The period before Diwali Vacations was so much better and easier. All one could think about was going home. Some of you wanted to relax, while some had a list of topics you wanted to revisit and learn. Whether you ticked off your To-Do List or not, Diwali Vacations are over and now a new word has taken your fancy, MAJOR TESTS.
What are Major tests?
Coaching institutes conduct various types of tests of different formats through out the year. In this article, we’ll be covering Major tests and their importance. Major tests are conducted after every three minor tests in most institutes. They are named so because of the scope of syllabus covered in the respective tests. Major tests comparatively cover a wider scope of syllabus compared to other formats.
Why are Major tests important?
- Preparing for major test is much similar to preparing for the actual test where you have to revise a huge number of topics efficiently in a short time.
- Preparing for major tests sharpens your efficiency, time management and decision-making skills and helps you practice how to revise rapidly in a short amount of time.
- Major tests cover a wide range of topics and syllabus and hence closely mimic the actual exams.
- Major tests are better are evaluating your memory retention capacities as the topics are not closely related unlike Minor tests.
- Major tests teach better time division skills because the scope of topics is wide apart.
- Major tests better help evaluate your strategies you use to approach a test.
- They also help you play your strength and weaknesses better and hence manage your time properly because the test syllabus is widespread.
- Major tests also help to test your memory retrieval skill as you have to mentally skim through a broad syllabus in a small span of time.
- The results of Major test help in better analysis of your shortcomings, as it is a close mimic of the actual test.
- The ranks and percentile of major tests provide more accurate reflection of where your performance really stands.
Major Test or Minor test?
A lot of students tend to misjudge either format of test. While both tests are important if one has to choose between either, you should be well informed.
Minor tests deal with small number of topics, hence have the scope of covering a topic in intricate details. This might sound like a good idea but is only effective in 2 scenarios.
- If you are a beginner and have ample time for covering a topic from scratch.
- If you have covered your syllabus well and are confident. And you are looking to give your preparation an extra edge over other candidates.
Minor tests are a very bad idea to focus on if you are somebody with less time and have a perfectionist attitude.
Major tests might sound scary and might intimidate you at first but should be a go to option for anybody trying to wrap up their preparation, get over their perfectionism or revise the entire syllabus in small amount of time and a smaller number of tests. Since the scope of Major tests is enormous, examiners and test setters tend to focus on the most important topics of the syllabus. Which is exactly what happens in the actual test. The scope of questions mostly revolves around NCERT, the holy grail of Competitive exams.
Online or Offline?
While opting the format is a luxury only to those who go for exclusive test series, we will still be covering this question. Why? Well, cause where else are you going to look?
Online or Offline is mainly a decision of preference, but it would also be better to take into account the format of the actual exam you are aiming for. This will prepare you for challenges of the real life.
While Offline tests help you practice filling OMR, which trust us, is a very vital part of your preparations for the competitive exams, online exams have the leniency of changing your answers after you have marked them, and helps reduce negative marking due to silly mistakes.