Study better, not longer.
Most study advice is folklore. The techniques below are the ones that hold up when researchers test them — and several of the most popular methods do not. Plus honest guides to what the major entrance exams are and how they are structured.
That is deliberate, and it is the most useful thing about this site. Those details change, and a page that is wrong about them can cost you a year. Every exam guide here links straight to the body that runs the exam, which is the only source worth trusting for anything time-sensitive.
How to study
Start with retrieval practice. If you change one habit, make it that one.
- Method
Retrieval Practice
Testing yourself instead of reviewing. The single most effective study technique there is, and the one students most reliably avoid.
- Method
Spaced Repetition
Spreading study across days instead of massing it into one session. Same total hours, substantially more retained.
- Method
Interleaving
Mixing problem types within a session instead of doing thirty of the same kind. Feels worse, works better — particularly for maths and physics.
- Method
What Doesn't Work
Highlighting, re-reading and summarising notes are the most popular study methods and among the least effective. Worth knowing before you spend a year on them.
Entrance exams
What each exam is for, how it is structured, and what preparation actually demands.
- The Indian Institutes of Management, on rotation
CAT
The entrance test for the IIMs and many other management schools. The test is only the first half of the admission process.
- Consortium of National Law Universities
CLAT
The entrance test for the National Law Universities, at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.
- National Testing Agency (Main) and the IITs on rotation (Advanced)
JEE
The route into engineering at the NITs, IIITs and IITs. Two exams in sequence, with the second open only to those who clear the first.
- National Testing Agency
NEET UG
The single national entrance examination for undergraduate medical and dental admission in India.
- Union Public Service Commission
UPSC Civil Services
The recruitment examination for the IAS, IPS, IFS and allied central services. Three stages spread across roughly a year.