Are you concerned about getting good grades on your board exam? Everyone around you may be discussing your tests, and the atmosphere is likely to be tense. English is a subject that you take lightly, yet it can help you increase your percentage. The only thing you need remember is that it doesn’t matter how well you performed in previous exams; everyone has a specific interest in a subject that helps them. Everyone starts with a blank slate in the board exams. Also, sometimes even the greatest students receive bad results due to English, while the weakest students perform well. We understand that class 10 is a significant milestone in your life. And with everyone talking about the examinations – from friends to teachers, parents to relatives – a tense atmosphere surrounds you. Take a deep breath and relax! We are here to provide you with simple strategies for improving your grades and assisting you with your exam preparation. Don’t miss the class X do’s and don’ts for English exam, which we’ve particularly curated to assist you perform well in your examinations towards the end of the blog!
Chapter Wise Summary for English Exam:
Chapter 1.1 Where the mind is without fear
The poet wants his countrymen to live fearlessly and get back their self-esteem by standing up for themselves. He wants India to be a country where knowledge is free flowing. It is not just the sole prerogative of a few fortunate ones. He envisions a united India that is not divided on the basis of caste, creed, religion, etc. He wishes to see his beloved countrymen to be free from all prejudices as well as superstitious beliefs. The poet wants his countrymen to be sincere and truthful. He visualises India as an epitome of perfection which is the fruit of continuous efforts and hardwork. Furthermore, he appeals to God to lead his country into that ‘heaven’ where individuals experience freedom in the truest sense, where progressive thoughts translate into actions. He prays to the Almighty to let his country wake up to such an ideal abode of freedom.
Chapter 1.2 The Thiefs Story
The narrator, a robber, meets Anil, a struggling writer who is simple, kind, and empathetic. The thief gains Anil’s trust and becomes friends with him, finally working as a cook in his home. The narrator’s purpose is clearly to plunder Anil and run. He can’t cook, so Anil teaches him to cook and write while feeding him for free. As the adage goes, “old habits die hard,” and the burglar makes tiny earnings by defrauding Anil while shopping for him on a daily basis. The burglar eventually chooses one night to rob Anil of his money and escape. Although he is successful in taking money, he is unable to flee. His conscience prickles, and he feels horrible for stealing a trusting man like Anil. He reappears and replaces the wet notes. The next morning, Anil gives the thief some money and pledges to reimburse him on a regular basis. The story convincingly establishes the notion that love, compassion, and kindness have the power to change a thief’s life and reform him.
Chapter 1.3 On the Wings of Courage
The lesson revolves around the achievements and deeds of valour of Marshal of the Indian Air Force Arjan Singh Born on April 15, 1919, Singh completed his education at Montgomery. He took up various adventurous and daring tasks and led LAF to greater heights. He displayed exemplary courage and got victory against a more powerful Pakistan supported by America leading a squadron against the Japanese during the Arakan Campaign as well as the Imphal Campaign. Singh remained a flyer till the end of his tenure in IAF and retired in August 1969 there upon accepting the Ambassadorship to Switzerland. He was Lieutenant Governor of Delhi from December 1989 to 1990. He will always be remembered for being an inspiration to the personnel of Armed Forces for his exceptional contribution towards giving the LAF its present shape with his determination, grit, leadership skills and fearlessness.
Chapter 1.4 All the World’s a Stage
All the world’s a stage is a line from Shakespeare’s play “As You Like It.” The poem is also known as “The Seven Ages of Man.” It compares life to a theatre, and each of us to actors playing our parts. There are 7 distinct stages or acts: infancy, childhood, adolescence, youth, middle age, old age, and dotage. You enter the stage when you are born and leave when you die. The poem emphasises the fleeting nature of life and the futility of man’s endeavours to obtain fortune and renown, only to leave this world empty-handed and as powerless as you had entered it.. Living life by accepting what is and leaving with grace and dignity is the best way to play our parts. The poem also underlines the inevitable change that one has to undergo to finally meet one’s death which is imminent.
Chapter 1.5 Joan of Arch
Joan of Arc’ by George Bernard Shaw is a play narrating the story of the courageous and undying spirit of a girl Joan. It outlines Joan’s bold attempt to convince Captain Robert to allow her to fight the Englishmen. Throughout the play, you will come across Joan’s qualities that makes her stand out from the ordinary soldiers. Brave and blunt, Joan’s story makes for a good read as she is, what you can call, one of the earliest examples of women empowerment.
Chapter 1.6 Alchemy of Nature
In this chapter, you will learn about the power of everyday elements of nature to transform our lives by giving us the most valuable lessons of life. Besides giving pleasure, nature has lessons for life and it is upto us what we learn from it and how we implement these lessons. If we do, learn and implement these lessons, we experience the ‘Alchemy of Nature’.
