How to strengthen mechanics for JEE

Hello everyone, Aman here.
Someone posted a comment on the blog, which gave me an idea for a post.

You once posted in your blog that you were initially weak at mechanics then also you qualified for INPhO please elaborate

This points to a good set of questions: {How to be good at X?}

In 2011 when I started JEE preparation, I had a hard time with Physics. Most of it was mechanics. I remember scoring 153/240 in some FIITJEE national test, in which the national highest was 232/240.

The chapters covered in mechanics were:

• Kinematics
• Laws of motion
• Work Power Energy
• Conservation of Momentum (center of mass)
• Rotational mechanics
• Fluid mechanics
• Wave mechanics

I was miserable at mechanics. I struggled hard to solve problems.

FIITJEE All India Open test 2012: got national rank 6

The million dollar question is 'what did I do that changed things so drastically?'

What made me realize that I was weak at mechanics?

I was unable to perform well in the tests. I often made silly mistakes. It often happened that I had no solution in my mind. All of this made me realize that I suck at Physics (in particular, mechanics)

What did I lack?

I realized that I am facing 2 problems:

• I do not understand theory adequately
• I haven't solved enough number of problems

I realized that the 2 problems are connected. I haven't solved enough problems simply because I was unable to solve them! This in turn was because I lacked a proper understanding of theory.

What did I do?

I read theory in great detail from the books. I spent a lot of time reading theory from Resnick Halliday and my coaching notes. The book Resnick Halliday really helped me to understand things in great detail. Which in turn helped me to solve problems. Resnick Halliday has excellent theory. If you feel you are facing problems in Physics, I would recommend the book. It explains things in great detail. The in-text examples will help you think how to approach a problem.

While reading Resnick Halliday, I realized that its not the best book when it comes to problem. It contains problems with long descriptions and I felt that those problems are more of a test of your English than Physics :P

I Googled a bit and found that the Arihant set of 5 books is excellent for Physics. It had good reviews and since I was already using Arihant books for maths, I was sort of convinced that Physics books must also be good. I gave it a try and the books were excellent! If you want to just try, I would recommend you to buy the 2 mechanics books: part 1 and part 2.

Arihant books are excellent for so called 'tips and tricks'. They often contain shortcut tricks that will help you solve problems super fast.

Another thing that I did was that I solved zillions of problems during my summer break after class 11th. In my library of books and study material, I found a package of some local Kanpur coaching which had lots and lots of Physics questions (some 1000 or so) of increasing difficulty. They were all mechanics problems and were objective (JEE pattern). I solved them all in about a week or so. That really gave me a lot of confidence. I developed speed and accuracy and a huge confidence in mechanics.

I am sure you all must be wondering - 'what material was that?'. Well, trust me, it wasn't any magical material. I don't even remember the name. All it had was a bunch of problems (no theory) of JEE pattern. You should really pick up any such material you find from any possible coaching and solve it all.

One last thing that added a 5th star was that I solved complete Irodov mechanics (LOL, that escalated quickly?). Well, yeah. I must say that if you really want a firm command, Irodov is a *must do*. That book is for those who want a challenge. Its for those who already have a strong command. It is strongly recommended that you pick up Irodov *after* you have completed *all* of mechanics. The book contains some problems which assume that you know all of mechanics and so, it would be a bad idea to spend time solving stuff which you haven't even covered (super daring people should go ahead, I am not demotivating you!)

If you look at it, I did nothing special. Just a book reading and solving a bunch of problems. However, if you look at it carefully, you will realize that I solve about 2000 problems overall from 5-6 chapters, which is approximately 350 problems per chapter (starting from a basic book to Irodov level). This should ideally be enough for anyone to start from a 0 and go to INPhO level.

I hope this post will help you all grasp a firm command over mechanics.

All the best!

Post after a long time

Hey guys, how is it going? Its me Aman after a long time. This time I will be writing about those who are preparing for JEE 2018 (that is, those who most likely started preparation this year).

Since its June, everyone must have gained some momentum (pun?). You must have got a flavor of JEE preparation. You must have seen a nice competition in your school/coaching institute. Now is a good time to look back into what you did since you started your JEE preparation.

Physics: most likely you have completed the chapters on vectors, basic calculus and you must be studying kinematics
Chemistry: Most people study mole concept in the beginning
Maths: Varies a lot. Some start with calculus, others with coordinate geometry.

Whatever you did, you must now look back and see "how much" you did what you did.
Confused? I will elaborate what I mean.
I mean to say that you should try to revise what you did and realize how much you understand the stuff that you completed.

