How to Fix Your Carelessness in Exams and Remain Honest with Yourself ?

Time and again I have seen students, relegating serious mistakes ad careless ones. This tendency could turn out to be fatal. Be it a grave or careless mistake, end of the day, the penalty levied would be the same. So if you know that it is just a careless mistake, then do not undermine its significance. Fixing your carelessness is easier than acquiring new concepts. Be honest with yourself and fix your carelessness. If you've ever attributed a math error to "carelessness"(and let's be honest—you have) then this post is for you. So often do I see students blame their mistakes on "carelessness," in fact, that the poor word has lost its meaning in the context of competitive exams? This post is an effort to restore its dignity. Carelessness, in my experience, can mean one (or more than one) of the following:

• Misreading the question
• Misbubbling the answer
• Arithmetic or simple algebra errors
• Self-delusion

To avoid misreading the question, always give the question one final read before you bubble your answer to make sure you found the answer the test is actually asking for. To avoid misbubbling, bubble sedulously, and then double check your bubbling. You should check once as you're bubbling, and then if you have time at the end of a section, go back through and make sure your answer sheet reflects the answers you've circled in your test booklet. This, by the way, is one great reason to actually use bubble sheets when you take practice tests. Because everyone misbubbles once in a great while, and if it happens to you during a practice test, you'll be that much more likely to be careful on the real thing. As anyone who’s ever taken a math test knows, it’s very difficult to avoid the occasional arithmetic or algebra error. Sometimes, the mind meanders. It’s also, unfortunately, very difficult to catch an error when you go back and look over your work. You can be staring right at 10 ÷ 5 = 5, but if you just wrote it 2 minutes earlier, you might not see what's wrong with it. So to avoid bungling your simple calculations, do the following:

• Check simple arithmetic on your calculator. I know you've done 6 × 7 in your head a million times correctly. Just make sure.
• Try to do as many problems as you can multiple ways. If you arrive at the same answer with algebra as you did by plugging in, you can be doubly sure you’re right. Of course, you'll need to find a healthy, comfortable balance here between caution and speed. Pro-tip: it's usually not a good idea to sacrifice accuracy for speed. Favor caution.

As for self-delusion, this is the toughest one to fix, because it's denial of a problem. Many students brush off every question they miss: "Oh, that was easy. Careless mistake!" This is a natural reaction—a good solution can look really obvious once it’s laid out in front of you, especially by a good teacher. But if this sounds like you, know that you do yourself a disservice when you assume that, since a solution is obvious once someone else shows you how to do it, a similar solution will be obvious to you next time you see a similar question. By characterizing a mistake as "careless," you tell yourself you don't need to learn anything new about questions like the one you missed. And if that's not true, then that question type will keep forcing you to make "careless" errors until you address your underlying knowledge gap. It's OK not to know how to do something, and admitting that you need to learn is the first step towards doing so. To be safe, try never to characterize a mistake as "careless" unless you've got a demonstrable history of cutting through similar questions like butter. Don't even let the word "careless" enter your vocabulary until you've done 4 or 5 practice tests. Keep visiting TCYonline.com for more tips and tricks. Remember, we here at TCY are committed to your success.

UPSC National Defence Academy & Naval Academy Examination (I), 2014

Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) issues notification of National Defence Academy (NDA) & Naval Academy (NA) (I) Examination 2014 for the admissions into Army, Navy and Air Force wings. The eligible candidates may apply through online mode and prepare for same @ TCYonline.com.

Important Dates:

Event	Date
Last date for online registration	20-01-2014
Date of examination	20-04-2014

No. of Vacancies: The approximate no of vacancies to be filled on the results of this examination will be as under:

Name of Wing	No of Posts
Army	208
Navy	42
Air Force	70
Indian Naval Academy	55
Total	375

Eligibility Criteria:

Educational Qualification: Candidates should be pass outs in 10+2 standard or any equivalent qualification from any recognized board.

Age Limit: Only unmarried male candidates born not earlier than 2nd july 1995 and not later than 1st July 1998 are eligible.

