Wednesday 31 August 2016

JEE preparation tips by All India Rank 5 in JEE

Hey guys, we contacted Vipul Singh who was AIR 5 in IIT JEE 2010 and AIEEE AIR 1 and he kindly agreed to allow us to share his articles. Vipul has been a great mentor and he also helped me in my academics at IIT Bombay. We are glad to share his experience with you :)

Here is a link to Vipul's blog: Vipul's blog

Here's an article that I recently wrote for a magazine. It contains most of the things that I usually talk about in seminars and while interacting with future IITians.



                SELF-STUDY  MAKETH  A  RANK,
                   PRACTICE MAKETH PERFECT   


“Practice makes a man perfect.” This perhaps is the one golden rule that I have followed throughout my preparations for IIT-JEE as well as all other competitive exams. So, my dear readers, here I am to share some of my experiences and to give you some advice on how to prepare for these deadly-looking exams. I hope you will definitely find something worthy in this article of mine and will be glad if this can benefit any of my dear juniors.

Writing an article on such a topic, the one dilemma I face is where to start from. So, let me begin from the beginning itself. Born on 29th November, 1991, I was declared by doctors as a child who could possibly be mentally retarded in the future (seems weird, ain’t it?? read on…). I believe it has only been the strength of mind and the determination of my parents and one of my teachers that has brought me up to this level, sort of reversing the doctors’ prophecy. I still remember when I was in primary school, I was quite shy, but then I started participating in a lot of competitions, often emerging on top. Those things gave me a lot of confidence and I slowly started rising up and opening myself to this world. People believe that these high ranks are meant for ‘born-geniuses’. But that is far from the truth. In my case at least, I was born an anti-genius. So, it’s mostly about practice, starting early, using your time to the utmost. Edison rightly said “Genius is 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration.”

It was only in class VI that I got my first go at a national level science competition (the NSO) and obtained an AIR 13. Then, in class VII, I finished East Zone runner-up in the India’s Child Genius quiz conducted by Siddhartha Basu, missing an opportunity to meet Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam by just 0.2 seconds in the buzzer round. I have never looked back since then, always learning from my mistakes and practicing endlessly in order to attain that ever-elusive state of perfection.

Now, having built up a sort of prologue let me come to the major issue: JEE. These three letters seem to weigh so heavily on the minds of so many youngsters. Here, I will be basically discussing how to plan out your preparations so that this exam looks a bit easier. Having interacted with lots of students from all over India through live seminars, e-mail, social networking sites, etc. and most importantly, having been through that crucial stage myself, I am well aware of the questions that JEE aspirants have in mind. So, I will be going through the rest of this article in a sort of your question – my reply format.

First and foremost, the first question that always turns up is “What is the mantra of success?” I would say it's utilizing even that tiny moment for self-study which you are giving to pondering over this question. According to me, it is time-management along with some self-belief. Every single moment that you are wasting in some not-so-important activity, thousands of other competitors are striving hard to get ahead of you. So, you simply cannot afford to waste time. A bit of relaxation here and there after some continuous study is a must, but you should be able to contain that “I have had enough” feeling.

People also ask me when exactly did I start my JEE preparations. Now, I am not very clear about the question itself. I started studying the JEE syllabus topics in the middle of class X, but I had started concentrating on science-maths and strengthening my basics from class VI itself. I had joined a JEE-directed correspondence course for the first time in class IX while I had my first major confidence booster at the India’s Child Genius in class VII. So, its been quite a long journey with a beginning which I myself am unable to figure out. This therefore turns out to be a question which I neither understand nor have a definite answer for.

Then, why did I join FIITJEE and not any other institute. Every student has his own capabilities and requirements. I knew that given sufficient time for self-study, I could understand concepts well on my own but I needed some good teachers for doubt clearance. That’s where FIITJEE came into the picture and they filled the void extremely well, better than I had ever imagined. Enrolled into the PINNACLE program, I used to get the entire evenings free as all classes would be over by 2:30 pm in the school campus itself. So, I had lots of time with me and I would sit down, think, solve, practice, get my doubts cleared the next day, etc.

