Importance of mathematics at the CBSE Class 12 level

Mathematics is an important subject of study for students who want to pursue a career in the field of engineering, business administration, chartered accountancy, statistics or even economics. For even those, who do not want to pursue a career in fields related to maths, but have it as a subject in their Class 12, CBSE, it becomes important to score well in each subject, for an admit in colleges that consider CBSE Class 12 marks for admission.

Important topics

• Integration
• Differentiation
• Matrices and determinants
• Relations and functions
• Probability
• Limits

Important topics by marks

• Calculus 44 marks
• Vectors and 3-D Geometry – 17 marks
• Algebra – 13 marks
• Relations and functions and Probability – 10 marks each

Tips for preparation

• To score well in mathematics in a CBSE exam, it is very important to complete your NCERT book. Almost the entire paper revolves around the concepts given in your NCERT book.
• Move to a reference book only if and when you are through with each and every question and you know each and every question (both, solved and unsolved) by-heart, given in your NCERT book. To ace the CBSE mathematics exam, you need to know the NCERT book really well.
• Some formulas have certain rules that you need to follow, in order to correctly use them.  For instance, in order to use the quadratic formula, you must change the equation to standard quadratic form first.
• Some formulas are very general and require you to identify the parts in the problem that correspond to parts in the formula.  If you don’t understand how the formula works and the principle behind it, it can often be very difficult to use the formula.  For example, while performing integration, it is not difficult to memorize the formula for integration by parts, however, if you don’t understand how to use this formula, you will find the memorized formula of no use.
• For a problem based question, Read the problem to get an idea of what you’re being asked to do. Write down what you are given and what you need to find. Work with the things given in a systematic way and try to find what is asked.
• Make a sheet of important concepts/formulas. Make sure you know these formulas and more importantly, their usage.
• Solve all the miscellaneous solved and unsolved questions too. Solve the Sample Papers available on CBSE website.

How to score well

• Before you start the exam, utilize the first 15 minutes to scan the paper. Read the question paper thoroughly before jumping to write the answers.
• Among the questions with internal choices, select the ones that you plan to attempt, and frame skeletons of the answers you are going to write for these questions. 
• Follow a pattern. For example, in case you start with long answer questions, complete that section and only then move to short or very short answer section.
• Highlight the important points and write your answer in points to enhance visibility.

Recommended books

• NCERT books are the best source for a CBSE exam. Maths part 1 and Maths part 2, both cost Rs 90 and should be the first source of reference. Do all problems from the NCERT.
• R.D Sharma is a good book to follow, in case you are through with your NCERT book. The book has a lot of solved and unsolved questions of good difficulty level.
• CBSE Sample papers: You can download the papers from the official website. The sample papers provided by the CBSE are as close to the real exam as it gets.

To know more about which books to follow, Click Here