With barely few days left for the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test, the exam fever is running high amongst lakh of aspirants across the country vying for a seat in the MBBS and BDS courses offered by India’s top medical colleges.

At times like these, students often find themselves overburdened with a huge volume of preparatory material, making it difficult to cover and revise all the subjects in a limited span of time.

The struggle, as they say, is real. To help NEET aspirants cover their syllabus without undue stress, here is a subject-wise guide that can help them refine their preparation strategy for the upcoming exam:

Physics: You need to memorise formulae, as the subject is based largely on numerical questions. Ensure that you cover critical topics such as spring force and energy, moment of inertia and conservation of angular momentum, satellite motion and escape speed, thermal conduction and Newton’s law of cooling, increase in heat engine efficiency when sink temperature is lowered, floating cylinder in SHM, organ pipes, sonometer, and Doppler effect.

Practice all the questions based on E = -dV/dR, transformers, and LC oscillations multiple times. Especially formulae covered in topics like mechanical properties of solids & fluids, Young’s double slit experiment, and radioactive decay are to be learnt by heart.

Chemistry: This subject is classified into three major segments — physical chemistry, organic chemistry, and inorganic chemistry. Each section is equally important to get a good score.

Formulae from topics like some basic concepts of chemistry, structure of atom, states of matter, thermodynamics, equilibrium, solutions, chemical kinetics, and electrochemistry should be learnt by heart.

In physical chemistry, chemical bonding has significant weightage, while coordination compounds and the D & F Block elements are two of the most important topics in inorganic chemistry that need thorough practice.

When it comes to organic chemistry, focus on reaction intermediates, aromaticity, nucleophilic and electrophilic substitution reactions, inductive and electromeric effects, elimination reaction, and the difference between elimination and substitution.

Biology: This is comparatively the easiest section, as the questions are not generally tricky. A relatively higher number of questions are asked from ecology, biomolecules, human physiology, plant physiology, cell biology, and biotechnology.

Other topics that you must prepare well for are animalia and plantae. Ensure that you memorise all the common names and examples given in the NCERT books and practice the objective questions well. Here are a few last-minute tips that will help students ace the exam with ease:

Solve mock test papers: Attempting previous years’ question papers will help you develop a strong understanding of the paper pattern. Solving mock test papers will improve your speed and hone your time management skills. Stick to the stipulated time and ensure you improve with every test paper you attempt.

Know what’s important: With just three subjects — biology, chemistry, and physics, it is imperative that you inculcate a thorough understanding of all the important topics and the weightage given to each topic. This will help you divide your preparation time better.

Revise from NCERT: Last-minute preparations cannot be complete unless you have gone through your NCERT books. The NEET exam carries questions mostly from the NCERT curriculum, which is why you should not skip NCERT for eleventh-hour references.

Revise concepts and formulae everyday: Taking some time out to revise concepts and formulae you have already learned will enhance your understanding of the topics and help you retain critical information better.

Refrain from starting on new topics: This is the time when you should be confident about your exam preparation. Starting a new topic in this limited time will not only shoot up your stress levels, but can also consume a lot of your valuable time in reading something which you won’t be able to retain. Instead, revise topics which you’re already familiar with and work towards mastering them.

With all this critical information available at your disposal, utilise the time you have left to the best of your abilities. Following the aforementioned tips, will ensure that you leave no stone unturned in your quest to secure a seat in one of India’s most prestigious colleges.

The writer is VP, educational content, Toppr.com