This last point I just mentioned: Doubt Clearance is one thing I have seen missing in most aspirants’ priority lists. As a student, you ought to have faith in your teachers and approach them with your doubts. I have seen colleagues who never even asked their school teachers any doubts. You need to try them out first, if they are unable to satisfy your query, only then should you go to external tuitions. They are the teachers because they know things better than you do. Many students feel that a good teacher is the one who explains things well and solves questions on the board. I would say a good teacher is one who clears your doubts well. That’s because you can do the understanding and solving part yourself too but those inevitable doubts here and there require a strong tutor.

Coming to my next point: Time Management, students keep fretting about this simple concept. I have seen students in my city who spend evenings performing stunts on bikes, eating out with friends (mostly girlfriends), watching movies, etc. and then let out a cry on the JEE day, “Why do these guys set such unsolvable papers?” As you can very well see, they haven’t been true to themselves and hence can’t expect to get into IITs, NITs, etc. in place of those who have burnt the midnight oil. I myself have given everything to it during those 2 years and am definitely reaping rich rewards. It’s better to utilize pre-JEE time and then enjoy life in IITs (I must tell you it’s a beautiful place to be in) rather than wasting it and regretting later.

I will give you an example. All of us get this 1.5 to 2 month gap after the class X exams. Instead of visiting places and enjoying yourself, you can give a week or so to refreshing yourself and then get back to studies in order to get a good head-start. This will enable you to understand concepts better when they are taught in class. Then, you can also utilize those small intervals during change of classes to solve some questions. People around you will laugh at you, try to derail you from that right track but you need to ignore them. In the end, it doesn’t even matter. I tried so hard, I got so far. They tried to derail me but inflicted losses upon themselves only.
It’s not that I gave up everything for my preparations. I used to solve sudoku everyday, read the newspaper, played (although rarely), did a bit of social networking in the last few months but I wasn’t obsessed with these things. I knew my goal and its importance in my life. You just need to prioritize your time-table.

Returning to academics, if you prepare well for JEE, you are almost done with your board exam PCM syllabus as well. And as I said earlier, if you choose your tuitions wisely, you will also be able to find ample time for English and the 5th subject. Many students go to particular tuitions just because their friends have joined it or because they have heard lots of people praising that teacher. This isn’t the right way to do so. You need to understand your own requirements and choose accordingly. There might be a teacher who is very good at mechanics but doesn’t teach electromagnetism well. You don’t need to continue going to him just because you feel a sense of loyalty and gratitude towards him. It’s your life, your career, you have to decide keeping in mind your own good. Then try to give more time to practicing questions of different varieties and from different books. I wouldn’t recommend reading the same concept again and again from different sources/teachers as it would simply be a waste of your precious time. Instead grasp that concept from 1 or 2 books and then move on to practice.

Now I feel I should address the question on how to study in general? It’s better to finish topics one by one. Doing 3 or 4 topics all at one time will make it quite difficult for you to handle everything. Two topics from different subjects is quite okay because if you feel bored after studying one of them for 5-6 hrs., you can switch to the other one and then return. Try to prepare compendiums for each topic as it will be helpful in the later stages of preparation. If you notice some trick in some book, note it down and revise it later so that you get an idea of where it works and how to apply it. Such tricks and option elimination prove very useful in saving time for the tougher questions.  

Coming to books, here’s a list of books that I covered during my JEE preparations:


In addition, I completed all NCERT books, packages of FIITJEE as well as BRILLIANT and solved FIITJEE's GrandMasterPackage and RankersTestPaperFile. The latter two are very good for practice and revision in the last few months.

In class IX and X, I used to read books by Dinesh Publications (PCMB), H C Verma (physics), R D Sharma (maths) and correspondence courses from Brilliant Tutorials and BMA. I found these books by BMA to be very good and interesting. In addition, I had covered the first few chapters of physics plus differential calculus plus bonding and hybridization (thanks to Nitu Sinha Mam) in class Xth itself. Organic chemistry was one topic that I felt a bit tough to handle, but I feel I was fortunate enough to have another great chemistry teacher (Arun Sharma Sir) in XIth who advised me to gain a headstart by reading Paula Bruice and it really turned out to be a fantastic interest-arousing book.

Next comes the issue of how to prepare for all other exams that occur round the clock in these 2 years. I personally feel that NSO, IMO, NSTSE, etc., although considered easy by many, are very good exams to get an estimate of where you stand and of your strengths and weaknesses. Any national level exam, tough or easy, is competitive and as easy for you as for someone sitting in any other part of India. Then come the physics, chemistry, maths and astronomy olympiads. The maths olympiad requires a bit of extra preparation on topics like number theory, combinatorics, etc. The other three olympiads can be cracked if you have been thorough with the JEE syllabus. If you clear the first two levels, then you go to the camp at HBCSE, Mumbai where you need some experimental skills too. It’s here that your presence (both mental and physical) in school labs plays an important role. Then you have KVPY in class XI which has no pre-defined syllabus. The paper basically tests your mental ability and clarity of concept. You need to have knowledge of topics that will be covered in class XIth and a bit of the formulae and laws from the early days of class XIIth. The interview is meant to test your confidence and clarity of aim in life.

I would be writing an incomplete article if I didn’t talk about what to do during the last few months before JEE. So, I suggest you should complete all your syllabus at least by mid-December and then begin with revision of your class-notes and of the chapter-wise summaries you must have created in the two years. Then, move on to practicing question-papers of 6 hours duration. Solving questions from individual chapters is quite different from solving them when they are all thrown together at you. It might happen that you are able to solve mechanics alone very well but in exam time, the pressure created by being unable to solve optics may take you down in mechanics too. So, you need to have good practice of sitting own for 6 hours and handling that pressure. Utilize the board exams preparatory leave very well. I had given 15 days to JEE preparation and the rest to my Board exams. Then, I had an 11-day gap before my maths board exam. So, I didn’t study CBSE level maths in February and also devoted 5 days out of 11 to JEE. You need to find time and plan very well. The 14 day gap between last board exam and JEE should go into revision and practice only. Do not try to read/learn something new in that period, it will just add to the pressure.

Another extremely important question that arises is: How to cope with the pressure? I would say: Just keep practicing, sit down for lots of national level tests, when you see that you are able to solve questions and getting some good ranks, you will gain confidence and it’s this much required self-confidence that will help you sail through the JEE day. If you are unable to get those ranks, look at the mistakes you committed, discuss them with your teacher, try to correct them in the next paper, get your fundamentals cleared, and dedicate more time to that topic where you are prone to mistakes. It might take some time for that change to show up, but it will certainly happen over a period of time. You know, thousands of people (and almost everyone in Kota) wish to achieve a top 100 JEE rank but only those few who have stuck to their basics, who have been regular, who have practiced a lot and hence built up their speed and accuracy who achieve it. There’s always this competition. You can’t afford to give up or lose time.

I hope I have already said a lot now, so its time for me to take leave and allow you to ponder deeply over what you have read above and to see if you can gain something out of it. Thanks reader for having been so patient to have gone through my article. And finally, keeping in mind my own advice, I would suggest you not to read this article over and over again as that would be a waste of precious JEE-preparation time. Thanks again,

 Vipul Singh
(AIR 5, IIT-JEE 2010; AIR 1, AIEEE 2010; Silver medallist at IPhO 2010; KVPY scholar and CBSE topper of Chhattisgarh state)


If you like this, you might also like our guide to get a top 50 rank in JEE
Click here to see all of our posts!

Sunday 28 August 2016

JEE preparation tips by Sai Sandeep, All India Rank 1

Sai Sandeep Reddy is a friend and colleague of mine at IIT Bombay. He secured All India Rank 1 (yes, you read it right!) in JEE Advanced 2013 and is presently pursuing Computer Science and Engineering. He wrote a blog long back, mentioning some JEE related strategies. He kindly agreed to allow us to share his blog here :)
Here is the link: Sai Sandeep's blog

Here goes the blog post by Sai Sandeep:

