How to Score Good Marks in Maths

Students who plateau at 60–70 rarely have a 'difficulty' problem — they have a coverage problem. In CBSE boards and foundation exams, the majority of marks come from NCERT-pattern questions. The student stuck at 70 has usually: read the chapter, understood it in class, and never revisited it again.

• Solve NCERT solved examples on paper, not in the head — 'I get it' is not the same as 'I can reproduce it'.
• Complete the back exercises in full. Board questions are reworded versions of these.
• Re-solve every question you got wrong a second time 10 days later.

Every high-weightage topic in Class 10–12 collapses into a handful of formulas. Master them cold — you should be able to recall and apply them without thinking. For example, the workhorse of algebra:

Weightage below is the CBSE reality — prioritise in this order:

1. 1
   Class 10: Number Systems & Algebra (incl. Quadratic Equations, Arithmetic Progressions) and Geometry together carry the largest share of the 80-mark paper.
2. 2
   Class 12: Calculus (Continuity, Differentiation, Application of Derivatives, Integrals, Differential Equations) is the single biggest block — roughly a third of the paper.
3. 3
   Vectors & 3D, Linear Programming and Probability are the 'quick full-marks' topics — high weightage for low effort.
4. 4
   Class 11: Sets/Relations, Trigonometry and Straight Lines form the base of everything above; a weak Class 11 base quietly caps your Class 12 score.

Board examiners award steps, not just final answers. A correct method with a wrong final arithmetic still earns most of the marks — but only if the steps are written. This one habit is worth 5–8 marks in almost every paper. Here is the format we make our students use:

1. 1
   Write 'Given' — restate the data in one line.
2. 2
   Write the formula or approach you will use.
3. 3
   Show each calculation step, numbered if it helps.
4. 4
   Box the final answer, and always add the unit.

Here is the exact presentation that gets top marks. Solve for x in $x^2-5x+6=0$:

1. 1
   Given: a = 1, b = –5, c = 6.
2. 2
   Formula: apply the quadratic formula (shown above): x = (−b ± √(b² − 4ac)) / 2a.
3. 3
   Discriminant: b² − 4ac = 25 − 24 = 1, so √(b² − 4ac) = 1.
4. 4
   Roots: x = (5 ± 1) / 2 → x = 3 or x = 2.
5. 5
   Answer boxed: x = {3, 2}. Recheck by substituting back — 4 of 5 errors are caught this way.

1. 1
   First 10 minutes: read the whole paper, mark the questions in 'easy → hard' order.
2. 2
   Solve the easy bank first — build early confidence and bank quick marks.
3. 3
   Leave 10 minutes at the end to recheck sign errors and units on the short-answer section.
4. 4
   Never blank a question — write the method you know; partial method = partial marks.