Should I drop my dreams? (Daydreamer with underachieving abilities)

  • #1
tellmesomething
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Hello. Firstly id like to preface this by thanking all the educators on this platform. Lots of help was received by me in the past one year.

So im from India, and in 12th grade. At the end of 12th grade we have a final exams(BOARDS) which we take and are recognized as students who have successfully passed high school. Post this either we can use these scores to get into a college or give an entrance exam specific to a different college we want to go to which doesnt take the 12 th grade scores into consideration and just recognizes you as someone who has passed class 12th successfully and is eligible to sit for the entrance.

I had made myself and my family believe that I was preparing for both of these exams since the entrance syllables(JEE) overlap with the 12th grade exam. The entrance questions are asked of a specific topic differently, like more application of that topic than you'd see in the 12th grade exam which is relatively considered easier and just basic application.
So I focused a lot on some topics for the entrance but I realised from my school scores that this was affecting my ability to cover all the chapters as was asked by school standards. I started doing what was needed for school and not practicing by entrance standards and moving on with the syllabus but then the entrance mocks showed that I didn't know any application of these concepts properly and its a time constraint exam you have to do about (75×3) questions in 3 hours.

I had some back and forth with this and now im at the level where my entrance first attempt is in 10 days. My school class 12th exam is in a month (from 14 feb)
And there is nothing I can do. Im taking immense amount of time to solve mocks for the entrance as i only know enough to derive the formula needed for tht sum through first principles but this is counterproductive since I don't have much time and 80% of this paper is just different types of formula application which youre supposed to sort of memorize by doing tons of problem throughout the year which I slacked on. The other 20% is where you might need to derive here or there.

And this is only physics
The exam asks physics chem and maths.
I have only done physics a little to still be at this level. Maths I have only done enough to pass in school exams and anything which required hard work or practice (integrals determinants) I never did.
For chemistry I have not done a single organic chemistry chapter and in my chem mock for school yesterday im scoring 15/80( which is below passing)

At this stage what should I do?

Should I just focus on my 12th grade exams which requires just re doing a certain book many times to score good percentage in the exam. In this case I would have to take a drop for the college entrance this year. I would have to stay at Home and study the whole syllabus of class 11/12 with sucifficent practice. I have the second attempt of the entrance in april and their are many exams of other colleges I can try which is in may.
But I know I will run away from hardwork in my drop year and thinking about a drop is just another way of procrastinating.

Whenever I sit with a problem from the previous year sample paper of the entrance I feel very dumb and I stop doing it. Now also there are 10 days and I can do just the high weightage topics to secure atleast a 100/300 in this exam but I Still am running away from the situation and living in an utopia. How do I fix myself? I had dreamt of going far into academia but right now I probably will not even pass high school.
 
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  • #2
I don't know what to say. Life is tough. Sometimes, we focus on what we know and not on what we don't and get hammered by them.

There is no easy solution other than to persevere. Look at your problems and understand why you can't do them.

My brother was doing poorly in school because he made mistakes in his math checks and changed his answers. I pointed this out to him by showing him that he made simple arithmetic errors in his checks, so he should either not do the checks or pay attention to his errors. He pulled out of his slump and started to do better.

Remember, we don't learn from what we did right; we learn from our mistakes and understand why they were wrong.

Find out where you are messing up, and that can salvage some things now.

Have you worked in a study group?

Perhaps some of your friends can help you get through Chemistry.
 
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  • #3
jedishrfu said:
I don't know what to say. Life is tough. Sometimes, we focus on what we know and not on what we don't and get hammered by them.

There is no easy solution other than to persevere. Look at your problems and understand why you can't do them.

My brother was doing poorly in school because he made mistakes in his math checks and changed his answers. I pointed this out to him by showing him that he made simple arithmetic errors in his checks, so he should either not do the checks or pay attention to his errors. He pulled out of his slump and started to do better.

Remember, we don't learn from what we did right; we learn from our mistakes and understand why they were wrong.

Find out where you are messing up, and that can salvage some things now.

Have you worked in a study group?

Perhaps some of your friends can help you get through Chemistry.
Usually study groups reduce my efficiency by 50% but thats still better than not doing anything. I'll see if I can arrange for that.

My friends have sent me their chemistry notes but I would have to memorize all of it, the main reason I was putting off studying organic chem is because I had missed ochem-1 where we study general organic chemistry how nucleophiles attack etc. So I wanted to do everything from the beginning and understand the reaction mechanism. But now I have to be realistic since I wasted my time so ill have to cut some ends and learn up the reactions since ochem-2 is plenty big. The school exams don't ask for reaction mechanism anyways so I can get by doing this even if its painfully uncomfortable to just rote learn.