My strategy :
Complete syllabus in first year.
Revise once (three times faster than that is done in first year) by December Remaining four months is for doing past year papers, other institute grand test papers , revising the theoretical aspects especially chemistry
Joining a coaching institute is not necessary but i would recommend joining one. A good competitive environment is very essential to bring the best in us That is what the coaching institutes offer other than fine teaching and good practice papers.
Division of time :
I  am less confident in chemistry compared to maths and physics.So I used to spend half of my preparation time on chemistry, remaining half distributed equally between maths and physics.
Chemistry requires more time than maths and physics because there are a lot of things   to remember in chemistry than in maths or physics.We need to revise it many many times.Writing short notes(a notes where you write all the essential formula, equations and properties ) is highly recommended.
Topics that required special attention are Inorganic Chemistry requires more time.It has lot of memory based stuff.especially qualitative analysis.
In maths, Integral Calculus and probability are important topics to focus on. In physics, Rotational Dynamics and  Modern physics are more important. 
Improving weak areas :
By the end of first reading (for me , by end of 11 th) we should get a clear idea what are our weak topics.
To improve, first we must get the conceptual clarity.Read some good books about that topic.
I recommend reading more than one reference book.Read your sir's notes.Getting your doubts clarified is the next part.This is very important.Ask your teachers,Mentors or try to find from the
references.It is a very good habit to note down doubts and the answers to them from the beginning of preparation for JEE.The next important thing is practice.Practice gives confidence.Confidence is essential for cracking tough exams like JEE.
Spending time on revision
As explained already , I completed syllabus by end of 11 th class. I spent the complete 12  th class for revision.
Reference materials :
for maths
   Arihant publications Integral Calculus and Differential Calculus
   R.D.Sharma
for physics
   doing H.C.Verma is a must
  irodov problems in physics
     fundamentals of mechanics and fundamentals of elecrodynamics by irodov are very good books
  D.C.Pandey series is also good.especially for practice
 for chem
reading NCERT books is very very essential for chemistry. for organic :
l.g.wade is a good book for theory and himanshu pandey for practice peter sykes is also good book for concepts.
for inorganic : jd lee is a good book
 for physical chem : peter atkins & de paula is an excellent book
numerical chemistry by bahadur is a good book for practice 
Doing right work at right time is why i guess i got this rank Completing syllabus fast and revising well.
Efficiency while working is an important factor.We should read efficiently.Concentration is key for efficiency.Students should prepare with full concentration to achieve great.
5 top tips
1. focus more on chemistry and your weak chapters in all subjects. 2.prepare efficiently.plan every day and do not waste time.
3.always keep yourself  calm and confident 4.do rough work in exams neatly so that when you come back to questions later you need not restart again. 5.divide time wisely in exam.postpone any question that is taking more than the stipulated time.come back to those questions at the end.do not get struck at a single question.you can do may be 3 easy ones in that time.

common mistakes and to be avoided 1.do not get panic at any stage of preparation.even in the exam.tough question will be tough for everyone not only you.
2.avoid bubbling mistakes.be extremely careful while bubbling. 3.do not take the results of exams conducted by coaching institutes too seriously.always focus on the advance exam.do not feel over confident if you do well in internal exams also the opposite way.don't get discouraged if you don't do well in internal exams.
4.do not study references outside scope of jee.see the syllabus of jee.have a copy of the syllabus sheet.It is available online.It won't change much every year.download previous year syllabus or latest if available.read the subtopics in reference books or materials which are there in syllabus only.don't just read it continuously.
5.focus. Do not let your eye off the target. 
all the very best!!

If you like this, you might also like our guide to get a top 50 rank in JEE
Click here to see all of our posts!

Saturday 27 August 2016

Success in JEE: Tips and FAQ by Utkarsh Kumar, AIR 5 in JEE 2013

Utkarsh Kumar is my friend at IIT Bombay. He secured an AIR 5 in JEE Advanced 2013. Long back he wrote a blog on JEE preparation. With his permission, we are glad to share his experience with you here!

Here is a link to his blog in case you are interested: Utkarsh's blog

Here goes the article by Utkarsh

Warm greetings to everyone out there...


Even though I had been thinking for quite a long time about starting my own blog, it wasn't until today that I finally had the motivation to actually write one, the motivation being the countless JEE aspirants with their queries. The credit of course goes to you as well, Aman Goel, for providing that much needed final spark that is the reason I am penning down my thoughts here...

Well, the first problem... Where do I start? Well, let me start with introducing myself... I am currently a B.Tech first year student under the Computer Science dept at IIT Bombay. I hail from a small and tranquil town in the state of Jharkhand, Hazaribag is the name.  And I cracked an AIR 5 in JEE Advanced 2k13. I love reading novels, mostly fiction, solving puzzles, meeting people and touring and traveling.


One of the major reasons for writing this blog is that it enables one to interact with people all around the globe quite easily. For now, my posts will be aimed at the JEE aspirants, helping them out with their preparation queries, particularly reaching out to a large number of them simultaneously... Later, well even I don't know about that as of now. Anyway, let's leave that for later.

Lets get started...



So when did I realize that JEE was my ambition? I don't have a precise answer to that. Somewhere along class 9th, I guess. Actively participating in the national level olympiads and tests, I realized that this was my field. This was where I belonged! That, I realize now, proved to be a real boon for my studies in class 11th and 12th. My ranks in those tests varied from top 10 to 1000, generally staying around the 200 mark. Such olympiads give you a much-needed exposure to the kinds of questions you would be dealing with for your preparation for what is considered the toughest exam in the country. Also they build a good academic base through your school years, and are pivotal in your JEE preparation.



How early should you start preparations for JEE? I have often heard people saying that you should start your preparations for JEE from class 9th itself or even as early as class 6th-7th if you want a good rank... I personally feel it is not late to start your preparations in class 11th, as long as you have a good academic base and a genuine interest in Physics, Chemistry and Maths (or at least in two out of three! :P). The reason being that class 11th is when an average student is mature enough to handle these concepts and ideas and appropriately apply them when he/she is presented with related problems.

Note that I am not discouraging early preparation, it definitely helps if you have a pre-built background in these areas; all I mean is it doesn't make a key difference. I personally feel you should be actively participating in any and every Olympiads and similar tests you can take, because they help develop an exam temperament and provide a much-needed exposure to the type of questions you would be fighting with (or playing with, maybe?) for your JEE preparations later.



My first 'official' step towards my dream? I had the initial plans of joining Brilliant Tutorials in Ranchi itself and was indeed enrolled there for a couple of months until the JEE results for that year came, it was the last week of May. Shattered by the unsatisfactory result at Ranchi, I decided to go to the JEE hub of the country, yes I am talking about Kota! Life at Kota? I would be covering that in a later post. But remember to not let the months just after your class 10th boards go waste. A fun-filled week should be more than sufficient to refresh your mind. Get up and running if you are really serious about cracking JEE. Have a proper plan for your higher studies for the coming two years, do not make this decision in a hurry, you might regret it later.



Why I joined Bansal Classes and not some other institute? I think it was a decision made by fate itself that I joined the oldest premier coaching institute in the city. To the best of my knowledge back then, all the coaching seats had their seats full (remember I went to Kota as late as June!) but on talking at the reception at Bansal, they agreed to give me a chance depending upon my performance in a test there. Well, I ended up getting over 85 questions correct out of 90 back then, and I was overjoyed to finally be accepted there! And honestly, I didn't consider any other coaching institution thereafter.



The teachers there? Absolutely in a class of their own! And this is true for most of the top faculty in Kota. The way they teach, you would get teleported into an altogether different world. I now look back and realise how helpful and caring they were... I wasn't the most interactive student of the class then, but I strongly urge you guys to totally open up and be at ease with your teachers and mentors. Do pester them ceaselessly with your doubts (remember, if you ask it once, you might be considered a fool for once but if you do not, you would remain a fool for a lifetime!) and religiously follow whatever advice and suggestions they give you.



The study material? I myself hardly referred to any theory part apart from my class notes, and I urge you guys to do the same too! That is because the notes you make yourself leave a longer-lasting imprint on your mind than if you do not. And refer to them as your Bible, instead of referring to multiple books as it often ends causing needless confusion and wasting your valuable time.

Books to refer to/solve in *blah blah* subject/topics? I myself strictly (almost?) followed the study material of my coaching and my own notes, but since this answer might not satisfy quite a few of you, here is a list of books which, I personally feel, would help you in your preparation :

Physics: 'Concepts of Physics' by HC Verma is one of the most helpful books out there to help you understand the basic concepts and apply them in simple situations. 'Fundamentals of Physics' by Resnick, Halliday and Walker is another great book to help you with your theory part, though its exercises may not be as exhaustive. For practice of problem-solving and advance learning, you might wanna try your hands on 'Problems in General Physics' by IE Irodov.
Chemistry: Here I strongly stress on the use of your own study notes for the inorganic and organic disciplines and not referring to multiple books, because often you would find contradictory statements in different books and would end up confused (just a personal opinion, though). However do go through NCERT thoroughly, it helps build your fundamentals which is essential for both your board preparations as well as JEE. However you might wanna try this one, 'Modern Approach to Chemical Calculations' by RC Mukherjee.
Maths: For integration part, 'A Problem Book in Mathematical Analysis' by GN Berman is very helpful to get familiar with all the techniques and also if you want a complete revision of the topic (I think I would put up another post for this topic soon!). For conic sections, I would recommend going through 'Coordinate Geometry' by SL Loney, the book would prove to be a blessing for your preparations.

For those who are not enrolled in a coaching, I would suggest you to definitely enroll in the correspondence course. You might also want to try Arihant Publication and TMH books, if you need more help/have extra time.


How many hours a day...?  Honestly, I find this question rather irrelevant because it is not the quantity of your study that matters, rather it is the quality that decides where you stand in the race. Still, I think 7-8 hours a day consistently (almost!) for 2 years should be more than sufficient for anyone and everyone! Just make sure you do not over-do it, because there comes a saturation point beyond which anything you study is all in vain. Make sure you study in a routine and organized manner punctually. Do take out time, preferably in the evening for your recreational activities and hobbies, go take a walk outside if nothing else.



Before a major test? Go through your notes once especially in the topics you are not the most confident about, I personally felt it helps to have a good look at your notes the day before the papers. And have a good 7-8 hour sleep, you need to feel totally fresh and energetic while taking your tests. I would be putting up another post on taking a test, do's and don'ts soon.



The key reasons for my success? I guess a major credit goes to the fact that I thoroughly enjoyed studying Physics, Maths and even Chemistry (maybe not as much as the other two, though!). Each time I was presented with a problem, I got into my 'hack-and-slash' mode, jumping onto the question, not resting until I had devoured it bit by bit. It was this hunger that fueled me, and got me where I am today. My friends, let your instincts take over and let the desire to succeed burn through your veins, it is only then that you would succeed, in whatever discipline you maybe.


Any general fundae? Practice well when you have the time for it so that you can feel totally sure of yourself and your performance in the paper. Keep yourself cool and calm while taking the paper to avoid silly mistakes which make you feel sorry later. I will soon be putting up another post on these areas.



These are some of the most common questions that are raised, do let me know what else you guys might want answered... Feel free to leave your comments and suggestions behind. :)

See you in the next post soon! Good luck...

PS: Thank you for having the patience to go throughout with this post. I really appreciate that.

If you like this, you might also like our guide to get a top 50 rank in JEE
Click here to see all of our posts!

Friday 26 August 2016

From last ranker in the batch to AIR 15 in JEE Advanced

Hello guys, we are glad to welcome Soham Ganatra to our blogging team. Soham secured an all India rank 15 in JEE Advanced 2013. He has written an article which I would like to share with you all.


Hey, guys, I am Soham Ganatra, an IIT Bombay CSE undergrad and a friend of Aman. A bit about me:
I secured an all India rank of 15 in JEE Advanced (IIT JEE) 2013 (score - 306/360)
I scored 308/360 in JEE Main 2013
I also made it through Indian National Physics Olympiad (INPhO) Camps

I would be writing a short article about my JEE preparation, just to convey this to people preparing for JEE that "dreams are never too big".

I started going to a local coaching institute in Ahmedabad when I was in 9th class.  For the first two years, I would say I was never that serious about JEE and in my 10th class, I was consistently the worst performer of my batch :P. In the 11th class, one of the coaching Professors told me that I would not even get a rank below 10,000, forget about selection in JEE. The end result of the four years was an AIR 15 in JEE 2013. I won't say it was easy, nor would I say that you can achieve it without hard work, luck or sacrifice but I would again reiterate the fact that everything is possible if you are willing to go all in.

Given a chance to reach this massive audience I would try to explain some really awesome things that will help you in your JEE preparation.

Never get demotivated by people's opinion about you - I have seen people in my life who are so hardworking and intelligent but are so easily demotivated by people's opinion. That sometimes makes me incredibly sad. Along your path, many people will judge you by the batch you are in or by the way you study or by your marks/actions presently. Your professor might tell you that you do not have enough potential. Your friends might not include you in their study group. There are 2 different ways to handle these situations. You can let it break your confidence or you can add it to the long list of remarks/actions people made about you and simply take revenge by your success. Most of the people I have seen generally follow the first way. They feel sad about it for some time, then they try to forget it and let the time pass. I would say instead of doing that use those remarks for your motivation. Believe me, when I tell you at any point of time in life the number of remarks people make about you is going to only increase. It does not make sense for us to let this crucial source of motivation fade away.

The other thing I find very few people do is to analyse the test papers. I have seen so many different tips regarding JEE on so many different websites but am yet to see one where they teach you how to analyse your test papers. Initially, my approach was to write a test paper, check which answers are correct, which are wrong count the total, feel sad for screwing it up and then aim better for next test. After I became serious about JEE I started analysing my JEE papers. Once you give a test paper, classify each wrong answer into different categories like a silly mistake, concept unclear, not enough time, miscellaneous mistake. Now do this for each test and target reducing each type of the wrong answer separately. Check whether you make an average number of all mistakes or you make many high mistakes of one category. Apart from that you will understand is its speed that you lack in, is it the clarity of concept or is it concentration.

This two points if used together can make a huge difference in your JEE preparation.
Thanks for your time reading this.
Soham Ganatra

Feel free to discuss doubts/queries below as comments

Tuesday 23 August 2016

Reviews of best JEE Maths books

This is a follow up to my article on reviews of JEE Chemistry and Physics books. It would be good to read them before reading this article because I will be using the terminology used in those articles.

For noobs: For people from CBSE board, I would recommend sticking to RD Sharma class 11th and RD Sharma class 12th. For people from ICSE board, I would recommend ML Agarwal class 11th and ML Agarwal class 12th. A lot of students jump to high level books like ML Khanna, TMH, etc without even knowing the basic theory. I would strongly recommend understanding theory and solving problems of these books before jumping in to anything else. In fact, these books have better description of various topics than any other source.

        

For semi-pros, I would recommend different books for different topics:

For legendaries, I would recommend all of the above books. Arihant books are excellent for JEE preparation. Please note that, I don't get any commission from Arihant to publicize their books. I am stressing on Arihant books only because I found them quite useful and I would say, I was able to improve my maths only once I started solving Arihant books.

Besides the above books, legendaries must also walk an extra mile when it comes to trigonometry because you cannot afford to lose even a single problem, Arihant trigonometry is the perfect book here

    

For good practice, I would recommend TMH

    

Feel free to post any comment on the blog. I am active these days and I sure would be able to answer your query :)

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Thursday 18 August 2016

Guide to Preparation for JEE in the Drop Year

For all those students out there who are taking a year's drop for JEE, here comes the best article for droppers!

Lots of you have asked me about drop year preparation tips. I am myself not a dropper and so, it makes no sense for me to write a dropper related blog. I contacted a couple of people and one of them thankfully agreed to write a dropper blog. The person wanted me to not reveal the name and so, I cannot reveal anything about the author.

Note: The opinion and suggestions of the author may differ from what I have mentioned anywhere on this blog. Use your own discretion in this case.

The minibook contains 11 pages and about 2500 words. I myself went through it and it seemed to be pretty good. I would be glad if the droppers who are reading this minibook can post their feedback. If we get a good feedback on the minibook, I can request the author to be a regular writer on the blog for the dropper's section.


If you like the above minibook, you might want to take a look at all of our minibooks: