Time Management Tips For Competitive Exams You Need To Know - Exam101

The exam hall is so silent that you can hear your heartbeat, but suddenly, out of nowhere, bells start ringing! The exam supervisor is just 3 benches away from you and you are jumbled up in your thoughts of how you can attempt THAT LAST QUESTION that you know you can nail, but…. TIME’S UP! Sweat is rolling down your forehead, and…… 

Sounds like a nightmare, right? But, here’s how you can stop it from happening.

One of the biggest challenges you will ever face in your competitive exam is - time management.

 

If you’re an aspirant, who wants to clear any type of competitive exam, be it JEE, NEET, Banking, or any other exam, then you can relate to the above statement.

 

These kinds of competitive exams are constrained by time limits, which makes it more difficult no matter how much you have prepared for it if you’re lacking in time-management skills.

Some of you may not be able to score well despite the best preparation, just because of poor time management. All competitive exams are time-bound and thus you need to know how to manage your time effectively for better performance. It is necessary to understand and work towards time management skills before preparing for the exam.

Time Management 

What is Time Management?

Time management skills are the set of skills that help you use your time effectively to achieve your desired results without any rush. It is the coordination of tasks and activities to maximize the effectiveness and productivity of one’s efforts.

 

In competitive exams, strategizing time management can really save you from the last-minute pressure, where you can’t answer a question even after knowing it, just because you are out of time.

 

With proper planning, you can figure out how much time you need to spend on each question and make it a successful attempt to complete the paper.

 

In this article, we are going to provide you with some excellent tips to develop your time management skills for your exams-

●     Allot Specific Time Frame For Each Section:

Before you appear for the actual exam, there are some steps you need to take to make it easy for managing your time. 

You must have practiced mock tests from Exam101, which are designed from 5000+ question papers, which were time-bound during the preparation. 

Therefore, you can take help from that, and analyse how much time is provided to you in each section and how many questions you can answer within that period.

 

The bonus point of doing this is that if you are really good at one topic, go for it first, try and nail that one in lesser time and then move on to another topic that you think will consume a lot of your time.

●     Read It First, Then Start:

Usually, it will take only 5 minutes to go through the whole question paper, therefore, go through it first and mark lengthy questions to save your time,

1. Think and plan: Your answers for anything from multiple choice questions to comprehensions.

2. Pinpoint topic or question: Some questions can be really challenging, so mark and save them for later and go for the easy ones first.

3. If two questions are given to choose from, like essays, decide which one to attempt while reading your question paper.

 

●     Start With Easy and Then Come Back To The Rest:

Don’t waste time struggling to solve the difficult questions, mark them for later and just move on to the next. You don't want to miss out on the marks in the rest of the section because of one or a few challenging questions.

Come back to those tricky questions at the end, while the most important thing is to solve the maximum number of questions to gain the maximum score. Also, there is a negative marking system in such exams, so don’t hesitate to leave the question unattempted if you are not sure of the answer.

 

●     Practice, Practice, & PRACTICE.

We already know that practice is the key to success. You need to practice solving questions from multiple CAT mock test series on a regular basis so that you can easily tackle those types of questions during your exams.

 

Your mind should be active enough for attempting a maximum number of questions in a limited time constraint.

 

●     Learn Shortcut Tips and Tricks:

Solving complicated questions without any shortcut trick in the competitive exam can be time-consuming. 

It can keep you from completing the entire paper and increase the chances of scoring less. 

But there is an ample amount of shortcut methods that you can use to solve tough questions quickly, which will help you speed up during the actual exam. Because mostly, MCQs are asked in competitive exams.

 

Wrapping up:

 

We hope that these time management tips will help you in utilizing your time. Competitive exams are like sprints, not only against other competitors but also against time. 

Therefore, you need to track every minute of your exams and make it count. Meanwhile, you can visit Exam101 for the best test series for CAT exams, curated by experts with a cumulative experience of 40+ years to get started with your time management skills and overall exam preparation. Good luck!