Construction of knowledge in your mind is the key because only you have to reproduce this knowledge in exam. Teaching (Instructions) from school / coaching class / digital media are methods of giving knowledge to you but far more important is how much have you gained (construction of knowledge in your mind) and for that only your efforts will matter.  Memorising is short lived. Learning is lasting as you have put in efforts to understand each topic. In objective exams there is no shortcut to learning

After school / college teaching if you go to coaching classes, you have moved from teaching mode again to teaching mode but what is required is to move to learning mode because you have already received instructions (teaching) once and now it is important to construct (learning) them in your mind because only this mind has to reproduce knowledge in exam. If you have enough time, coaching will help by further reinforcing instructions (teaching) but if time is a constraint, you have carefully to plan time management – may be take help in weak subjects. But even after coaching, learning is a must. Teaching should complement learning which is final goal in your education  endeavour.
Remember learning can be effectively undertaken when you understand what is known to you, what remains to be known and initiate steps to bridge the gap. Third party only will be able to tell you what is not known to you. Here self assessor is effective tool. Once you have identified gap in topic or key concept (questions done incorrectly in self assessor), first try to resolve it yourself by referring to any standard book. Thereafter take help of your colleagues or teacher. Kindly do not leave these gaps unattended/ unresolved. Fill them same day as next day you tend to forget and there are other topics to be completed in your schedule. Master this topic well before moving. Rome is built brick by brick.


1. Understand your goal – NDA – Please go through tentative dates of the  exam and syllabus and define your weekly schedule to cover each topic. You have to master subject each topic wise step by step and the practice for final exam around two months before exam date. Please also understand exam pattern, go through exam analysis to understand the way exam was in last year and remember cut offs as they will help to bench mark your performance Go through the syllabus thoroughly. Most of your syllabus will be similar to that of 11th and 12th class of CBSE. Knowing your goal fuels achievement. Quantify your goals. Goals which cannot be measured are never achieved. For example your goal can have a short term objective - I shall complete laws of motion in next two days and shall be able to answer 80% objective questions on concepts and problems of laws of motion correctly and there after assess yourself to measure whether you have achieved your short term objective

2. Build timelines – Ideal start time will be 11th class. Build your study schedule week wise  alongside the schedule of your school curriculum as your NDA and school syllabus are same.

3. Daily steps

• Concentrate during classes whether in school /college or coaching institutes.
• Take your notes, jot important points to remember
• Review the knowledge you have gained subject wise /topic wise/ subtopic wise or keyword wise by assessing yourself through self tests daily/weekly depending upon the depth of your course curriculum in Self Assessor. Remember to build enough challenge in your tests as this not only assesses your learning properly but also adds lot to your knowledge from its own knowledge pool during assessment.
• Analyse your self test results carefully. You would have committed some silly mistakes. Try to avoid them next time. There would be many areas at your level which were unknown to you but are required to be understood for the exam you are preparing for. Try to understand/clear your doubts preferably same day on these areas by referring back to your books, discussing with your colleagues or from your teacher next day. Do not leave this to unattended because on next day other topics are waiting to be mastered
• On completing the subject you can simulate mock tests/old papers and more tests from test patterns of NDA in Test Simulator. As these tests simulate exam like environment, you will have first hand experience of your knowledge depth, speed and accuracy. In addition you will be able to benchmark your performance with previous year results and shall have good information on your level of preparedness
• The test taken by you are kept as a history for a limited time. You can access the same, analyse the results and discuss the same with your teachers/guides/ mentors to improve further

The key in competitive exam is:

It is important how much you know about a subject but what is more important is how much you know more than others. That is what differentiates a winner from a loser