There’s really no such thing as “doing brilliantly next time.” Don’t dwell on what you did or didn’t do before—think about who you are right now. Our bodies don’t run on physical strength alone, but on the power of the mind. A healthy person’s inability to work hard is fundamentally a form of mental disability. Use these few days to give your absolute best. Just see what happens!
1. There’s no such thing as an “uncommon question.” If the exam doesn’t have common questions, you’ll have to create answers, and if you can’t create them, you’ll have to imagine them, and if you can’t imagine them, you’ll have to force yourself to imagine. The problem isn’t that you’re not answering—it’s that someone else is.
2. You cannot leave even half a mark behind. Whatever it takes, you must give “full answers.”
3. Quickly read through only the essential parts of at least three digest books. You need a job, not scholarly expertise.
4. Never think that just because someone before you got away with cutting corners, you’ll get away with it too.
5. Your personal sorrows and sufferings cannot excuse poor exam performance—at least that’s what the world around you believes. Your hardships are, at most, your misfortune; but your failures are simply your failures, nothing more.
6. I believe that good preparation doesn’t guarantee a good exam, just as poor preparation doesn’t guarantee a poor exam. Results are always final only after the final results are announced, never before. Until then, you are in no way inferior to anyone else.
7. During this time, you’ll find “touch and pass” type suggestions with novel questions. Stay a hundred yards away from these. It’s better to rely on your own preparations.
8. Live a “no excuse” life. If you succeed, you won’t need to show excuses. If you fail, no one will listen to your excuses anyway. Keep challenging yourself, throw down the gauntlet to yourself at every moment.
9. Never inquire about how much others have studied. Focus on your own preparation.
10. How many pages you should write for each question depends on the question’s marks, importance, available time, and your writing speed. Time is equal for everyone—proper management of it is what matters.
11. If you skip a topic entirely, it won’t be easy to improvise in the exam either. At least “touch” everything once.
12. When you sit down to study, write down on paper what you’ll study in the next few hours, then study. Never think about what you’ll study in the coming days.
13. Sleep exactly 4 hours until the exam. What? Can’t do it? You can, you can. Many others have managed it. Why can’t you?
14. When selecting questions, it’s better to answer four questions worth 4+3+3+5=15 marks than one 15-mark question.
15. Quit Facebook completely! Absolutely! Answer phone calls selectively.
16. Study Bangladesh and International Affairs less. Focus much more on the other four subjects.
17. No need to take model tests elsewhere. Spend much more time at home.
18. Keep a diary with the names of 25-30 writers on various issues and their “areas of interest.” This will be useful when giving citations.
19. Explain issues from various columnists’ perspectives and conclude toward the end with your own analysis. Write your comments or personal opinions if you have them (and even if you don’t).
20. Write in paragraphs with lots of bullet points. The first and last paragraphs should be the most compelling.
21. You won’t remember much of what you’re studying. No one can take a written exam with 100% preparation. The art lies in forgetting 60% of what you think you’ve learned perfectly and using the remaining 40% effectively.
22. For those taking BCS for the first time: there’s no such thing as “first time, second time” when it comes to failure. Failure is failure! Life doesn’t work if you keep forgiving yourself.
23. Don’t write anything negative about the state or government in your exam papers.
24. Don’t use shortcuts in mathematics; show every step in detail.
25. Study short questions, notes, short notes, summaries, essence, amplification, translation, grammar, etc., thoroughly.
26. I didn’t have all constitutional articles memorized, didn’t know economic survey data that well, wasn’t good at rote learning, yet I got the job. So why wouldn’t you?
What will be, will be. Your provision is certainly predetermined. Through your work, you can only make the path to achieving it more honorable or less honorable, nothing more. Don’t lose faith in yourself, because this one person will ultimately stay by your side in this world. Good luck!
This piece was first published in Prothom Alo newspaper’s ‘Chakribakriy’ page on June 10, 2016. The link is: