NEET 2021: Important tips and tricks to crack NEET, read expert guide

India’s single largest medical entrance exam for undergraduate courses, the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), is just a few months away this year. The gateway for all MBBS aspirants into some of the premium medical institutes in the country, NEET is known for being one of the most competitive examinations in India.

The high level of competition that exists makes students start preparing for it at least a couple of years in advance by enrolling in coaching classes, taking guidance/help from online learning platforms, and burning the midnight oil for months on end. But this relentless preparation is also one of the reasons why a final couple of months before the exam is a critical phase – it can make or break your chances of admission into your dream college.

Preparing for NEET requires a lot of planning and perseverance while adopting a methodical and strategic approach. Meticulously charting out your preparation and sticking to your schedule is important. To that end, here are some key tips and tricks shared by Shivam Solanki, Senior Program Manager at Toppr, that will help you ace the exam.

Tips and Tricks to crack NEET

• Master the tough concepts first
• Create distinctive study styles
• Create a mind map
• Focus on the NCERT portions
• Try out practice papers
• Steer clear of unnecessary distractions
• Follow a healthy diet and never compromise on good sleep

1. Master the tough concepts first

While preparing for the exam, it always helps to mark out the concepts that you find most challenging or are unable to grasp easily in each chapter. Spend dedicated time learning these concepts thoroughly, revising them, and solving questions based on them. Make sure to note down complex concepts or formulae and keep reading/revising them, especially in the last few days before the exam as it will help you retain the information better.

2. Create distinctive study styles

Just as how every individual is different, we all learn and retain information differently. Some people learn better with graphs or images while others learn with real-life situation-based concepts. A study method that works for your friend may not be effective for you and vice versa. Ensure you create a unique studying style that works best for you. Here are some styles that can facilitate efficient learning:

Prepare mnemonics to remember various concepts such as classification of organisms, scientific names, etc. For instance, try to remember the Krebs cycle – the citric acid cycle and the tricarboxylic acid cycle.

Citrate → Aconitate → Isocitrate → Oxalosuccinate → α-Ketoglutarate → Succinate → Fumarate → Malate → Oxaloacetate

Make sentences you can remember and start to associate things with the concepts you are learning with simple, easily rememberable things to retain the information. For example, one popular method of remembering the sentence ‘Citric acid is one key substrate for mitochondrial oxidation’ is to use the line ‘Caesar's Armies Invaded Other Kingdoms Searching for Oranges’. Such sentence formulations will help you learn formulae and concepts better and recall them during the exam.

3. Create a mind map

A mind map is merely a visual map of your ideas and the concept you have learned laid out in your mind to help you recall better. When preparing for NEET which has large portions of study material to learn, create a mind map of the chapter that you have studied and try adding as many details as possible to it. This will allow you to create a proper structure in your mind without the information being cluttered, thereby enabling you to perform better in the exam.

4. Focus on the NCERT portions

The NEET exam is largely based on the NCERT syllabus. The NCERT material contains well-researched and updated content along with multiple questions being asked from these books. It would also help to stay aware of the paper pattern and note down the weightage that each concept/chapter carries to ensure you aren’t missing out on anything. This will also help you understand the concepts you need to prioritize.

5. Try out practice papers

One of the best ways to truly prepare for any examination is to try out previous years’ question papers and mock tests. Examiners are usually known to follow a standardized level when it comes to creating question papers for NEET. While attempting previous years’ papers will give you a fair idea of what to expect in the exam, mock tests are often designed to be more challenging, thereby enabling you to stay well-prepared. Utilize these to hone your time management skills and put your learning to the test. Moreover, you can also use these practice tests to review your mistakes, solve doubts, and improve performance.

6. Steer clear of unnecessary distractions

One of the most important skills to develop while preparing for NEET is time management. Managing time efficiently can help you cover more ground in terms of the chapters to learn and will certainly come in handy later in life. Choose a hobby that you are passionate about and helps you destress and stick to it. This will allow you to avoid unwanted distractions that come in the form of social media, pointless interactions that only increase your stress levels, movies, etc.

7. Follow a healthy diet and never compromise on good sleep

Last but not least on the preparation side, ensure you never compromise on a healthy, well-balanced diet and ample sleep. Combined, these will help your brain function effectively, perform better, and will also not leave you feeling stressed or tired.

What to do during the exam?

Now for the most important part – the actual exam. There are three key things to remember and follow during the exam –

●        Attempt your strongest subject first: Doing this will offer you a strategic advantage. answering questions on a subject that is your strong suit will boost your confidence and prevent you from panicking.

●        Don’t attempt the answer if you don’t know it: Since NEET has negative marking, it is best to skip a question in case you don’t know the answer. It will save time and also help you avoid negative marks.

●        Stay calm: It will be all for nothing if you stress or panic during the exam. Panic will clutter your mind and make all your years of preparation go to waste. Remain calm, take a deep breath, and think of all the times you performed well in practice tests.

The NEET exam may seem like a daunting challenge put before you but by following the aforementioned tips and preparing well, you can ace the exam.  

(The author of this article is Shivam Solanki, Senior Program Manager at Toppr. Views expressed here are personal)