Score High in Maths
A GOOD SCORE IN MATHEMATICS IS POSSIBLE ONLY THROUGH RIGOROUS PRACTISE AND TIME MANAGEMENT.
Though mathematics is one of the highest scoring subjects in class XII, nearly 60% of students are averse to the subject. Even though they may have practiced the problems several times, students are sometimes not confident enough. It is only through practise and time management that one can score high in mathematics at the board exams.
As soon as students get the question paper, they get 15 minutes of reading time, which should be utilised to the fullest extent. In these 15 minutes, students should read and identify the probability and application-based questions and underline the necessary words. The questions on probability and the ones that are application-based have tricky words. If students are not alert, they may lose out on the meaning of the entire question altogether. So in the 15 minutes that they get, they should underline the words and identify the question. The question paper is divided into three sections — A, B and C. Students should first attempt section C because firstly it has seven questions where each question is for six marks and secondly because section C comprises about 50% of the paper. Then students should attempt section B comprising 12 questions of four marks each and finally move on to section A, which has 10 questions of one mark each. In other words, students should first attempt those sections that have more marks allotted to them.
The questions are based on the NCERT text and only the figures may change but if students are thorough with the NCERT text, they need not panic. Integration and 3D are the only topics, which require extra practice. Besides that, focusing on important topics such as elementary transformation to find inverse of a square matrix (Exercise 3.4), properties of determinants (Exercise 4.2), matrix method (Exercise 4.6), limit of sum (Exercise 7.8), properties of definite integrals (exercise 7.11), application of integrals (chapter 8), concept of line and plane in 3-D (chapter 11), linear programming (chapter 12), Baye’s theorem (Exercise 13.3) and maxima/minima application problems (Exercise 6.5) — will definitely help students.
Students may not know the fact but in certain questions, the final answers can be checked and verified on the spot and students would know if they have solved the question correctly or not. For example, in the matrix method, by substituting values of x, y and z in any of the given equations, by evaluating the integral directly, the limit of sum can be checked. Also, by using the standard formulae, if vertices are given, students can check their answers in some AOI questions.
Credit: Sanjeev Kohli, Maths Teacher (Ryan International School)
