Class 9th is the time when students start preparing themselves for Board examinations that they have to appear for next year. Look at the syllabus, paper pattern, and marking schemes that schools use and see how they resemble the board exam itself. Even the teachers start preparing the students mentally and get them in shape for boards. Students as such start studying in accordance to board question pattern and level. Subjects like Mathematics, physics, and the likes, being conceptual take up more time of the students as they require building concepts and practice problems. In this scenario, subjects like literature are left behind. When the exam starts closing in, students panic. This is because even though literature isn’t numerical-based or tricky subject, but it does require a base, a strong vocabulary, and the art of expressing oneself along with good writing skills. These can’t be built in a day or a month. A student who has to appear for the board exam has to start getting acquainted with the syllabus, pattern, and creative demand of the subject from class 9th itself.
It is especially problematic for students to score well in literature and they often face difficulties in essays and unseen passages even if they somehow manage the grammar portion. Hindi literature is a beautiful subject, no doubt. But it’s also lengthy, cumbersome, and requires good writing and thinking skillset. Scoring well in Hindi is not rocket science and is relatively easy if you just follow some basic rules of study. This article has a few expert-backed tips for scoring good marks in the Hindi examination.
Know the syllabus- First and foremost step is to be thorough with the syllabus. Since CBSE has made major changes to the syllabus and paper pattern recently, students should first get acquainted with the changes and prepare accordingly. The CBSE Board Class 10th Hindi subject comes with two choices- Hindi course A and Hindi course B. Course A is for students who have Hindi as their mother tongue while course B is for students for whom Hindi is their second language. Exams for both are conducted on the same day. The syllabus includes essay writing, letter writing, unseen passage, and questions based on it and then there are literature-based questions on the short stories and poems given in the reference book followed by a grammar section.
Read your text- Most of the questions in the Hindi exam will be directly from the NCERT Books for Class 9 Hindi. The students should therefore be well-versed with the textbook. The remaining portion consists of essays, letters, and passages that have to be managed through creative and analytical skills. The grammatical portion however requires extensive study as it’s crucial to be familiar with all the grammatical rules and exceptions that follow. Class 9th is crucial to strengthen the base for Hindi and should be taken seriously. Solve all the grammar questions given in the text as it’s quite imperative that Board prepares Hindi papers from NCERT Books itself so reading the textbook m alone gives an extra edge to the student.
Nail the Important topics first- Prioritizing the entire syllabus is a clever strategy. In 9th class, when the pressure for board exams begins to build up and students struggle with the humongous syllabus of subjects like Math, Physics, and Chemistry, it’s hard to find time for literature. In such a scenario, filtering out the important topics from the Hindi syllabus having the most weightage and covering them first seems like the best move. Students should analyze the entire syllabus and take references from previous years’ papers to segregate the topics according to their weightage. They should pick out the topics having high weightage and cover them first followed by the low weightage topics if the time permits. Striving to cover the entire syllabus is futile as maximum marks can be gathered by perfectly consolidating the important topics.
Solve previous year papers- The best way to know the syllabus, important topics, paper pattern, and length is to solve the previous years’ question papers. This would give an idea of the kind of questions asked and what all topics cover the bulk of the paper. Timing yourself while solving the paper also gives an idea of the length of the paper and students can prepare accordingly.
For every board exam, certain questions and topics are repeatedly asked year after year either in the same format or with minuscule changes. Notice those questions and examine the pattern. Hindi is usually not a subject on which students give much time upon, so attempting as many previous year papers and CBSE sample papers as possible is the best way out. The students can practice the essay topics and get a hint of the topics asked. CBSE sample papers not only give the complete format of the question paper but also makes the students comfortable with the subject. Solving them boosts the confidence of the students as some students can get very nervous while attempting creative topics like essay-writing.
Practice Writing Skills- Practicing written Hindi is very important. This is because Hindi takes time to write and also the words can get complex. Practicing not only polishes the handwriting but also enhances the writing speed. It helps the students to boost their thinking capability so that they can promptly think about how to begin and end. It also enables them to get an idea of the word limit they are expected to stick to. Writing clearly and correctly is very important for scoring good marks and practice is the only way.
Tips for writing essays- The students should know how to begin as the introduction is very important. It makes or breaks the reader’s attention. Try to write effective introductions. The content of the essay should be relevant to the topic, concise and suitable. Finally, a good conclusion is as important as a good introduction.
Tips for writing letters- Many students face problems in writing Hindi letters especially formal ones. Start the letter by addressing the concerned authority followed by the topic. The most useful tip is to divide the body of the letter into 3 paragraphs- First for introducing the issue, second for describing the issue in detail, and third for the conclusion, finally followed by a complimentary note and sender’s name.