Crack The Code of Class 10 CBSE

Type of letter - We have letter writing in Sanskrit starting from grade 8. The letter is a “fill in the blanks” type, where the words which need to be filled will be given in the help box below the letter. For students, “filling blanks” is easy normally. But, in these letters that is not the case. Pattern of letter and difficulty faced - As Sanskrit is not a language that we usually speak, these letters were difficult for me. The letter was a part of the writing skills section. Each sentence had one blank for ½ mark. There were 10 blanks like that, which sums up to 5 marks. Each letter was different, so there were many new words in these letters, which I needed to learn. The first few blanks were direct like sender’s name, receiver’s name etc. The next blanks were part of the main content in the letter. This pattern did not change. But I had the same age-old problem of not understanding the meaning of the sentences. Practices followed to score full marks - In order to get ...

Maps in lower classes - In class 6, I was introduced to the concept of map marking. This was introduced to give students, a clear idea where a particular place is located in the state/country. Mostly, from class 6, I was told to mark places in the Indian political and river map. Maps in class 10 – Till class 9, the number of places that needed to be marked in the exams were limited. I memorized the location of the places and reproduced the same in my exams. But, in class 10, there were a lot of places, which I needed to memorize, in order to mark the same, in the board exams. Types of maps – In class 10, there were two types of maps. The first kind required me to write the name of the place, with the location of the place and a hint related to the place given. The second kind required me to mark the given place on a map. There were no international maps, (i.e.) all maps revolved around the states and rivers of India. Difficulty while marking maps and solutions – The ...

Less importance to formats in lower classes – Till grade 8, in my school, I studied a subject called “English Language”. This subject focused on the basics of English grammar such as tenses, modals, nouns, etc. It also included other writing skills such as letter writing, dialogue writing etc. The format for “letter writing” was given by my school. So, I wrote letters according to the format given to score marks. Creative writing questions in Class 10 – In class 10, I paid a lot of attention to the different types of letters and different creative writing questions. For the boards, I studied four types of letters – Ordering, Complaint, Enquiry for joining a course/accommodation and enquiry for a trip. I also needed to study some other formats such as Diary Entry, Article Writing etc., for writing VBQ’s based on these. Difficulties faced while writing letters and solutions – I found that many students knew all the formats, but didn’t know how to write the content according to...

Why I chose Sanskrit – Sanskrit seemed to be a language that was easier to learn and understand for me. It was the only language which was the closest to Hindi. The subject mostly required me to understand the various rules in grammar and apply them in various questions. Easy and difficult parts of the Subject - In grade 10, I felt that the grammar section was easy to attempt and score marks. But the comprehension section seemed to be the most difficult, because it required to know the meaning of some words which were critical to write answers. Comprehension questions - Comprehension Questions followed a fixed pattern - One-word answers, one sentence answers and Do as directed questions. The “Do as directed” question contains various sub-divisions such as finding verb, noun, synonym, antonym etc. for a given sentence. These comprehensions may be appearing from the NCERT book or from other sources. To master all the patterns, I practiced past question papers. Links ...

Definition of keywords - Till Class 9, I studied all the lessons and wrote answers in my own words. Class 10 was the first time; I heard the term “Keywords”. According to my teachers, “keywords” were phrases/words which described the whole answer and had to be underlined in the answer. Importance of keywords - They also told me that, teachers who correct papers in the boards, check for these keywords, and allot marks accordingly. My teachers, wanted these “keywords” to be underlined for all my answers. They also wanted me to use these keywords in the VBQ’s also. I was already accustomed to writing answers in my own way, without any keywords underlined. But, my English teacher, didn’t give me full marks for my answers in unit tests, since I didn’t use any of the keywords in my answers. My teacher insisted me, in using those words/phrases, so that I could score well in my board exams. Usage of keywords - At first, it was very tough to include these keywords in my answers. It...

Difficulty while learning Trigonometry - When I initially started out, I had difficulties in grasping the basic concepts. Trigonometry was an alien topic to me where I was unable to remember the simple formulas and t-ratios right. Types and approaches to different problems - Trigonometry had a lot of “to prove” sums. Each sum had a different approach. For example, some sums, needed the LHS to be rationalized at the first step, in order to arrive at the RHS. Many students in my class (including me at first), didn’t know how to approach the sums. I tried lots of different problems, in order to know which approach is correct. In exams, speed is important. So, if you know the correct approach for a sum, you can arrive at the correct answer very fast. You may also have another approach, but if it has a lot of steps, it may not be as helpful in your exams. Practices to follow for being thorough in Trigonometry - My IIT coaching institute helped me in giving lots of differ...