Thankyou, ill make sure to keep working forward without expectations. The hardest part is consistency. Everything else will fall back into place if I do that I think.
 
  • #4
The OP sounds like two issues:
1) personal study habits
2) details of the Indian school system

Maybe a few of our PF members familiar with the system in India can help with the second? @Wrichik Basu ?
 
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  • #5
Thanks for the ping, @gmax137.

In India, we have three major "boards" of education; two central boards — Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE), out of which the former is directly under the control of the central Govt. And then each state has its own board, under the control of the state government. A "board" basically means that syllabi and question papers will remain the same across all schools affiliated to that board. When I passed school, we had "board exams" in class 10 and 12. Board exams are directly conducted by the board (as in, they create the question paper by shuffling questions from various sources, and the answer scripts are circulated across the country/state for checking by teachers who do not know the student, thereby eliminating any unethical practices).

The education system has undergone some reforms recently as semester system has been introduced in classes 11 and 12, and I guess the class 11 exams are now board exams too? But from what the OP writes, it seems their school is following the old system. My advice, though, will remain the same for either system.

tellmesomething said:
At this stage what should I do?

Should I just focus on my 12th grade exams which requires just re doing a certain book many times to score good percentage in the exam.
Do this. Giving JEE along with board exams is not easy. The question patterns are entirely different. At this time, your focus should be completely on board exams. If you don't get a good college in JEE, you can always try next year. You also have CUET-UG, which gives you access to prestigious colleges like JNU and DU; also, CUET follows the pattern of board exams to quite an extent.

But you have only one chance in board exams. Yes, in theory, you can fail and give the boards next year again. But then you have to give JEE again too. In addition, coming from an Indian household, I know that failing in school at any level is considered a massive mess. The pressure will crush you, unless your parents are very, very supportive and shield you completely. So just concentrate on boards for now. If you want, take a year off for JEE. But do not mess up the boards. You won't have an opportunity to rectify them. And class 12 marks do matter a lot. Unless you have the stamp of an IIT/IISER/IISc in your graduate degree. This "Kota factory" system of "just somehow pass school because you will anyway study at an IIT later" is just idiotic IMHO. Not everyone gets into an IIT/IISER/IISc/NIT; in such a situation, your school marks will come to your rescue.
 
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  • #6
Wrichik Basu said:
Thanks for the ping, @gmax137.

In India, we have three major "boards" of education; two central boards — Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE), out of which the former is directly under the control of the central Govt. And then each state has its own board, under the control of the state government. A "board" basically means that syllabi and question papers will remain the same across all schools affiliated to that board. When I passed school, we had "board exams" in class 10 and 12. Board exams are directly conducted by the board (as in, they create the question paper by shuffling questions from various sources, and the answer scripts are circulated across the country/state for checking by teachers who do not know the student, thereby eliminating any unethical practices).

The education system has undergone some reforms recently as semester system has been introduced in classes 11 and 12, and I guess the class 11 exams are now board exams too? But from what the OP writes, it seems their school is following the old system. My advice, though, will remain the same for either system.


Do this. Giving JEE along with board exams is not easy. The question patterns are entirely different. At this time, your focus should be completely on board exams. If you don't get a good college in JEE, you can always try next year. You also have CUET-UG, which gives you access to prestigious colleges like JNU and DU; also, CUET follows the pattern of board exams to quite an extent.

But you have only one chance in board exams. Yes, in theory, you can fail and give the boards next year again. But then you have to give JEE again too. In addition, coming from an Indian household, I know that failing in school at any level is considered a massive mess. The pressure will crush you, unless your parents are very, very supportive and shield you completely. So just concentrate on boards for now. If you want, take a year off for JEE. But do not mess up the boards. You won't have an opportunity to rectify them. And class 12 marks do matter a lot. Unless you have the stamp of an IIT/IISER/IISc in your graduate degree. This "Kota factory" system of "just somehow pass school because you will anyway study at an IIT later" is just idiotic IMHO. Not everyone gets into an IIT/IISER/IISc/NIT; in such a situation, your school marks will come to your rescue.
Yes I think ill do that. I am revising a l ittle bit for my JEE attempt on 22nd so that I don't completely fail but mainly board studies. after 22nd it will be solely boards. Hopefully I can cover up in other exams like WBJEE BITSAT or second attempt of jee itself (ik these are pretty difficult as well but worth a shot if i'll have to spend heftily on some pvt clg later)
 
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