Cracking the Boards: Teachers warn against relying on guidebooks

If you are one of those who plan to sail through the Boards by cramming the guidebooks at the 11th hour, here’s some bad news for you.
Teachers have warned that guidebooks will not really help students prepare for the examination. On the contrary, students end up wasting their precious time on guidebooks. Instead, they should utilise that time to read their NCERT books and classnotes.

Usha Ram, principal of Laxman Public School, Hauz Khas said, “The guides for various subjects available at the market are not helpful at all. They are not written well, have spelling and grammatical errors and one cannot guarantee the veracity of the information in these books.”
She feels that these kind of books could prove detrimental to the students’ performance.
“Students should instead make short notes, which is basically a summary of the chapters. Instead of going through the entire chapters, they can just run their eyes through the notes at the last moment,” she added.

Nishita Mohta, a class 12 student of Delhi Public School, Mathura Road who is appearing for the Boards feels the same. “Some of my friends use guides, since they feel it’s an easier way to prepare for the exams but I think that the NCERT books are enough my own notes are enough.”

Principal of Springdales School, Dhaula Kuan Jyoti Bose said, “Students should stay away from using guide books and prepare their own notes.”  She also feels that guidebooks are standardised and have set pattern. “With each passing year, CBSE has been trying to encourage conceptual learning rather than rote learning. Guides can never compensate for the class notes and NCERT books,” added Bose.
She also said that students should focus on solving sample papers of the last 10 years, which will give them a fair idea of the kind of questions that they can expect.



Source: hindustantimes.com