CBSE Class 12 chemistry paper 2019: Last minute tips to keep in mind while writing the exam

With less than a day left for CBSE Class 12 Board’s Chemistry exam, we thought it to be prudent to share few last minute tips for maximising performance:

Physical Chemistry

* Those students who have studied from NCERT book thoroughly in last 1 year, they just need to do a quick revision of the topics and then solve NCERT problems i.e. in text questions and followed by the exercises.

* And those students who did not study from NCERT book in the last 1 year and/or have partially covered chapter(s) from NCERT then they must revise important topics as listed in “Learning Objective” at the beginning of each chapter and then they should solve the NCERT problems.

*Do make it a point to write important formulae on a sheet of paper and revise.

Organic Chemistry

* Organic Chemistry is a scoring section but it requires systematic revision. The type of questions asked in this section are :

* Conceptual questions which in other words mean reasoning based

* Conversions or Word Problem

* Name Reactions

* Distinction Test

* Mechanism of reaction (as per NCERT)

* To be able to solve the questions effortlessly, a lot of practice is required, so students should try to solve as many questions as they can on a daily basis in their run up to the chemistry exam scheduled on 12th March 2019.

*Students should make it a point that they should not just read, rather they should write the solution by themselves several times in order to develop that flow; to gain speed and accuracy. One must remember that balancing of reaction is not needed.

*Most of the students ignore and/or do not revise certain chapters like the Polymers, Bio-molecular and Chemistry in everyday life. But these chapters collectively carry a decent weightage of around 10 marks and hence students must devote some time to revise them.

Inorganic Chemistry

*Questions asked from inorganic chemistry are based on :

*Reasoning

*Structure

*Complete the reaction

*p-block elements : Students must write all important reactions in a sheet of paper and revise them on a regular basis. They should also practice the questions to develop that flow of writing.

*d- and f- block elements : Revise and practice reasoning based questions; revise preparation structure and properties of compounds like KMnO4 and K2Cr2O7

*Coordination Compound : It’s a very important chapter as different types of questions are asked. So students should devote good amount of time to revise.

*Metallurgy : A wide variety of questions are asked from this chapter hence it is important that it is revised thoroughly.

Attempt old CBSE Class XII board exam question papers & attempt Mock test papers

*It is extremely important to practice by solving old board exam question papers within a fixed time limit. This will help to develop exam temperament, flow, speed and most importantly all learned concepts will get refreshed in mind. Subsequently mock test papers must be solved in the last few days ahead of the exam.

What students should do during examination

*Read Question Paper thoroughly to mark those questions that they will be able to answer. They must devote 10-15 minutes to read all the questions and prepare a roadmap accordingly. So the order of attempting the questions should be from known to lesser known.

* Re-presentation of answers is important: While answering, students should mention the property or the formula used. Marks get deducted for missing steps, so do not skip steps. Final answers must be highlighted.

* It is advisable to move on to the next question, rather than getting stuck at one particular question. This will help to save time. However, to solve that question later with a fresh mind one must leave sufficient space in the answer sheet before attempting the next question.

* Stress level should be kept under check: The exam environment, few odd questions can add to stress. So, stress built up must be avoided. It is important to understand that a few questions may look different but may not really be difficult, so one must not give up easily. Even if someone gets stressed, they should have some water and take some deep breaths to get relief.

* Focus on each question: It has been observed that most of the common mistakes happen due to negligence. So, in order to reduce critical errors, one must double check with the question paper before beginning to solve a question.

* Attempt 100%: The target should be to attempt the entire question paper. When you skip a question you lose an opportunity to score. Remember that even if you are able to write few steps it will fetch you partial marks.

* Overwriting & scribbling must be avoided: Presenting the answer sheet well and systematic work is always rewarding. If one step is wrongly written then one should simply strike it out and write it again instead of overwriting.

* Revise the answer paper before submission: Sometimes answer papers contain silly mistakes which may go unnoticed if not revised before its submission. So one must revise and rectify errors and then submit by properly tying all the sheets.

(Author Partha Halder is Centre Head, FIIT JEE, Punjabi Bagh. Views expressed here are personal.)