Do toppers really study fourteen hours a day?

Students hear many stories about how toppers prepare, from relatives, senior students and social media. Some are true, many are exaggerated, and a few do real harm. Here are the ones our teachers hear most often.

The first is that toppers study fourteen hours a day. In our experience, most strong students study eight to ten focused hours on a school day, including coaching, and protect seven hours of sleep. A student who sits for fourteen hours but sleeps five hours usually learns less, makes more careless mistakes in tests and falls ill in the months before the exam. Quality of attention matters far more than hours at the desk.

The second is that you must finish every reference book. Students who buy six problem books per subject usually finish none of them. One standard textbook, our material and one good problem book per subject, solved properly with mistakes reviewed, is enough for most students. The third is that board exams do not matter for JEE or NEET. They do, both for eligibility criteria and because the board syllabus is the foundation of most entrance questions.

The last is that a low score in one test means a student is not good enough. Test marks move up and down by 20 to 30 marks from week to week for almost everyone. What matters is the trend over two months and whether the same mistakes keep coming back. If your child is anxious about a score, ask their mentor to sit with them over the analysis sheet.