Question Bank — Why & How

Why is it Important To Solve a Question Bank?

Before you run a marathon, you must practice everyday. Your Board exams are like a marathon. You must be prepared to answer the question paper, in the allotted time and be familiar with the type of questions and what answers to write. Solving a question bank has the following advantages:

• Past papers reveal the exam pattern. You become familiar with the nature of question paper, types of questions asked, marks allotted for each topic.
• If you solve past 5 years’ question papers, it will cover almost the entire syllabus. That means most important topics are covered.
• You become aware of questions that are not given in your textbook. These are the so-called ‘unexpected’ questions.
• You can time yourself when you solve past question papers. You can find out which types of questions take how much time, which topic to revise, which topics you are good at.
• It also gives you ample opportunities of writing practice and drawing diagrams. Remember, your exam is a written exam, and all answers should be not just at the ‘tip of the tongue’ but they should flow smoothly from the tip of the pen.
• Constantly solving questions will sharpen your brain and you will be able to solve your questions much faster.
• As you solve more papers, you will gain confidence and feel more at ease when you see the actual question paper on the exam day as by then, you have become familiar with the nature of the paper.

How To Prepare a Question Bank

• If possible, get the question papers of school tests or preliminary exams of other schools and colleges. But don’t go overboard with that, just from 2 or 3 schools/colleges is enough.
• Get the past 5 years’ question papers of Board exams.
• As you study each chapter, make a chapter-wise question bank. This is a list of all questions from your textbook and from past papers of your board exams, and also questions asked in your class tests, school exams and preliminary exams, from EACH CHAPTER. When you make such a question bank, don’t mix up questions from different chapters. Preferably, write on one side of foolscap paper, and put this in a file. Before you start writing the question, draw a margin of 1 inch (or about 3 cms) on right side of the page. This margin can be used to write the page no of the textbook where the answer appears.
• Here is a recommended way to make your own question bank and you should follow this pattern for each chapter :
• Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs)
• Fill-in-the-Blanks type questions
• True/False Questions
• Answer-in-one-sentence type questions (usually Define / State type of question)
• Definitions
• Diagrams
• Short answer questions (3–4 lines)
• Questions (description of experiment, diagram of apparatus used, circuit diagram, precautions taken in the experiment), based on experiments from the chapter
• Units and dimensions of all physical quantities in that chapter
• Derivations (Proof / Derive / Obtain the equation / Show that) type of questions.
• Explain / Elaborate / Discuss type of questions
• Distinguish between / Compare / Contrast / Similarities type of questions
• Numerical examples
• As you finish studying each chapter, solve questions of that chapter from your own question bank.
• Students often leave out questions or topics that have not been asked in previous question papers. If that topic is still in your syllabus, I recommend you study that topic thoroughly because, statistically atleast, it is now the turn of this topic and question to appear in the next paper.

Solve past question papers. The more papers you solve, the better.