Students should not lose hope during gap year

RANCHI: Many students were successful in clearing the engineering and medical entrance examination this year and were able to join the colleges of their choice. However, there are many students who could not clear the examinations or did not get good rank to get into a college of their choice.
Such students choose to drop a year and prepare for the 2017 entrance examination. Counsellors suggest these students to not get disheartened.
Vikas Kumar, a counsellor said, "The students should not think of it as a failure.Instead, they should think that they have got more time to prepare and they can perform much better."
He added, "The support of the parents is very important. Instead, of demoralizing the children by saying that he was unable to perform in the first attempt, they should try and motivate them for a better performance next year."
Teachers suggest that an extra year in hand is a good opportunity for students and they should utilize it to the fullest.
Praveen Kumar, a coaching teacher, said, "The students who have dropped a year have already gone through the syllabus once. If they try again and spend more time in just practising the mock tests, they are more likely to succeed in the next examination."
Similarly, Uttam Kumar, a mathematics teacher said, "The students would definitely know all the formulae and theorems. If they just revise it properly and solve previous year questions, they will have a clear idea of the topics and will be able to perform better."
Some teachers say that usually the first-timers face difficulty in the entrance test for engineering and medical because despite them having solved previous year question papers, sitting in the examination hall is a new experience for them as it is the first competitive examination in the lives of most of students and they get nervous.
"It is also because of nervousness that many students are unable to perform well despite knowing the answers. However, when they take a second attempt they are more likely to succeed as the first timer's nervousness is over by then," said Shikha Gupta, a counsellor.