How to keep Students motivated for JEE and NEET under the COVID situation?

Examination for JEE and NEET are round the corner and amidst COVID the situation becomes quite precarious. Students, in general, are getting demotivated and keenness to take the exam head-on is largely missing. It’s high time for Parents and Teachers to ponder over the requisite strategy and aligned to the correct path. Let’s first try to identify the issues what students are facing now:

1. Uncertainty over the dates of examination due to COVID is making their chin down
2. Lockdown has largely led to Mental fatigue 
3. Failure in keeping the same tempo of study on account of consistent change of dates of Examination

 

What to do?

1.   Ongoing COVID situation is unpredictable and difficult to say that Examination will be conducted in September. Students need to take advantage of the situation by doing more practice of MCQs. Topic-wise MCQ practice is preferable and one should opt one or other online platforms for such self-assessment Tests. Ideally, tests need to be taken only after a brief study of the relevant topics. Tests consisting of 10 0r 20 questions need to be attempted while keeping in mind the time management.

2.  Avoid full-length tests regularly as it consumes more time and learning advantages of those tests are minimal. One should take full-length Tests once or twice in a week as it will reflect relative performance vis-à-vis self-performance in previous tests and performance among the peers. 
3. Allocate more time for recapping and revision instead of going for MCQ practice. The learning through MCQ is negligible, hence, it is strongly advised to give more time to self-prepared notes and textbooks. Recapping the important concepts through Mind Maps is the most effective tool which will not only save precious time but also ensure strong conceptual learning. (https://www.amazon.in/Dr.-Pankaj-Kumar/e/B085WXHGDZ?ref_=dbs_p_ebk_r00_abau_000000)
4. A time table with a focused effort for effective allocation to all subjects is required. Instead of more study hours, qualitative study hours are needed. The number of hours varies for different students and it needs to be designed by the student himself /herself. 
5. Time to work more on your stronger points and make them much stronger. The selection of different topics among different subjects should be based on the relative importance in respective competitive examinations. Taking help from an expert is strongly recommended as it will not only save your precious time but also optimize your efforts which will eventually lead to a better result. 
6. Mental fatigue can be addressed by making a discussion group among peers. Ideally, a topic should be selected and online mutual discussion can be initiated. It will help in building the academic tempo and also lead to fruitful utilization of the time.
7. Motivation and pep talks from Parents and Teachers are very much needed to keep the tempo moving. Its high time that teachers and parents mutually work on this aspect and try to weed out the negative energy from the students. They need to be motivated for their efforts and consistent encouragement is needed from all.