All about Mechanics

Mechanics is one of the most important part of Physics in JEE.
It has huge weightage and not having a command on this part will definitely pull down your rank.
It's important because it has large applications in thermodynamics, electromagnetism as well as in modern physics so being expert in this part helps you to understand the subject better.
Here is a chapterwise analysis of mechanics:
Kinematics: First chapter of mechanics. It's mainly mathematics with a little bit of physics. Knowing calculus is important to understand this chapter. Definitions in this chapter must be absolutely clear and yes focus mainly on projectile motion(especially projectile motion along an inclined plane).
Laws of motion: "backbone of classical physics". Newton's second law is everything here. Practice it well and apply it with caution. Constraint relations form an important part and a number of questions are framed from this topic. Most students face problem in friction part. And yes paper setters know it!
Work, power, energy: work energy theorem and law of conservation of mechanical energy are two important laws that need to be mastered. Don't leave small things out here. In competitions they even ask the units and conversions(for example 1HP = ? Watts).
Center of mass and momentum: another important chapter. The law of conservation of linear momentum is very important and a number of questions are asked from it. Mixed questions from these 4 chapters are common in JEE.
Gravitation: not so important from the point of JEE but very important of you are and olympiad aspirant. If you are done with electrostatics then this chapter is a cakewalk.
Rigid body dynamics/rotational mechanics: most important chapter for JEE mechanics. It was the favourite chapter of paper setters in JEE 2012. Difficult for most students and sometimes confusing too. You are expected to know the formulae, moment of inertia for simple objects, the theorems on inertia, and most importantly - law of conservation of angular momentum. This law combined with law of conservation of linear momentum is used to solve the problem of collisions which is another favourite for competitive exams. Another aspect is impulse momentum theorem and the angular equivalent of the theorem. Brilliant questions have been asked in JEE from this chapter. Even for olympiads, this one is important. Practice this chapter patiently and learn to apply the equations and theorems correctly. Give this chapter extra time.
Simple Harmonic Motion: Another simple yet interesting chapter. Spring mass system is it all about! Make sure you take the help of Work energy theorem to solve the problems of this chapter. All the above chapters are used in solving problems of this chapter.
Fluid mechanics: Pascal's law , Archimedes Principle , Bernoulli's Equation and Equation of continuity are the 4 most important aspects of this chapter. You must be familiar with pressure calculations in different situations. This chapter might prove to be difficult for some (including me).
Elasticity: Easiest chapter of mechanics. Learn the definitions by heart and apply them.
The recommended books have already been mentioned in another post. Important theorems / laws have been underlined and are expected to be known perfectly.

Physical chemistry - on demand

This is a post on Physical chemistry (as demanded by most people).
This branch of chemistry is somewhat similar to Physics and people are fond of it because it involves least mugging out of the 3 branches of JEE chemistry
The chapter on mole concept is most important.
There are other chapters :

• Stoichiometry : This was the most difficult chapter for me because I couldn't decipher the secrets of this chapter till the end of my preparation. You are expected to know a number of redox reactions (potassium dichromate , potassium permanganate , sulphur dioxide , hydrogen peroxide etc etc). So you will be comfortable with this chapter only after completing inorganic chemistry. So be patient here.
• Equilibrium : Easiest and my favourite. Most logical. Make sure that you are strong not only in numericals but also on theory based problems of this chapter.
• Thermodynamics : Difficult one. The material available in market is flooded with second and third law of thermodynamics in detail. But that's something useless. Third law is not in syllabus and second law - only brief discussion + entropy calculation is there in syllabus. Make sure that you are comfortable with thermochemistry.
• Chemical Kinetics : again an easy one with very little syllabus
• Electro-chemistry : BIG GUN! Just 1 equation - "Nernst's equation" and unlimited applications. If you are not comfortable with any of the above mentioned chapter then this one's gonna be a nightmare
• States of matter : simple one but cover liquid states thoroughly(the colligative properties part)
• Nuclear Chemistry : easy one. But make sure you know the terms , definitions and properties
• Surface Chemistry : is this a part of physical chemistry ?? Most take it as inorganic chemistry. Don't ignore this one or else you are going to regret (for proof check JEE 2012 paper). NCERT is must here.

The result day

On the result day, unfortunately I was in New Delhi (enjoying the post JEE time).
The results were supposed to be announced on 23rd June 2013 but 21st June's newspaper said - "JEE results are likely to be announced today at 5.00 PM". We all became excited because we were expecting a good result.
Around 4.50 PM we opened JEE site - and it opened well.
Sharply at 5 , the server went down and the site didn't open. I was excited to know my result. Thanks to my friend Kartikeya Gupta(AIR 4 in JEE 2013) who checked my result and told me my rank.
We all were happy. My mother hugged me.
"IITB CS - yes it is!!" was my reaction. I received congratulations call from numerous friends and relatives. I also got a number of calls from various newspapers - they interviewed me and next day Kanpur's newspaper was flooded with my JEE result - see it yourself

It was a great feeling. The session 2012-2013 was one of the best for me. Here are a few accomplishments : 

