Competitive Examinations Myths & Realities ″Questions in competitive Exams are not difficult but they are just different″ Yes ! Most of the questions in competitive examinations are not difficult but they are just different & they require a different approach, a different mindset & that’s why it is a different individual who clears these examinations. But, before we talk more about how to succeed in these different exams, it is very important to understand how are they different from board exams. Board Exams vs Competitive Exams In boards the focus is on concepts whereas in competitive exams the focus is on application of concepts to real life situations. The board exams test that whether you know the fundamentals or not whereas competitive exams are designed to test whether you can apply these fundamentals to real life situations or not. In board exams good writing and presentation skills are very important whereas in competitive exams what they emphasise upon is not your writing skills but understanding of fundamentals and their applications. Board exams are designed to filter below average students (who can’t score more than 33% marks) from good and average students whereas competitive exams are designed to filter excellent students (who can score more than 75% marks and are among top 3 to 4 percentage students) from the average ones. In board exams absolute marks are important (% marks scored) whereas in competitive exams relative marks/percentile rank is important (it is not important that whether you score 80 % or 90 % but what is important is how many students have scored more than you). Normally to succeed in a competitive examinations your percentile rank has to be 95% and above. Also in competitive examinations there are many students who miss by just one, two or three marks. This is the most important difference between the competitive exam and board exam. In board exam, you will say that two students getting 88% & 87% marks are equally intelligent and successful. But, in case of competitive exam success & failure is just one mark away. So what makes competitive exams different (not difficult) is the cut throat competition for the limited seats. And last but not the least : The Time Pressure Competitive Exams is oftenly understood as a selection process, but in real sense it is nothing but an elimination technique. The basic objective of the test is to filter excellent candidate from an average one. In a competitive examination it is not important that whether you know the question or not & whether you can solve the question or not but what is important is that whether you can solve the question in shortest possible time or not. So your success in competitive exams depends upon your approach towards these questions i.e. the way you attack these questions because that defines the time you would take to solve the question. Most of the questions can be solved by two or three methods but it is important to understand the trick & adopt the shortest method so as to solve the question in shortest possible time. So, apart from the type of questions what makes Competitive Exams different is the time pressure that they impose on you. Out of 150 minutes that you get in a Competitive Exam normally a candidate uses 18 to 20 minutes of it for darkening the circles, that means that. in the remaining 130 minutes you have 200 questions in front of you. Isn't that race against time ! To Summarize, Competitive Exam is not only a test of your knowledge but it is also a test of your aptitude, time management skills, nerves, consistency and ability to apply basic fundamentals to real life situations.