NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 28: Maths (Class 12th)Don't panic! Surely, even your teacher surely didn't have all the calculus, geography and history on her finger tips, when she wrote her boards. And their sage advice, a week before the 12th boards stick to revision.Go through board question papers over the last few years and go through this year's sample papers too. A good night's sleep before the exam, is a must, if you want to be at your best on D-Day.Read the paper thoroughly and do not, repeat do not, get carried away with the answers.Read the question carefully and frame your answer according to that. Giving more details than asked for will not fetch you extra marks, but will definitely reduce the time you have for attempting other questions.Mohan Lal, president, Delhi Association of Mathematics Teachers suggests: ``Apart from reading the paper carefully, I want to tell every examinee that if you get stuck with a problem, do not spend too much time on it. Leave it and return to it later. And when you attempt it again, start afresh or you will make the same mistake that you would have made earlier.''He also pointed out that not everyone should aim to get everything right, even though Mathematics was considered to be scoring. ``Every year, two or three questions are put in the paper, which are very difficult. This is just to ensure that not everyone scores 100 per cent. Don't concentrate so much on these difficult questions, or you will lose sight of the easier ones,'' he said.Bhanu Rao, who teaches at Tagore International School, Vasant Vihar suggests that students should concentrate on the basics. Giving tips, Rao said the examinee should concentrate on questions from Matrices and Determinants and Correlation and Regression as they are the easiest. ``Vectors are a slightly tough chapter but it should not be a problem if students have done it thoroughly. If they are, however, not comfortable with this method then they should use the Cartesian method to attempt problems on 3-Dimensional Geometry.'' Rao felt that the difficult part, which is Application of Derivatives, should not be stressed on at this stage if the examinee is not thorough with it. ``Stick to the other two parts and keep practising your Integral Calculus. This topic has 22 marks and can't be ignored. However, while attempting these, be very careful as most students make minor mistakes in this section, which are avoidable.''
