Hello Everyone,

Though I am really occupied with some stuff till this month end but then something happened which set me off to write this blog. Just few minutes back one of my pupils sent his Prelims mark-sheet to me and called me up to say that he just missed the Prelims by one question, for if he had one more correct answer his score would have been 108.66 which would have seen him cross the cut-off pegged at 107.34.

Probably he was expecting some comforting words but for the knowledge that, though controlled to a large extent, I still have the remnants left in me which don’t allow me to mince words when I must not. Sometimes bitter pill becomes indispensable.

By the way his score in Paper I is 106.66 and that in Paper II is 146.

To cut the long story short, the point is not that he missed it by one question for which he need some comforting words (they shall anyway follow tomorrow) but that this one questions cost him one year!

I still remember vividly when he came last year to show the paper we identified 2-3 questions where he knew the answer but marked them wrong in haste. So called silly mistakes. But then can it really be called a “silly” mistake if it can cost you a year? I guess not. Whether your score is 107 or 007, it does not matter, both won’t get the chance to write the Mains.

The lesson is simple if you can lean it. Study. Given that these “silly” mistakes will creep in come what may, study hard enough to get enough MCQs correct that you don’t need to bother about this 1 question.

And yes, we were planning to put in place a Prelims series and here is the schedule: