Jammu: A first of its kind initiative wherein students who are to appear for examinations in the coming months got a chance to interact with the toppers of the recently declared class 12th examination results, was orgnised by the Directorate of School Education Jammu to provide them with a chance to receive guidance from the achievers directly and emulate their success.
On the directions of Dr. Ravi Shankar Sharma, Director School Education Jammu, the Guidance and Counselling Cell of DSEJ organised – ‘ PRERANA- A VIRTUAL INTERACTION WITH TOPPERS OF WINTER ZONE ‘ which was attended by more 15, 000 students and many a thousand more watched its reruns on various social media platforms of the Directorate.
Students took this opportunity to put querries to the toppers in order to learn from their experiences and chalk out strategies for themselves which would help them in preparing for the forthcoming examinations in a more efficient and proven way.Members of the teaching community, officers of the Education Department and other stake holders also joined in to enrich their skill sets.
Banking on the time proven adage that peer group instructions are one of the best methods of teaching- learning process, HOIs made arrangements in the ICT Laboratories of schools for the students of classes 10th, 11th and 12th to join in via virtual mode and listen to the toppers of different streams sharing experiences about their preparations for the examinations, time management, problems faced by them and the approaches they used to solve such problems.
Dr. Ravi Shankar Sharma, Director, School Education, Jammu also joined the session and began by congratulating the toppers and said that it was a moment of great pride and pleasure for the Directorate of School Education Jammu as out of the first fifty positions thirty-eight were bagged by the students of Government Schools. The top 3 positions in Science, Commerce and Arts stream have been bagged by the Government School students.
Spectacularly, in Commerce stream all the positions have been bagged by Government School students along with 12 out of top 14 positions in Arts stream. Whereas, in Science stream, 14 out of top 25 were brought home by the Government Schools.
Congratulating the toppers, Dr.Ravi Shankar Sharma wished them all the luck for their future endeavors and asked the summer zone students, who are yet to appear for the examinations, to take inspiration from the toppers and replicate their success making everyone including parents, teachers, officials and the entire Directorate proud.
Dr. Romesh Sharma and Dr. Alka Sharma from Guidance and Counselling Cell of the Directorate also spoke to the students and suggested that they should take the examinations as yet another phase of life and education and perform without the fear of results. Also, a student should develop an inquisitive and curious state of mind inculcating the habit of asking questions as curiosity is the first and the main aspect of learning.
The toppers while replying to the questions and addressing the queries put forward by the students revealed their preparation strategies. Saheem Mir, topper in Science stream divulged that consistent hard work was his mantra which led him to success. Shabbu Kumari, topper in Arts stream revealed tMegasetting up realistic goals, making best use of available content and material from online resources such as E-pathshala along with motivation from teachers and parents played a key role in her success.
Toppers Mahira Mushtaq & Kashish Oberoi opined that starting preparations early in the session , clear goals and consistent hard-work was the key for getting the top positions.
Faria Jahan, another topper from Arts stream shared that keeping motivated all the time working for it consistently had been her key to success.
Quotes like “Don’t wish for it, work for it.” and “Dream big as small aim is a crime” were also shared by toppers to sum up their strategies and to inspire the attending students.
The toppers also took various questions in open forum from different students and other attendees regarding preparing for upcoming board exams. Important questions such as ‘What are the techniques for revising syllabi in short time? How to manage stress while preparing for the examinations? How to manage time and how much time to devote for studying on daily basis?’ were answered by the toppers on in astonishingly mature fashion.
Master Saleem shared that creating mind maps, bullet points and short notes significantly lessens the time needed to prepare for various exams.
Ms. Mahwish explained that before moving to the next topic, a clear understanding of previous topics was essential. Also, working on short term and long-term goals was an absolute requirement.
Replying to the question by Priya Khajuria of HSS Jourian, Kashish Oberoi shared that to manage stress all students should pursue some sort of a hobby that can be followed during breaks and also devote some time to exercise, meditation and yoga.
Where as Ms. Shabbu revealed that one should balance studies with other activities to avoid a burn-out and take proper nutrition and quality sleep.
Akash Parihar, another topper shared that addiction to social media can become a big hurdle and to overcome it he used focus mode available on phone while studying to avoid distractions.
It was also shared by the toppers that sources such as official studying apps, google search, Wikipedia and online knowledge banks with previous years examination papers along with offline notes of subject teachers and NCERT books should be used to study.
Dr. Ravi Shankar Sharma informed the students that the official app of the Directorate -‘SARAL’ and Education Hub- website of the Directorate, have lectures prepared by the best teachers and can be used by the students for preparations and doubt clearing.
Dr. Romesh Sharma, Guidance and Counselling Cell, assured the students that many more such novel initiatives will be taken up in the future also for the welfare and benefit of the students.
The session was coordinated by Dr. Alka Sharma and Ms. Preeti Sharma, DSEJ.
