7 NEET exam mistakes to avoid for high scores

7 NEET exam mistakes to avoid for high scores

The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) serves as a critical selection examination for aspiring medical professionals in India. Given the high stakes of securing a seat in one of the country’s prestigious medical colleges, NEET unsurprisingly leads to anxiety and fatigue among students.

To improve their performance, students should be aware of the common mistakes they make and learn how to avoid them. This article will discuss the most prevalent mistakes and provide solutions to reduce them. These tips come from Nitin Viijay, Founder and CEO of Motion Education, and can help students improve their rankings and achieve a higher percentile in their exams.

1. Neglect NCERT: In the pursuit of high scores, most students often spread themselves thin across numerous study materials and practice papers. This can lead to neglecting the foundational resource—NCERT textbooks. While external sources offer valuable insights, a strong grasp of core concepts from NCERT forms the bedrock for success in competitive exams such as JEE and NEET. These textbooks provide clear explanations and lay the groundwork for tackling advanced topics, ultimately enhancing a student’s chances of achieving a strong percentile. The minute a student decides to prepare for NEET, they search for the books that people refer from outside and neglect the NCERT books to clear their basics.

1. Dependency on mock tests: Many students feel that taking NEET mock tests is more beneficial than reading textbooks for NEET preparation. They focus more on solving NEET mock tests and spend very little time reading and understanding the basics of a chapter. It does help in the beginning when the difficulty level of the questions is low. As the preparation reaches an advanced stage, they need help to answer the questions that require a thorough understanding of the topic. While preparing, students must always read and understand the chapter before attempting mock tests. Only when the base and concepts are clear will they be able to attempt any question about a topic? Another important mistake students often commit during NEET preparation is avoiding analysing their mock test performances. After each mock test, they should get their mock tests analysed by their mentor to understand the scope of improvement and the recurring errors.

1. Shift from one book to another: The minute a student decides to prepare for NEET, they search for the books that people refer to for NEET preparation. Most students end up buying two or more reference books for a subject, apart from NCERT books. These books for NEET preparation usually sit on the shelves until exam day. Another common problem is shifting from one book to another by completing a chapter from both, which leads to clarity. To avoid these issues during the advanced stages of NEET preparation, students should start by buying only one reference book they intend to use. They should finish the NCERT books first and then complete the reference book. Only after completing these, should they refer to the third book for better retention of concepts.

1. Forget track of time: While answering the mock tests and previous years’ question papers, most of the students needed to remember to track the time, which may have resulted in many questions being unattempted. In exams like NEET, JEE, and other competitive exams, students need to track their time, which helps them to solve the maximum number of questions within a time frame. Moreover, tracking the time will help them reduce fatigue and anxiety during the exam hall, in which time is vital for everyone.

1. Trying to mug up the answers: While solving the mock tests and previous years’ NEET question papers, students may come across many questions they need help attempting. Though mugging up the answers for the Biology section may be beneficial sometimes, doing the same for the Physics and Chemistry sections usually proves futile. The approach for such questions must not be cramming all the answers but reworking the concepts. They should first identify the weak chapters or topics and then revise them thoroughly before taking the next mock test.

1. Common silly mistakes: Some common mistakes are marking wrong answers even after knowing the correct answer, filling in the wrong OMR sheet, leaving any question in a hurry, or marking the same question twice. These mistakes may seem small but can have a big impact on the result, as every single mark counts in the NEET cutoff. Imagine missing the cutoff by a single mark. Therefore, NEET aspirants must be careful of making mistakes that may lead to getting negative marks or scoring less. Be extremely careful while filling out the OMR sheet, as a small error may save students time. Students may learn to avoid these mistakes by practising the mock test in exam-like conditions.

1. Doesn’t prioritise their overall health and well-being: competitive exams are the toughest exams in students’ lives. During that phase, they don’t even prioritise their overall health and well-being, which makes them tired and nervous during the exam. According to the report from the government guidelines, 40% of students don’t prioritise their health because of nervousness.