How to Manage Time While Preparing for a Competitive Exam?

Competitive exams are difficult to crack and more difficult to score high marks. Candidates study hard and put in great effort to top these exams. However, very often, their common complaint is that they are unable to complete the paper on time. Hence, many candidates end up losing marks they could have garnered. This results in a dip in the overall score and impacts their chances of bagging a seat in a leading institute. But there are ways to circumvent this issue. We take you through some smart strategies to manage time during your competitive exam preparation.

Organise your time before starting

Firstly, focus on organising your time before you even begin. Keeping everything organised gives you a sense of control and eliminates stress. It also helps you come up with different strategies to tackle your studies. The aim is to be clear about what you will do and for how long during the day and through the months. Hence, have a ‘to-do’ list in place, jotting down every activity you will indulge in, including studies. It will help in self-assessment as well. Thus, focus on making ‘time’.

Assess your requirements

Cracking any competitive exam is no mean feat. It is not only about studying hard but also about assessing your needs and requirements. This will help you decide the best strategy you can adopt to manage your time. Thus, assess how much time you will need to study each day and the time you will spend on other activities, etc. This includes exercising, sleep, eating, travelling, and other miscellaneous activities. Now, cut down the time you spend on every other activity giving more time to your studies. Do keep a healthy balance though.

Streamline your priorities

Prioritising is the key to effective time management. Setting your priorities will help you take a proactive approach in deciding on the direction of your preparation. Give importance to subjects or topics you are weak in and allocate more time to these. Spend less time on those that you are strong in and confident about. However, do not skip any topic while setting your priorities. Enroll in a competitive exam coaching institute, where you will be assessed in your strong and weak areas. Besides, you will also get guidance from the tutors at the institute.

Prepare a study schedule

This is understood, yet we cannot stress the importance of preparing a proper study schedule. It is important to have this in place after you have chalked out your priorities. Your schedule should be aligned with your priorities and one that you can commit to. Create a weekly study plan wherein you will dedicate a certain number of hours to your studies. At the end of the week, review your progress. This will help you in managing your time better, consequently helping you manage your time in your exams as well. Do include all non-study activities in the schedule too.

Stick to the schedule

Perhaps the biggest challenge for any student is to stick to the study plan they make. However, if you want to manage your time well, it is important to adhere to the schedule you have created. Be strict with yourself and dedicated as well. Follow the timetable you have set meticulously throughout the period of your preparation. Remember, if you deviate from this, it will affect your studies adversely, eventually impacting your preparation. However, stay positive always and keep stress at bay.

Stay away from peer pressure

Friends are important and can be very supportive too. However, you know yourself best. Therefore, always remember that nothing should override your study time…not even friends and social media. Yes, social media can be a big menace if not handled and used wisely. Also, one shoe does not fit everyone. What may work for your friend may not work for you. Hence, you have to devise your own strategy. But, joining competitive exam classes will help you stay on track with your studies, and you can consider enrolling in one.
As in everything else, there are no shortcuts to acing a competitive exam. If you are wondering how the toppers achieve this level of success, it’s all about efficient and rigorous time management. You may have started preparing for competitive exams after 10th. But setting a proper schedule and following through with it till the end is crucial. Remember, competitive exams are result oriented, unlike Board exams. Therefore, you must adopt a different approach and preparation strategy. We believe our tips will help you become a good time manager and hence, efficient. This will surely help you excel in your exams.