I first noticed this with a boy named Siddharth.
He was a boy, good at maths and decent at reasoning.. Every morning during our batch class at 7 AM he would sit like a zombie, eyes half open and could not solve the questions he had answered correctly the day before. By 9 AM he would be fine. By then half the class was already over.
One day I asked him "Sainik School student Siddharth what did you eat before coming to Sainik School coaching?"
He just. Said, "Nothing my mother said I will eat after class."
I called his mother that evening. Told her "Your son Sainik School aspirant Siddharth, is not a slow learner he is a hungry learner."
She. Then started sending him to Sainik School coaching with a paratha and a glass of milk every morning.
Within two weeks his mock test scores for Sainik School entrance exam jumped by 30 marks.
Thirty marks, not from a book, not from extra tuition but from one paratha and a glass of milk.
That is when I realized something that changed how I run my Sainik School coaching centre forever.
Nobody talks about these things.
If you go to any Sainik School coaching website you will find articles about the syllabus, exam pattern, study plans, mock test strategy and important chapters.
All these things are important. I write about them too.
Nobody and I mean nobody writes about the basics, the things that actually hold everything together like sleep, food, water, routine and a calm home environment.
I have taught hundreds of kids preparing for the AISSEE ↗ exam for Sainik School. I will tell you a strange truth.
The kids who crack the Sainik School entrance exam are not always the ones with the study material they are the ones whose parents got the basics right.
Let me break it down.
Breakfast is not optional for Sainik School students.
A 10-year-olds brain needs fuel. That is not a motivational quote, that is biology.
When your child sits for a two-and-a-half-hour exam with 125 questions their brain is burning energy like a car engine.
If they had nothing but tea and a biscuit before the paper they will slow down by question 70.
I have seen it happen kids losing 20 to 30 marks in the last section because their brain ran out of steam.
Here is what I tell parents every morning before study time give your Sainik School aspirant a meal it does not have to be fancy just something real like roti with dal, eggs, a banana, poha with peanuts or upma.
And on exam day feed them a breakfast at least one hour before the paper, not ten minutes before their stomach needs time.
If they feel heavy and bloated in the exam hall that is another problem.
Sleep is where memory gets built for Sainik School students.
I had a Sainik School student year whose father made him study until midnight the boy was ten years old awake till 12 AM solving maths problems and then waking up at 6 AM for school.
That is six hours of sleep for a child whose brain is still developing.
Here is what science says and what I have seen in my classroom a child who sleeps 8 hours and studies 2 hours will outperform a child who sleeps 5 hours and studies 5 hours every time.
Sleep is when the brain moves information from short-term memory to long-term memory if you cut sleep short your child forgets what they studied the night all that late-night effort is wasted.
I tell parents lights off by 9:30 PM, no exceptions, no " one more chapter" the chapter will still be there tomorrow the sleep will not come back.
Water is also important for Sainik School students.
This is the one thing that parents always look at me funny for mentioning.
But I have tracked it informally in my centre kids who carry a water bottle and drink regularly during study sessions score better in tests than kids who do not drink water for hours.
Dehydration makes a child irritable it reduces focus it causes headaches a child sitting for a study session without water is like a plant in the sun with no soil they will wilt before you notice.
Keep a bottle on their study table remind them to sip every 30 minutes, thing, big difference.
A calm home environment matters more than a coaching centre for Sainik School students.
I need to say this but I will say it if parents are fighting at home every evening the child cannot focus on Sainik School entrance preparation.
If the TV is blaring in the room during study time concentration is gone if the child hears "you will never make it" or "your cousin is doing better" that does more damage than skipping an entire chapter.
I have seen kids with coaching but peaceful homes outperform kids with premium coaching and chaotic homes.
Your home is the classroom keep it steady keep it kind when your child sits down to study let the house be quiet not silent like a library just calm normal calm, the kind where a child feels safe enough to think.
The checklist no coaching centre will give you is this:
Does your Sainik School aspirant child eat a breakfast every morning?
Are they sleeping at 8 hours every night?
Do they drink water during the day?
Is there a fixed study time at home even if it is just 2 hours?
Is the home environment calm during study hours?
Are you encouraging them of comparing them?
If you answered yes to all of these your Sainik School aspirant child is already ahead of 70 percent of AISSEE aspirants I am not exaggerating most parents get the books right and everything else wrong.
Siddharth called me Diwali
He is in his second year at Sainik School now he called to wish me we chatted for five minutes before hanging up he said something that made me smile.
He said, "Sir mess food here is fine. I miss my mothers parathas."
I laughed and thought, beta those parathas are the reason you're there in the first place, at Sainik School.
