There is so much competition for IIT JEE and NEET - Lakhs of students competing to do exactly what you want to do. How do you make the needed leaps to move beyond other students vying for limited seats in top colleges?
Dealing with Competition in JEE/ NEET
The truth is most of the competition in JEE or NEET are not hard to surpass. They’re dealing with the same pressure you are. With a few tweaks, you’ll quickly drop through a wormhole placing you in the top 5–10 percent in the competing students.
This post is a framework to quickly get you into the top students of your class/ batch so you can begin the real pursuit of becoming the best among them.
How to Compete With Other Students in JEE/ NEET Preparation?
1. Get coaching and guidance
Take your JEE/ NEET dreams seriously. Most students don’t. Take them serious enough to become amazing and move beyond mediocre. Get coaching and guidance.
“When the student is ready the teacher will appear.” — Buddha
You’ll know when you’re ready for the next phase when you attract the right teacher to help you get there. [JEE/ NEET online courses are available from the comfort of your home.]
2. Be consistent
If you haven’t had your target score reached, keep going. Consistency is the most fundamental virtue to achieve what you want. Almost everyone can sprint for a while. But most burn-out and quit. Everything meaningful in life is a marathon — meant to test your commitment and will.
Understanding concepts and solving problems. If this is what you love doing, you’ll do it regardless of the outcome.
If you do something long enough, compounding will take effect, momentum will surge, and you’ll begin to experience exponential results.
If you want it badly enough (study in IIT or MBBS from AIIMS), you will do whatever it takes to make it happen. If you don’t, you won’t.
3. Optimize your performance
Everything you do matters. Every moment of your preparation journey either contributes to or takes away from what you’re trying to accomplish — the questions you solve — activities you do — people you spend time with — and how you spend your mornings and evenings.
In order to become one of the toppers, you must focus your efforts on outputs by leveraging your subconscious mind. While you’re away from your study, like sleeping, spending time with friends, or other activities, your subconscious is working through and mulling over the problems you’re trying to solve.
The first thing to do when you wake up is output. This may be in the form of revision, analyzing what you learned so far. Or immediately getting to the chapters you’re studying. Identify your most productive hours to study.
Being healthy and free from all sorts of distractions is also crucial for enhanced performance.
4. Allow time for rest
When you focus on results, rather than being busy, you’re 100 percent ON when you’re studying and 100 percent OFF when you’re not. Psychological-detachment from study is essential for being engaged while you’re studying!
If you don’t detach from study, you’re more likely to procrastinate and get fatigued in the preparation.
Your ability to study at a high level is like fitness. If you never took a break between sets, you wouldn’t be able to build strength, stamina, and endurance.
5. Get motivated by passion and love
If you are motivated by fear, everything you do is to avoid embarrassment or negative outcomes. You only do what you think others want you to do, being completely dependent on them.
If you are motivated by reward, everything you do is to get what you want.
These two demonstrate extrinsic motivation, which is far less powerful than intrinsic motivation.
If you are motivated by passion and love, You’re going to do what you believe you should do whether you receive a reward or not. You have no fear of failing. You are intrinsically motivated. You’re willing to do whatever it takes to get the result, even if that means changing your initial mindset, ideas, or strategies.
You’re no longer tied to a specific outcome but you have conviction and faith that the best outcome will occur.
Post inspired by Medium article of Benjamin P. Hardy