We often say that mocks are the most important tool you have to improve your score. We need to take as many mocks as possible. But do you wonder why your score is not increasing even after taking so many mocks? Is your score stagnated and you are clueless about what to do? This article will address exactly that. Only taking mocks would not suffice. A proper analysis is a must for your score to improve. But what is a “proper analysis”? How much time should you ideally spend analysing?
As per my experience, you should spend at least 6 hrs to analyse a 3 hrs mock and 4 hrs on a 2 hrs pattern. In case you are surprised about the time required, I would urge you to carefully go through the rest of the article and you would know! During analysis, never time yourself. The idea is to develop your skills and only when you re-visit all the questions, you pick up certain learnings and make the best out of the mocks. Now let’s see how you should go about section-wise.
VA-RC
I would suggest to analyse this section right after you have finished your mock. Because, it’s very likely that you are going to forget the exact logic you had used while choosing a particular answer. Having said that, solve all questions again irrespective of whether you got them correct or not! Read all RCs again and check whether your understanding of “main idea” is correct. Once this is done, go through every question and see whether your logic of choosing an answer was correct. Then tally with the explanation given and see if you get another perspective.
Repeat the same process for VA. Take some time and try to crack the logic behind a PJ or odd sentence or PS. Contrary to the popular opinion, PJs do follow a logic. Try to crack that before referring to the answer. Repeat the same for odd sentence and PS.
DI-LR
Like in VARC, you need to re-visit every set. For those, which you got correct, spend some time and see if you can crack any alternate logic and can solve in less time. If you get one, better to note down and try to apply this method elsewhere. For those which you got incorrect or couldn’t solve, the suggestion would be to spend as much as 45 mins to those and try to solve of your own. Only then refer to the solutions. It’s advisable not to see the solutions, right in the beginning.
If you find a set to be a little different and interesting, note it down in a diary and revise them again and again. A general suggestion for this section, would be to solve as many sets of different type as possible. Because, the more familiar you are, to different types of sets, the better you would perform in the actual exam.
QA
Classify the questions into four types a) Correct and taken less time than toppers, b) Correct but taken more time than toppers, c) Incorrect and d) couldn’t solve.
First, pat on your back for type “a”. Mostly, if your time taken is less than 2 mins, you can leave those questions and move to type “b”. Spend as much time as you need with these questions and figure out an alternate way of solving. Check if you can reach the answer through options, substitutions, odd-even concept, prime no concept or any other jugaad. Then refer to the solution, and note down the best way you have figured out. Try to apply same techniques in all questions you solve in future.
Now come to type “c” and “d”. Do the same! Spend time with them and try to solve. Only if you can’t then refer to solution. If you find a question to be different, note it down and revise.
Only, after you finish the above process, can you say that you have done justice to a mock. It’s because of this process, you would require as much as 6 hrs to analyse a mock. One thing to mention here, as you reach closer to the D-day, your analysing time would reduce. Wonder how? You will start getting more corrects and that too with correct logic! And you are sorted.
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