• You are confident that you can solve problems and you did practice some good books and you were able to solve the problems: good! You are on the right track. This is the ideal strategy to follow!
• You are confident that you can solve problems, but you haven't solved problems yet: well, this isn't a good habit. How can you feel confident without solving problems? Try a bunch of problems from each chapter.
• You don't feel confident and you have been trying hard to solve problems: Well, this happened with me in the beginning and I feel that its very normal (provided that this doesn't happen for a really long time). I tried my best, but still I used to be bowled by some questions. And then when I took help from teachers/friends, I realized that it was a silly problem, which had some concept that I knew. This made me realize that I should "think" more exhaustively before approaching people for help and that did help me in a long run. Since its just the beginning, you have only a few concepts. It is generally a good idea to "brainstorm" the possible methods. For instance, as soon as I saw a mechanics problem, I used to think - is it related to simple equations of motion (if acceleration is constant, yes!)? Has it something to do with laws of motion? Work energy theorem? Will conservation of momentum help? This soon became a habit and I could feel that I started feeling more comfortable with problems.
• You don't feel confident and you haven't tried problems as well: you seem to be trouble. It seems that you are still in your comfort zone. This strategy might have helped you get a 9 pointer in 10th class, but this won't work for JEE. you NEED to solve problems else you are heading nowhere.

Also, by now, you should be wise enough to understand that books will remain your best friend and guide for your JEE preparation (usually better than just classroom notes, unless you are enrolled in some exceptional coaching institute). If you even slightly feel that your teachers are not good enough, or if you feel that you are not getting enough practice, I would suggest you to not wait, and straight away buy books and read them and solve problems. I am saying this because its just the beginning and it is very easy to get back on track. You haven't really lost any time now. This won't be the case say 6 months hence. Time flies by quickly. After 6 months, if you wake up, it would be very hard for you to get back in the marathon. For a range of books suggested by me, head to Books section.

I would suggest not buying a large number of books at this stage. At the same time, I would suggest buying at least 2 books - one that contains ample of theory with beginner level problems, and other that contain advanced problems. Make sure to practice advanced problems AFTER you are thorough with easy ones. Also make sure you DEFINITELY solve hard problems. Don't think that "I will solve them when I have gained enough knowledge" (this happens with a lot of people!). You gain enough knowledge by solving problems. It is NOT the other way.

I hope this post helps you. Feel free to ask comments. Its a weekend and most likely I will reply to the comments.

All the best!

Summer Internship in Silicon Valley (USA)

Hi guys, this is Aman after a long time. I had been occupied with my summer internship and so, I couldn't really find time to write. Got a break today, so I thought it would be a good idea to share my internship experience so far.

I am sure many of you are unaware of the term "internship" (at least, I remember I didn't know what that meant until my first year of college). An internship is like a summer training. It lasts for around 10-12 weeks. In an internship, you work with a company (company internship) or a professor (research internship). Company internships are useful to learn about the industry. In software engineering internships, you can really learn a lot - how companies work, how large code bases are maintained, etc. In research internships, you get to know how research happens at top universities. Both have pros and cons and often people do a research internship at the end of second year and a company internship at the end of third year. Last year, I did my research internship at TU Braunschweig, Germany (you can read about it here).

I am presently interning at a startup named as Rubrik. It is based in Palo Alto (California, USA). It is a cloud storage company. They develop data backup solutions and my task as an intern is to work on the design and development of large scale distributed systems. I am working closely with the filesystems team (lots of jargon? meh..). Being at a startup is way cooler than working at a top tech giant. There are hundreds like you at a top company, but at a startup, you have a major responsibility. Your presence/absence actually matters and company's growth definitely depends on you. Since the team is small, you actually get to know and meet even the top position holders of the company, which is great!

I am sure you are more interested in non technical stuff. So, here you go.

I visited a couple of places in my first month of internship. I went to Stanford (which is just 2 miles from my office). I also went to San Francisco, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, Google office, etc.

Stanford University

Stanford University

Bay Bridge, San Francisco

Biking across Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco

Baker Beach, SF

Baker beach, San Francisco

SF skyline

Bay Bridge at Night

Las Vegas

Las Vegas

Las Vegas

Driving to Grand Canyon from Las Vegas

The famous Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon

Las Vegas

109th floor! Las Vegas

New York Casino, Las Vegas

Being in the US and enjoying with my friends is fun! All of us are from CSE IITB (class of 2017) and we have been wing-mates since 3 years! Its fun to hangout with old friends!