Completing 12^th is a landmark checkpoint in any student’s life and it might be overwhelming for many students to choose the net course of action after 12^th.  Especially for students in the science stream, completing your 12^th is just one part of the puzzle and the next part comes in clearing the various entrance exams regardless of choosing engineering or medicine. Recently more and more students are appearing for the various entrance exams and the increasing competition makes it harder for a majority of the students to crack the exam in their first attempt. With this being the case, students are taking a drop year after completing their plus two and are focusing all their efforts on clearing the entrance the year after. While some students are able to be successful on their second attempt many more will be back to ground zero.  This is just one of the scenarios in which students take a drop year after completing their 12^th. Like in most other cases, there is a positive and negative side for taking a drop year and now let’s look at the most evident pros and cons of taking the drop year.

Benefits of taking a drop year after 12^th:

• Room to Prepare and Improve: This is one of the obvious advantages of taking a drop year and this extra time will help students to recoup their plans and take time to prepare for the future. With that being the case, students will be able to fix their loopholes, make grounds in the areas that they are struggling and polish their strongpoints to be better equipped to achieve and maintain success. The modern education system, especially in a country like India is very congested and students can find it hard to acquire all the necessary knowledge and skills needed to enter the next stage of their learning curve. So, the drop year will help students to prepare and be ready to take that next step.

• Evaluating the Road Ahead: One dilemma that most students face nowadays is choosing the next best step after completing 12^th. The wide array of options to choose from can also make students confused to pick the option that suits them the most. What happens in most cases is that, students are not getting ample time or information to choose the best choice for them and in the end, they opt for some random course without even knowing if it was the best choice for them. Taking a drop year will help students to understand, and evaluate different options and chart out a solid future academic plan that will offer them the best results.

Drawbacks of taking a drop year after 12^th:

• Cost of Losing a Year: Whatever said and done, losing an extra year is not the best-case scenario especially in today’s fast-moving world. While it will help the students to take some time off, taking a drop year without having a solid plan to make the best use of the available time will adversely impact the students’ academic life in multiple ways. Especially for students who are aspiring to pursue their higher education in MBA or acquiring a Ph.D.  in medicine, this extra year will be more taxing for them. The break that happens in the learning curve during a break year will also make it hard for some students to align themselves with the pressures and demands of higher education.

• Burdened to Perform Better: The main aim of taking a drop year especially after 12^th is to improve yourself and out-perform your previous self. So, if a student doesn’t take the drop year seriously, it is easy to say that, the results won’t be what is expected off. So, it is crucial to make sure that you are at your best if you are planning to take a break year and only then will you be able to get the desired results and get a boost when it comes to your higher studies. Another thing to remember is that there is a lot at stake if you are opting to take a break year and the expectations for you to improve is only going to increase and it is totally up to you to enhance your academic performance.

While taking a break year can have visible advantages and disadvantages one thing that matters is how you use the available time. If you are motivated to perform hard and are willing to improve yourself then taking a break year will help students but if you are taking a break year just for the sake of it, then the writing for failure is on the wall.