Application Fee:

Category	Amount
General/OBC	Rs 100 /-
For SC/ST/ Sons of JCOs/NCOs/ORs	Nil

Exam Pattern:

Subject	Code	Duration	Maximum Marks
Mathematics	02	2 hours and 30 minutes	300
General Ability Test	01	2 hours and 30 minutes	600
SSB Test/Interview			900

How to Apply:

Candidates are required to apply Online by using the website www.upsconline.nic.in. Detailed instructions for filling the form are mentioned on the website. For detailed official notification visit @ http://www.upsc.gov.in/exams/notifications/2014/nda1/eng.pdf

Exam Preparation:

Prepare for the exam by attempting sectional and mock tests @ TCYonline.com

The Importance of Full-Length Timed Practice Tests (Mock Tests)

There’s something very enticing about practice tests. They appear productive. They seem like they’re giving you a competitive on “the real thing”. And there’s always that secret hope that this time you’ll knock it out of the park and you can finally stop studying. Often times, I have seen students making the fatal mistake of skipping the practice test before they start preparing. Yes, you heard it right BEFORE they start preparing. They have myriad excuses for the same. But this is one such test, which will tell you exactly where you stand and what to put in to reach your coveted school. Some even call it a Diagnostic Test. Whatever you call it, but do take the test. Take the test the way it is meant to be taken Simulate all the conditions of the actual test. There are some unforgivable do nots. Let’s have a look.

Review Your Previous Game Before You Play Your Next

It is quite common in professional sports that players, along with their coaches review the video tapes of their previous games, before they play their next. In business, CEO’s review their strategies, dissect them and also do some sort of “missed opportunity” or “post facto” analysis, so that any untoward things do not recur. Students review professor’s notes on papers to get advice on the common types of errors they are prone to. What is common among all the above mentioned scenarios? No matter what you do, a major component of success is getting constant feedback and taking effective corrective or remedial action as you progress. You should allow some time for the autopsy of any prep material that you have consumed. The reports from your autopsy will work best if you do the following:

1. Chinks in your armour Create a “why I missed it” chart. Review each question and identify what went wrong. You didn’t know the correct formula or you simply misunderstood the question. Whatever be the reason, make detailed notes about the same. This will allow you to see some patterns and help you focus your studying.

Vocabulary in Context with GRE Preparation

Hello Everyone! All you GRE Aspirants – Are you in good shape? Holiday season is approaching and most of you must have finished your exams, so this is an appropriate time to hang around with friends and have a great time. Even the winter has started to show its charm. Days are becoming shorter and shorter. Sun refuses to wake up from its slumber even till 10 in the morning. So, what has all this got to do with GRE? I just want to say that this is the ideal time to develop a laid back attitude and to water down the hard work that you must have put in, in the previous months. Though holidays are around, spend some time for GRE prep. If not doing some serious study, try to read some good articles or books that may keep you vocabulary fresh in your mind. I stumbled upon an article during my regular readings and I thought that I should share the same with you. This one is from the New York Times entitled A Nose For Words. In this article, the author talks about his first exposure to vocabulary and how he develops an affinity towards it. So, if you are one of those students, who just despair at the mention of some unwieldy words like hortatory, cleave, recondite, my advice for you is to read this article.

Tips to Improve Vocabulary in TOEFL Exam

Hello everyone! And welcome back! So, after my soapbox from last post (and I do hope you looked that word up), this puts me in mind of one problem TOEFL students have and that is the every disturbing and troubling area of....VOCABULARY. Yes, you heard me, I said vocabulary. This is one problem every TOEFL student faces. Now, I've touched on some issues which are associated with having difficulty in vocabulary. These include not being able to clearly and accurately express your thoughts or meanings you wish to convey because you do not know the words to use or how to use them. Or you could have difficulty describing people, places or objects again, because you do not know the words to use. I think it all boils down to the fact that most TOEFL students do not know enough words in their vocabulary to express themselves fully. I often hear from a number of my students say "sir, I just don't know how to say it (express it properly, put it into words, etc and ad nauseum)." So, what is lacking is vocabulary and this post is what you can do about it. So, let's begin. Vocabulary, how do you build your vocabulary into a muscle-laden force which you can express yourself clearly, succinctly and elegantly using a wide range of words and phrases to convey your ideas, opinions and descriptions? It's not a hard thing to do. It just takes a lot of exercise and that means practice and this practice involves many different methods.