Strategy to Crack Exams!

By God's grace, after being able to crack and qualify all India competitive exams such as UGC-NET, IIT-GATE (Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering), NIT-NAT (National Aptitude Test), Global certification exams such as Oracle certification exams and MNCs exams of Deloitte Consulting, Pega Systems, Wipro, Tech Mahindra etc, I've gained some insight on how to crack these and similar exams, which I have shared below. Apart from competitive exams, there are academic exams which every university/college/school student has to pass to get their respective degree/credits. I cover these as well below from my academic experience at IIM Lucknow, BITS Pilani and other academic experiences.

For simplicity, I have divided this article into two parts - Competitive exams (Objective type) and Academic exams (Subjective type).

1. Competitive Exams (Objective type):

i). In competitive exams your aim is to score at every question to maximize your overall score. Each loss of question is a loss of marks which will lower your competitive position significantly. Don't start by thinking to avoid any question or topic. Your ability to answer each question will increase your score.
ii). Study the syllabus of the exams and get previous years papers of atleast 5 years. Incase previous years papers are not available, try to get mock test papers. Remember practising questions which are at par with exact exams is very important. It elevates your mind and brings your mind to the level of actual exam. You develop mental stamina to face actual exam properly by practising at par previously otherwise you will mostly be unable to do well in actual exam. It's similar to an Olympian practising minimum at par with actual competition.
iii). Start solving the questions. Even if you are able to get any one question right it is a good start. Identify the topics from which you were able to solve and from which you were not able to solve. This will act as a mirror that which are your strong areas and which are your weak ones.
iv). For strong areas, start perfecting in them so that you achieve mastery and are able to solve all questions from your strong areas. (Exceptional questions can come but in general you should be able to answer all questions from your strong areas). In my GATE exam I applied this strategy and achieved 100% score from my strong areas.
v). For weak areas, identify them, write them down and conquer them one by one till you cover your syllabus and all the practice questions set. Identify one topic from syllabus or practice question which you were not able to solve, study it, do practice questions from that topic and achieve mastery on it. After covering all the topics, give mock retest and achieve 100% in all the 5 practice tests. After completing all the five practice tests, get more practice tests from online or institutes that have(buy from them, its worth). Keep this practice of solving questions till exam. This might take time but I assume you have 6-7 months to prepare for your exam. Normally 8-10 days is enough to master one topic for eg. Probability, if studied for 4 hours per day with deep focus.
vi). In a negative marking exam you should only attempt those questions which you were rationally able to arrive at the answer and avoid those which you cannot arrive at correct answer even after solving and eliminating options.
vii). In exam aim is to maximize score. Don't start with a mindset to experiment in exam. Start with answering questions from your strongest areas to the least strongest ones. We have limited energy and time. Use it to maximize your score. Have a strategy to start exam with attacking those questions which are from your strongest and comfortable topics to the least strongest and uncomfortable topics. Have a timer for each question which depends on total questions and time available.
viii) As the time passes by navigate through questions from your strongest areas to the least strongest ones. Your mental stamina and emotional attitude should be high during the exam. If unfortunately you are not able to solve any question from your strong area in the initial minutes of exam, leave it for later and move on to the next question.
ix). By this, question by question from your convenient and strongest areas to the least strongest ones you progress towards maximizing your score.
x) Lastly, have a positive attitude during exam. Never exhaust or get emotionally down in any exam. Attempt each question with respect and deep focus. Don't treat any question lightly. Exams have a big role in making a good career.

2. Academic exams (Subjective type):

i). In academic subjective exams also starting point is syllabus and previous years question papers of atleast 5 years or atleast 5 mock test papers.
ii). Go through the full question papers and try to write answers by yourself - unaided.
iii). See how many of those you were able to answer well, unaided. For the remaining ones, study the topic, understand them, memorize them (where needed) and rewrite the answers unaided.
iv). Keep doing this exercise until you are able to write answers well of all the questions unaided and understandably. This will tune your mind to be able to do well in actual exam. We are developing mental stamina and intellectual ability and not just memorizing questions because needless to say they will not be same in actual exam, but your mind will be prepared to handle those questions because it has practiced with similar questions which were at par with the actual ones. Your mind is intellectually capable to handle those well.

These are general strategies. If there is any specific exam that has specific approach remember to practice like the actual exam, whichever it is. Practice on real exam situation and mastering over it is the key!

All the best!