, but don’t be too satisfied with your own result. Strive hard to achieve perfection.

10) Have faith in your capabilities.Since you are still reading this, i would advise you not to  look for too much guidance from other sources and devise your own methods to increase your performance level. Also, remember that your chances are never zero until the exam is over, so never give up midway as the more hard work you put in, the better results you’ll get.

So guys, if you liked this article, share it with your friends so that their morale can also be boosted because still there is enough time to crack GATE and we should not give up on our hard-work now.
Please comment with all your queries.