Chapter 2.1 Animals
Animals by Walt Whitman has depicted the simplicity of the animals and the greediness and complex nature of human beings. He brings out the difference between the two by expressing his contentment on the placid nature of the animals. Their carefree nature impresses the poet and he wants to emulate them.
Chapter 2.2 Three Questions
This chapter shows great faith in God and respect for moral values. “Three Questions” is a short story that takes the form of a parable and it concerns a king who tries to find answers to what he considers the three most important questions in life which are
- The most important time is ‘now’, the present moment.
- The most necessary person is the one with whom you are
- The most important thing is to do good to the person you are with.
Chapter 2.3 Connecting the Dots
This Chapter explains the three real life instances from Steve Jobs. The first story talks about his college days wherein he dropped out of college to follow his heart and ended up designing the first mackintosh computer. According to him, whatever you do in life helps you in the future somewhere down the line. His second story is about love and loss. This story tells us how he lost what he had made. He was fired from his own company because he drove the people a little too hard, as being gentle and polite was not his nature. He took this as a lesson and began all over again with a different perspective.
His third story talks about death and how he escaped the jaws of death. He was diagnosed with cancer and his doctor had advised him to settle all his things. The cancer turned out to be a rare form of pancreatic cancer which could be cured with surgery and he had the surgery done. He says that life is unpredictable, so live your life and use your living time judiciously.
Chapter 2.4 The Pulley
The central idea of the poem tells you about the creation of man and all the luxuries and blessings showered on him by his creator (God). God showered on man all the riches he could find on earth but withhold the jewel of ‘rest’ so that man would seek God when all the treasures bestowed on him would tire him out.
Chapter 2.5 Let’s March
‘Lets March’ by Kailash Satyarthi is an appeal to the citizens of the world to stand for the rights of children and liberate them from slavery. Kailash Satyarthi himself is an Indian Children Rights and Education advocate and an activist against child labour. The ‘Nobel Peace Prize’ recipient through various real life examples inspires us to realize our duty towards the future citizens of the world. Or else he says we should be ready to face the consequence of neglecting the call of innocence.
Chapter 2.6 Science and Spirituality
The link between god and man is faith “These are the words of the great visionary scientist and firm believer in the Almighty, Dr Abdul Kalam. The fact that there is a super natural power which helps us in everything we do and for that, faith is very important is what is explained in this chapter.
Chapter 3.1 Night of the Scorpion
Nissim Ezekiel’s Night of the Scorpion’ is a strong yet simple statement on the power of self-effacing love. Full to the brim with Indianness, it captures a well-detached black and white snapshot of Indian village life with all its superstitious simplicity. The poet dramatizes a battle of ideas fought at night in lamplight between good and evil; between darkness and light; between rationalism and blind faith. And out of this confusion, there arises an unexpected winner – the selfless love of a mother.
Chapter 3.2 The Night I met Einstein
In this article, the writer was invited to dine at the house of a powerful business man. After the dinner, there was a concert and a pianist was invited to perform. The writer was very disappointed about the concert as he was tone-deaf, he was feeling bored and inattentive. But the writer’s neighbor (Einstein) understood the problem of the writer that he did not understand anything about classical music and he did not know about the composers. Einstein took genuine interest in the author who was a stranger and in making him experience the facts and truth about music. He took him to another room which had a gramophone and played what the writer knew and had interest in. Einstein gradually made him learn and sing by giving certain examples and made him capable of appreciating music sincerely.
Chapter 3.3 Stephen Hawking
This chapter highlights the brief history of Stephen Hawking who was a British Scientist, professor and author who performed groundbreaking work in physics & cosmology. After being diagnosed with Amyotrophic Laterial Scleroris (ALS), his body collapses totally but he proved to the world that where there is a will there’s a way and co-wrote 15 books. He was the first to set out the theory of cosmology with his determination and obstinacy.
Chapter 3.4 The Will to win
The poem is an inspiring piece that will boost your morale and motivates us to achieve our goals with the will to win, come what may. It underlines the importance of hard work, planning, determination and fearlessness. Moreover,it gives you the message that if one has the will to win, nothing is impossible. God will help such a person to achieve his goals.
Chapter 3.5 Unbeatable Super Mom – Mary Kom
“People used to say that boxing is for men and not for women” and I thought, “I will show them someday. I promised myself and I proved myself.” These are the words of none other than the famous ‘Mary Kom” who made Indians proud with her sports achievements in the field of boxing. She made her own way to success. She knew her dreams, her strength and listened to her mind and reached the heights of success at a very young age without forgetting to support her family is the central idea of this Chapter.
Chapter 3.6 The Concert
This is a moving story about a sister who goes out of her way to meet her brother’s ambition to attend a concert and listen to Pandit Ravishankar’s sitar recital and Ustad Allah Rakha’s tabla performance.
Chapter 4.1 AThing of Beauty is a Joy forEver
The poem ‘A Thing of Beauty is a Joy For Ever by John Keats is a revolution against the conventional reality. According to Keats there is a difference between an ordinary and entity object of beauty. The effects of an ordinary object are momentary to our senses, they do not remain long in our minds and fades away as time passes.On the other hand, the effects of the things of beauty permanently charm our senses; they do not fade with time and stay in our senses. No time and space can put an end to the effects of the beauty of objects.
Chapter 4.2 The Luncheon
This delightfully humorous narrative is a slice of life about Maugham’s luncheon date proposed to him by a woman, who he hopes is a supporter of his art. Having only communicated with her through the mail, the author is rather surprised to meet a woman of forty, she gives him the impression of having more teeth white and large and even, than were necessary for any practical purpose.
Chapter 4.3 World Heritage
This chapter is an article giving information about the UNESCO and World Heritage Sites. You will learn the process of how a world heritage site is selected from all over the world. It discusses UNESCO’s organisational structure as well as its history, providing context for how it was founded. It enlists the regions as the world heritage sites and finally concludes with a mention of all the dangers and avoiding them.
Chapter 4.4 The Height of the Ridiculous
The Height of the Ridiculous is a humorous poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894). This poem describes his own fictional experience of writing a poem that was so funny, it made his servant fall sick for 10 days after reading it.
Chapter 4.5 the Old Man and The Sea
In this chapter, an aging Cuban fisherman struggles to make his living. He hasn’t caught anything in 84 days and has lost his apprentice, Manolin. To redeem himself, he ventures far out to catch a great marlin. When hauling it to shore, the carcass is ravaged by sharks and Santiago returns to shore with only a skeleton. This is a book review and when the writer of the review read it the first time, he was not impressed. Hemingway’s descriptions of the sea and the creatures of the water are beautiful. As the novel progresses, the old man and the marlin are inseparably linked because both stand for the same ideals, that is, a noble struggle against destruction.
Chapter 4.6 The Gift of the Magi
Jim and Della are a young couple living in a small apartment with little money. They want to get the others present. Jim wants to get Della something for her beautiful hair and Della wants to get him something for his watch which is his most valued possession.The problem is they don’t have enough money. Della cuts her hair off and sells it to get money to buy Jim a chain for his watch. But the narrator says they are wise for giving those gifts to each other in their selfless act and compares them to the Magi bringing gifts for baby Jesus lying in the manger.
Class X do’s & don’ts for English exam:
Score high marks with these class X do’s and don’ts for English exam, which we have particularly selected to help you perform well in your examinations!
For the seen passages & Poems
- Go through the text once and jot down the meanings of the words that you don’t know and even phrases.
- Try to make sentences from the phrases in the textbook
- Remember the names of authors and poet
- Identify key words/key concepts along with the speaker and the characters involved.
- Figure out the central theme of all the poems for appreciation of the poem
- Don’t forget to practice Figures of Speech.
When it comes to Unseen passage,
- Refer to the previous year’s papers as well as mock test papers to practice unseen passages and Grammar.
- You can get full points in grammar, so make sure you understand the principles.
- •Don’t forget to go through the basic rules of grammar skills before your exam.
- Don’t mug up the grammar and personalized opinion answers, understand the concept and answer your questions accordingly.
For the Writing skills Section,
- Be more factual as well as practical while attempting the writing skill part.
- For Writing Skill Questions such as expansion of ideas & speech you can share the examples, quotes to portray your point of view more precisely.
- Try to practice at least 2 writing skills topics once a week.
- Don’t forget to Set timings and write the whole paper with constant handwriting.
- Poems are a bit difficult as compared to others make sure you jot down the notes while your teacher is teaching.
- Remember the names of authors and poet
- Identify key words/key concepts along with the speaker and the characters involved.
- Be more factual as well as practical while attempting the writing skill part.
Tips to Score Good marks in your English exam.
To conclude, Class 10 students should follow a schedule to give equal time for all the chapters for their subjects. Conclusion Follow these Last Minute Exam Preparation Tips to Score Good marks in your next English exam.
- Get up early and use that time to study important topics
- Share your difficulties and look for solutions.
- Instead of reading the complete chapters, go over the summaries you have.
- Limit your screen time and avoid using technology. Consider taking breaks to recharge oneself before restarting.
- Get everything ready and in place for the next day
- Give more focus on your weak points
- Solve mock papers while keeping a timer.
- Have a clear understanding of your Exam.
Your hunt for effective English exam do’s and don’ts for class X for Maharashtra State Board ends here! Stay Tuned for further Updates on Maharashtra State board as well as CBSE exams. Don’t forget to download our app “SIR ACADEMY” for more such updates!
Happy Learning!