How to get good marks in NTSE stage 1?

NTSE(National Talent search examination) is conducted by NCERT for students in class 10th to provide scholarship to deserving candidates.Every year around 14 lakh students appear for stage-1 out of which 5000 are selected for stage- 2 out of these 5000 students only 1000 students are selected for scholarship,which makes it highly competitive exam at par with IIT JEE,NEET and UPSC in terms of competition. 

This exam is conducted every year in 2 levels: stage-1(state level) and stage-2(National level).Stage-1 examination is conducted at state level by state authorities.Stage-2 is conducted for all the selected students of stage-1 at national level.

the paper is offline i.e pen and paper and is divided into two sections.

1]Mental ability test(MAT)

2]Scholastic Ability Test(SAT)

Part 1 – Mental Ability test (MAT): This part contains logical and analytical reasoning based questions. This section tests the candidate’s reasoning, ability to think, evaluate, ability to discriminate and visualize. A total of 50 questions is to be answered under this section.

Part 2 – Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT): This part consists of 150 questions from Science, Mathematics, Social Science and English Language. This section judges the student’s reading abilities, interpretation, evaluation and general awareness of the subjects.

The test will consist of  50 questions of MAT,50 questions of SAT - Language Test and 100 questions of SAT - Mathematics,ScienceSocial Sciences     

so,how to score good marks in NTSE stage-1?             

1]STUDY MATERIAL

a]MAT

This is probably the most crucial part and need special attention,try to solve as many problems as possible and use a good comprehensive book or if you are in a coaching you can follow their material

b]MATHEMATICS- NCERT or state board book and any reference book should be sufficient for this topic focus more on important topics

c]SCIENCE -NCERT and some reference book is sufficient science being is a subject which demands attention and interest from the reader also there are three topics physics chemistry and biology so science is important.

d]Social science-follow the state board book for stage-1 and ncert for stage-2,many a times this is the deciding factor as a lot of students are weak in this subject,it's always better to have it as a strong point to have advantage over others.questions from this topic are generally straightforward so just having basic knowledge might be sufficient ,this topic needs revision before exam so start  revision from the topic where last year's most questions are asked. 

e]Language- course books should be sufficient for this part 

2]ONE MAT PAPER PER DAY

practice as many mock tests possible to get a good grip on the subject,do practice within time limit to access your weak point and practice those weak areas.

3]DAILY NEWSPAPER

Newspaper are must for Current affairs and general knowledge,it's obvious that general knowledge is not expected to repeat so its necessary to follow newspaper,it's better to go with newspaper rather than buying a general knowledge book which might not be sufficient

4] PRACTICING LAST YEARS QUESTION PAPERS

do practice last year's question paper with time limit to observe how are you scoring according to the cutoff required and access the weak points,papers before 2014 are of less importance as pattern has changed.

5]LAST MINUTE TIPS

Scoring is more important than your ego,never get stuck in a question which is  taking more time,time is crucial,mark it and do it last when whole paper is complete

Try not to panic when you are not able to solve some problems,keep calm and focus on remaining paper as panicking will only make matters worse.

Start paper from the section in which you are most comfortable,solving some questions will calm your nerve,boost your confidence and you can proceed smoothly.

All the best

If you have any doubt you can comment below