What your child expects from you during their NEET preparation journey

Hello dear parents, this blog has specially been curated after talking to a lot of former NEET aspirants.

What did we expect from our parents? What did they fail to do? What did they do that made us feel motivated during the NEET phase? We took all the answers that we got and compiled them into this blog as a guide for parents. 

I have written this blog in the form of a letter from your child,read it and try to understand your child’s pov. 

Dear parents, 

We want you to, 

Staying up to date with the NEET exam. 

Staying informed and updated is a very difficult task for us. We feel anxious about missing an update, missing an exam guideline, missing out on the registration date or just filling in the form incorrectly. This is where we want you to help us. 

Yes, we can do it ourselves too, but it is a task that takes away our study time and also breaks our study routine. It is very helpful when parents step in and take the responsibility of helping out with the form filling and documents uploading. 

Be involved 

Be proactively involved in our NEET preparation journey. You should know our weak points, our strengths, our worries and fears, our preparation timeline. You should also have an idea of what is going on in our class then. Ask us specific questions like ‘How is physics going? How much did you get in that mock test? Are you facing any problems that we can help with beta?’

All such questions help us talk about our fears and thus helps us deal with those fears too. It also helps us feel relaxed. This makes concentration easier. 

It is a good time for reflection too, as sometimes we do not realize what is wrong until someone asks about it. This way, we can figure out our weak points and work on them. 

Give them the time and space to study

It is very very important for us to have our own separate space to study. It does not have to be an entire room or a very expensive study desk. Just a small modest study corner where nobody disturbs us. 

Even though it might seem like it is not important, a good study space makes a lot of difference. 

Please do not watch television/YouTube on full volume when we are studying. Do not call us for unimportant tasks when we are studying. Do not say things like ‘Why are you just sitting in one place and studying so much?’ Statements like these make us feel unmotivated and sad. Try to be a part of our journey by giving us time and space. Giving us reasons to work for. 

Make sure that they we are eating and sleeping well

While preparing for NEET, a lot of us stop eating as eating makes us feel sleepy. 

We want you to help us out when we are being very irrational about the NEET preparation. Nothing is bigger than health. If we stop eating for such reasons, you need to step in and take control. You need to be strict and tell us that you are not going to let us mess with our health. You can offer solutions like a low-carb diet or a better eating time. 

You should also make sure that we are sleeping for at least 5-6 hours a day. Low sleep makes it difficult to concentrate and thus ruins our productivity. But we do not realise this during the preparation phase, all we want is more time to study. You need to be smart for us and tell us that we are not helping ourselves by sleeping for 4 hours a day. You need to be strict and make sure that we get good rest, good food and a good lifestyle even during intense study periods. 

Identify anxiety and nervousness

Sometimes, when we are procrastinating, we are not being lazy. It just becomes physically impossible for us to work anymore. This can be due to mental exhaustion, anxiety or nervousness. You should be able to understand the signs of anxiety. 

Anxiety can present as something as common as a headache or a stomach ache; but it can also present as trembling, the feeling of forgetting everything, negative thoughts, or inability to study. You should be able to identify these signs for us when we are unable to do it. 

You should step in and hold us, ask us to take a break. Take us outside for the day, take us shopping or just to a garden for a walk, do anything but just try to talk to us. 

Talking helps a lot. 

Praise us once in a while, acknowledge our progress

You should make sure that we do not feel like we cannot crack NEET. Like we are good for nothing. You can help us in this case by just giving us compliments once in a while. Be specific with your comments, point out the things that we have improved over the time. 

Acknowledge our progress. Tell us that we have come far from where we started and that we should keep working without thinking so much about the results. Be the clarity that we need but cannot find within ourselves during the stressful time. 

Be our positivity. 

Encourage positive self talk, tell us that we can do it

Along with complimenting us once in a while, try to encourage positive self-talk too. When we say that we are not good enough, when we say things like ‘I am not worthy, I don’t deserve it’ talk to us gently. Tell us that this one exam does not define our worth. 

Teach us the things that we should be saying to ourselves, it should be optimistic. What we hear is subconscious influence, it decides our mood and the amount of effort we are going to put in. So it shouldn’t be negative. 

Tell us that we are not alone and not cornered. 

When we are able to be optimistic anymore, you should hold us and tell us that NEET is not as important as we are. Tell us that we are much more than an exam. Tell us that there are other courses that we can pursue, other career options. 

Tell us that we are not alone and that you will help us figure everything out. Tell us that we are not cornered and isolated. Show us that you are standing with us and won’t let us get consumed by the idea of worthlessness. It is up to you to make sure that we know that you love us. That you won’t give up on us. 

At the end of the day, this is all we need, a beacon of hope. Some light at the end of the tunnel. Be our light, guide us through the hardships. This is the most important time of our lives, be there for us. 

This is all we ask from you, your aspirant.