How do I improve marks in Class 9 English?

The ninth grade is an important stage in a student’s life. It serves as the foundation for all subsequent classes. Therefore, students should ensure that they pay close attention to the ninth-grade syllabus.

The class ninth English syllabus has two textbooks – Beehive and Moments. The students must read the textbooks very well. Beehive is the main text and the latter supplementary reader which is equally important. In the CBSE Class 9 Beehive textbooks, there is a total of eleven prose works including short stories, and ten poems. While, in the CBSE Class 9 English Moments Book, there are ten stories. Both the books are equally important. This article will discuss how the students can excel in the subject and study all these chapters easily. 

1. Read! Read! Read!

The students need to read every page from the textbook thoroughly. As per the CBSE syllabus and exam pattern, most of the questions for the exam are from the textbook itself. Therefore the students should read and analyze each chapter with giving perfect attention.

To make the process of reading more fruitful the students can follow the given method. 

• Every chapter should be read at least thrice.
• In the first reading, read the chapter thoroughly and try to capture the story or main idea behind the work.
• In the second reading underline difficult words, phrases, parts you didn’t understand, etc. Then find the meanings for all of these with the help of a dictionary, or with the guidance of your teacher.
• In the third reading mark all the points that are important and probably have a chance of making it to the question paper.
• By these, three rounds the student will be thorough with the chapter.
• After this don’t forget to read and practice the questions and extra activities given in the textbook for that particular chapter.
• Following all these steps the student can mark the chapter done, as they will be thorough with it.

2. Have a Plan

Have a very systematic plan for the preparation. While planning for studying the subject of English, students can easily place it with any other subject. Because studying English is never a tedious task, it is interesting as well as relaxing. Make sure to give time for reading every day. This will help for the exams and also will improve the students’ overall language skills. 

3. Write Notes

While studying make sure that you write everything down. Writing all the answers down can help in many ways. This will keep the answers grounded in your mind for a longer time, it will help in improving your writing skills, and also, it will serve as a practice for the exam. 

If there is a word or phrase that you don’t know, study the meaning and write down them in a separate space. So once you can refer it easily whenever needed. This will also improve your vocabulary skills. 

Make sure you know all the important events in a chapter. This will help you answer every question to the point. This can impress the evaluator and earn good marks. 

All the questions from the NCERT textbooks must be written down and studied well, as they are very important. 

4. Make Mind-Maps

To study a chapter, the easiest method is to make mind maps of the vents happening in it. Note down the important events in a paper and prepare a mind map. In this mind map itself, you can point down the important word meanings, characters, their characteristics, etc. in a concise manner. This mind map will be of great help during the last-minute learning as it will contain all the important points in a single paper. 

5. Exam Pattern

Know the exam pattern very well. This will help you prepare for the exam in a better way. The final exam for English is for 80 marks. The students will get a maximum of 3 hours to attend the exam.  The class ninth English question paper is divided into three main sections – Section A, Section B, and Section C.

• Section A

Section A is the Reading section where the students will be given two unknown passages or works from English. This section contains 20 marks. The students have to read them carefully, comprehend them nicely, and answer the given questions carefully from the piece of work given. 

To score good marks in this section the students should have very good understanding skills. 

While preparing for the exam practice some questions of this sort. This practice will perfect the reading skills and help the students find the answers more easily.

The question paper will be given to the student and they will have 15 minutes of time to read every question. During this time go through the whole question paper quickly at once and then allot this time to read these passages and find answers for them beforehand. This will help the students to save some time. 

• Section B

Section B is the Writing section. The writing section will have questions like article writing, poster writing, letter writing, short story writing, etc. It will also contain questions from grammar and jumbled sentences.

To answer these questions the student must be very well versed in writing and the language. The student must know formats for letters, posters, articles, etc., and should know how to develop a story out of given hints. 

While answering these questions the students must also take care of the word limit. As the answers must be within the word limit, exceeding the limit will take extra time. The students must practice such questions beforehand, thus they will have an idea of the number of words while writing the exam.

For the grammar questions, one must have a basic knowledge of English grammar. Reading regularly can help in increasing grammar skills. 

• Section C

This section is the literature section where the students will have questions from the textbooks. The previous parts of the article mention tips to excel in this section. 

6. Writing the Exam

While writing the exam keep a few tips in mind.

• Always keep the time limit in mind and try to answer fast.
• Write answers to the point and mark the important points.
• Write neatly and write all the question numbers.
• In the writing, section use phrases and words creatively to make your writing more beautiful.
• Try to write answers within the word limit given.
• Always give enough time for revising your answers.