Vabita Joshi – AIR 4
Vabita Joshi, a student of Sun Valley International School, secured AIR 4 in the CBSE Class 10th board exams with 99.2 percent. A humble achiever, she gives all the credit of her success to her parents and teachers, especially her school principal Mrs Preeti Goel who personally looks into the progress of her students. Mrs Preeti Goel’s motivational speeches and counselling sessions encouraged Vabita and others to excel in exams. And true to the spirit of holistic education, Sun Valley school aims to provide an enriching, engaging and challenging curriculum that will prepare students for success while at school and for the years that follow.
A master of her gadgets, Vabita has some really simple yet effective tips for you to make the most of your time and and excel in exams. Apart from academics, she likes dancing and reading books in her spare time. An aspiring pilot, she has taken the science stream to pursue her dreams. She loves helping her friends in their studies and now, in this interview to Priya Sarin, she guides you all on how to study well and achieve success. Let’s learn from the best!
School and parents play a pivotal role in an achiever’s success. How did your teachers and parents help you achieve this feat?
>> Yes, it’s true that school and parents play a pivotal role in an achiever’s success. My parents provided me everything that I needed to pull this through and they were the first listeners to my problems. They always had a positive attitude towards my failures as well as my success. My teachers were my daily encouragers. They had faith on me and I wanted to live up to their expectations. Their constant support and encouragement really motivated me a lot. They were my true guides in studies as well as my day to day challenges. They helped me to keep my morale high. My School Principal Mrs. Preeti Goel personally looked into the progress of each child and her motivational speeches and counselling sessions encouraged me to excel in exams and outshine my School’s name in the country. So the credit of my achievement goes to my parents, my teachers and my school. I could always look up to them for their support and guidance.
Are you the master of your gadgets or their slave? In this digital age, how do you practice self-control when it comes to gadgets?
>> Technology has invaded our lives and the present generation is highly dependent on it but I would say that I am a master of gadgets and not a slave. They cannot influence my study hours and daily meeting with friends and family. Yes, of course, in this digital age we require our gadgets from morning to evening. This is essential but overusing them, is harmful. I used some gadgets to a limit. There are students who get distracted when they are near their mobiles or laptops but their presence never distracted me. My constant goal for studies stopped me to use the mobiles or computer. My suggestion to my peers would be that whenever you feel, you are getting distracted by them, just close your eyes and imagine the happy face of your teachers and parents celebrating your success and you would be motivated not to waste your time on them but work to achieve your goal.
During the hectic exam season how do you manage your time and give optimum attention to revisions and relaxation?
>> I never dreaded exam days. I never felt that a student has to be glued to the books all through the day during exam season. Students do not work daily and then they burden themselves during exam time. According to me, a student’s complete preparation for examination should be done months before. Exam time should be meant for rigorous revision with periodic relaxation, so that you can keep your mind fresh and relaxed and write your exams freely. I routined myself to do daily revision and not to reserve them for the future. During the exam time I used to do quick revisions and refresh my mind occasionally with some light music. My regular revisions cleared all my concepts and helped me to write exams with free mind and my mind was also conditioned to work quickly. When you learn thing in one day you cannot remember more than 40 – 50% of it the next day. So there is nothing like overnight success. Success is the outcome of the small steps you take daily.
In my interactions with students as an author, I found that some students are overconfident while others are under-confident. But toppers know how to maintain optimum confidence. How did you ensure that you stayed motivated and confident?
>> Overconfident students can never achieve success. There is always something or the other that lacks behind as they never learn from their mistakes or work upon them, they are not willing to seek guidance from their teachers or elders. There were students in my class who were brilliant but they were overconfident. They always did silly mistakes. That is why I decided that I will not become overconfident. Whenever there was something that I achieved, I limited my confidence to reassure myself that this is just a small step and I have to climb many more steps in life. I am inspired by those successful people who have done a lot of hard work and reached the zenith in their respective fields but then too they have no ego. We are still far from our goal, so why we should be overconfident about our small achievements. This doesn’t mean that we should remain under confident. We should be confident about our capabilities. Motivation from our parents and teachers also give a lot of confidence. Unless you have confidence on yourself, you cannot step ahead. Therefore it is necessary to maintain optimum confidence.
Most students confuse studying hard as studying productively. Can you share any tips on improving the quality of studying rather than simply maximizing the quantity of studying?
>> Studying hard does not mean that you keep books in front of you for the whole day. This is not a healthy practice. Everything should have a balance. Playing, doing exercise, meeting with friends are equally important. When we share our problems with someone else, we can relax our mind. When our mind is relaxed, we can learn easily. Studying daily is necessary and the most important thing is revision & tests because when we write a test we learn to present the answers to the questions and can analyse our mistakes. We also come to know about our weak areas and on what topic we need to work more. Before my Board exams in class X, we had so many revision tests, that we learned how to write and manage time during exams. Repeated revision of the syllabus helped us to prepare well. The way of writing answers gives a good impression on teachers and fetches you good marks. So do indulge in smart work along with hard work which come only by constant practice.
Toppers know that studying in a clutter-free environment is the easiest way to maximize productivity. Can you suggest some ways to build an efficiency-friendly environment for studying?
>> A conducive environment is always beneficial for maximum productivity. Of course, an individual has to work hard but things prevail better in a healthy environment. Adolescents undergo a lot of pressure, be it of studies or adjustment with their peers in the school. In our school life we may find people who are always ready to fight on trivial issues but it’s your duty to ignore them. If you are so emotionally weak that you cry over small things then such things will continue to haunt your thoughts and mind and will not let you study. Never mind such people who don’t even care about your feelings. Just think about your parents, how much they care for you, about your teachers who have great hopes from you and above all about yourself and your dreams then you will not be affected by their attitude towards you. Indulge in group studies, if someone is asking you to explain something then help him/her. This is a very good way of tutoring yourself because solving other’s doubts helps you to make your own concepts more clear. It was my favourite part to explain to my peers. This helped to build a friendly environment in which you can study well and remain focused.
Your friends influence your behaviour. Do you agree? If yes, how do you capitalize on it so that it has a positive effect on your performance? If your answer is no, how do you remain influenced in this connected world?
>> Nobody can deny the importance of friends in our life. True friends always inspire us to fulfill our dreams while fake friends may try to pull you down. Good and fake people are present everywhere. Sometimes we make a preconception that a person is not good and we do not become friend with him or her. I personally feel that even with such people we should not be rude. Everyone of us has a justification for our deeds. We may have some enemies in disguise of friend, who could encourage us to do wrong things, but we should not be influenced by then and remain focused towards our goals. My friends influence my behavior but only in right things. I never help them in their wrong deeds. I think when we have the ability to judge right or wrong, we will never be directed by such fake people. We should have the reasoning power to judge right and wrong and follow the right track.
~ Priya Sarin
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