Insights on my Board results

This is probably the most anticipated post of the year, of the last two years. Never have I done this lot of drafts for anything, nor have been asked about how this post is coming up. Either way, before I begin, this post is not going to be me bragging about my marks. Instead, I'll be analysing how and where things went right, how they could've been different. Personally, when I entered 10th grade, I dug up a lot of articles and videos on board exams survival, best study tips, but none of them provided an idea of what to expect. This post aims to give you a sneak-peek of the sea of possibilities you might encounter in tenth grade, basically what I wish I could've seen earlier. And it's going to be a long read.

I got 97.4% in the board exam. Humanities subjects are not offered in South India, while in North you can opt Entrepreneurship, IT and other theory subjects for 10th boards. There are a lot of opportunities in the humanities stream. Most toppers from the North are from this stream, the ones who get 500/500 and 499. I'm not picking sides here, but you can't really compare a maths student and non-math student on the same scale. Due to this, south India, students are given only three career options - Doctor, Engineer and Chartered Accountant. Anything other than this is considered a bad career option, especially for undergraduate studies. If you're aiming for a career in humanities stream, consider taking maths and applying for subjects that suit your interest.

So let's begin where I made my first mistake. Science is not an easy scoring subject. Yeah, you read that right. People tell you science is the easiest subject in tenth, and a lot easier when compared to ninth-grade science (mechanics isn't my speciality.)  It is easy to understand, and interesting to read. But without practice, tackling exams will soon become disastrous. It doesn't mean you'll fail, but it will be hard to score full. And you need a ton of concentration while you read the text; because science textbooks are the only ones in which the authors would have shown off their vocabulary skills. You can't really blame the question paper to have out-of-syllabus questions, they would've been squeezed in somewhere. Though I managed to cover this stuff, I had failed to keep up with current environmental advancements. And I had two free-response questions about lab-directed microbial degradation. The truth is, I did write the correct answer, but you don't really need to write a half-page explanation defining your statement for 1 mark. This is where all this research would help. Show off your vocab skills, but keep it short. And I'm known for exceeding the word limit at least by 400 words. (This post is a good example)(95/100)

Math was pretty easy, all credits to all my teachers. With all those never-ending assignments, I got used to the time restrictions and free flow of algorithms. Each time I completed an assigned work and plan to sit back, they gave me tests that bruised my ego pretty hard. Again, maths is an easy subject and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Just practice. That will take you places. I'm no math genius, but on the day of the exam, I was confident, and even before the exam, I was a little too easy. Maybe if I had given the same consistency then, I might have procured a centum. That's something I regret now. Consistency is very important in math, and even if you've had enough practice, it doesn't hurt to get a little more. I never say no to extra coffee, and I should've done the same here. If you're a tenth/twelfth grader reading this, take this one thing from this post, do not give up on maths, it is your actual score booster. (If you're wondering why this much rant, I got 98. Losing 1 or 2 marks is more painful than losing a handful)

Languages and Social Science are my favourite subjects. All three are great companions of scores. Give them some love and time, they'll spice your results with magic. This is perhaps the only real-life example of Newton's third law. Although for social, you might have to brush up your memory, because geography is pretty intense. Geography is not my area of expertise, so I had a rough time with all the types of soil and what crops grow in it. But excluding that, chapters involving climate and biodiversity are great! If you're a history buff, I'd recommend reading classics before your academic year gets intense. Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Charles Dickens and George Eliot can give you a taste of 18th-19th century Europe. Also, the last two sections of History deals with the rise of media and its influence. You can read these to quote examples, which is a really good way of showing your teacher that you're passionate about the subject. (Trust me, you'll need that relationship. Project works require a lot of critics.) Languages, concentrate on grammar first. That's the easiest scoring section. Understand it, and you'll never make mistakes. That will also improve your writing skills, which is a basic necessity for other sections. With a few practice tests, you should be able to ace the exam. ( I got 99 in both languages and 96 in Social)

Overall, with consistency and practice, you can score a lot more than I did. Do not sacrifice your extracurriculars for the sake of studying. That's the biggest lie you'll ever encounter. Say you stop your extracurricular for exams, will you be studying at that time? Obviously not. If your brain can study for 4 hours, that's the limit at that stage. Just because you cancel your activities, it doesn't mean that your brain can concentrate more. Your goal must be to improve brain efficiency, not expanding study hours. Follow what your mind tells you. Even if you have a big test next week, if you want to sleep at this instant, sleep. How long will you procrastinate? Once your brain's requirement is fulfilled, you'll automatically get back to work. But if you fail the test, I'm not responsible for that. Rather, you'll learn how to plan and balance both. With this lockdown comes an immense amount of time. If you're taking things slow, use this time to experiment with different methods. That's one thing I deeply regret. I cannot stick to time-tables for more than three sessions.  The only time-table I've ever followed is my school's and Austin and Ally airing time on Disney. If you guys find a planning system that works for you, do let me know in the comments for me to try. If I succeed, I'll credit you on my social media! And if you guys are interested in my study routine, let me know in the comments. It is not perfect, I warn you.

Speaking of social media, I have started a new quotes page on Instagram! It is called the "Vampbrain." I'll be posting a lot of stuff there too; you can call it a test for me to adhere to the word limit:) Make sure to follow me there. Do keep an eye on my main account(Bharathipara) on Twitter and Instagram for more updates. Thank you for reading till the end :)

Stay safe!