• JEE Advanced 2013 : AIR 33(IIT Kanpur Zone Topper)
• JEE Main 2013 : Score 323/360 (AIR 617 after including Board exams result)
• CBSE 2013 : 93.6% with 100/100 in Physics , 99/100 in Chemistry and 95/100 in Mathematics
• ICSE 2011 : 97.4% with 96/100 in Science and 98/100 in Mathematics
• CBSE Certificate of Merit for being in the top 0.1% in Physics
• Selected to appear for Indian National Physics Olympiad(INPhO) camp and awarded Gold medal
• Selected to appear for Indian National Chemistry Olympiad(INChO) camp
• Cleared National standard Examination in Physics and Chemistry
• Selected to appear for Asian Physics olympiad , Bogor , Indonesia (8 student team)
• Cleared KVPY 2013 (written exam + interview)
• Awarded AP grade for exceptional performance in Engineering Drawing(given to 8 students out of 423) , Calculus(given to 8 students out of 875) , Physical Chemistry(given to 3 students out of 875) , Linear Algebra(given to 11 students out of 872) and Differential Equations(given to 14 students out of 884) courses with a CGPA of 9.86 at IIT Bombay

Blog feedback/suggestions

Here in this post, I am not going to give you any tips/advice.
It's your turn now guys to give me tips/advice.
Post all your suggestions-what other types of posts do you want? Any specific suggestions are welcome. Post your suggestions in comments and I will soon write on it.
You might also like to suggest multiple topics. Feel free to interact.
Also post your feedback about this blog-how did you find it? How much did it help you in your academics? How can I improve myself? Is my writing style appropriate?
It's important for me to know your suggestions so that I can serve you better.
Any criticism is also welcome.
These days I am a bit busy(enjoying my vacations with my near and dear ones), so I am aware that I was not able to reply to your queries. Soon I'll be free again.
Thanks

Mumbai, IIT-B and ME

Mumbai - biggest city of India.
Moving from Kanpur to Mumbai seemed no big deal to me , but for my parents it was. A boy who was brought up with all care , always under the guidance of the parents was going to be set free.
My parents always wondered if I would be able to mix up with new friends , will the place be safe for me , will I be able to establish myself in so big a city , ragging issues , food issues , washing clothes , cleaning room , academics ..... , ...... etc etc
Mumbai is a beautiful place. It's beauty lies in its simplicity. Living in IIT , I am with the humblest people of the country. No one here believes in show-off. Each student has his/her own world. Everyone enjoys his/her life to the fullest.

We have Hiranandani near the campus - one of the most beautiful place I have ever visited.
It has all kinds of shops from food to electronic to daily household things.

Feeling hungry ? Not in mood of eating mess food ? You have the following options :
Campus Hub
Gulmohar Cafeteria
H1 canteen
H2 canteen
Kresit Canteen
Hiranandani (all major brands including Subway , Aromas , Papa John's)
R-City mall , Neptune Magnet mall , Phoenix Mall
and the best of all - Pizza Hut and Dominoes pizza delivery

and trust me , hanging out with friends at times is fun.

One of the things that I am always scared of is GPL (G***d pe Laat). This is a tradition in IITB. Whenever it is someone's birthday , people gather around his room at 12 sharp , lift up that person and start kicking as hard as possible. Then goes the "chappal fight" wherein people take out their slippers and Bang it on other's back. This is dangerous. Even today when the semester final exams ended , people gathered around my room(silently). Then one of them entered my room and said " Aman tujhe Aashish bula raha hai , Kuch kaam hai important " and I went out to see scores of hungry wolves , ready to kick my a**.
This continued till 1 AM and each CSE student was "GPLed".
It's scary but its fun and I enjoy it!
After all these are the moments that I would remember after my 4 years' journey.

Preparation strategy for Board Exams

Preparation for board exams can be described in just 1 complete line - "Mug each and every word of NCERT".

That's it , you are done.

Complete NCERT thoroughly. Also , if your JEE preparation is strong enough then you PCM(Physics , Chemistry and Maths) portion is already covered. What you need is a look though NCERT so that you can write the definitions / proofs / derivations in the paper.

Since they have added new "value based questions" , you should be prepared for it. Best source is "Google".

For English , you need to start atleast a couple of months before the exams to avoid last minute pressure.

For Physical Education , you hardly need 2 days. I would suggest memorizing the headings and then explaining it in your own words.

Sorry for no words on computer science (I didn't opt for it).

Just don't take board exams as an extra burden. They are not!.

Infact , take it as an opportunity to judge yourself that how familiar you are with NCERT.

In another of my post , I have already described the importance of NCERT textbooks.

Keep in mind that Board exams don't matter much as far as engineering is concerned. But there is a cutoff percentage that you need to clear to take admission into the IIT's.

Here is a link that might be useful for your board exams' preparation

Credits : Nishant

KVPY

This post focuses on KVPY.
Unfortunately I didn't give KVPY in class 11th because I wasn't aware of the deadlines.
But , as i heard from my friends - It's easy to crack and many of my friends did it!! As far as I know , the interview is a bit difficult (may be a rumor).
For class 12 KVPY aspirants , KVPY is like a cakewalk. You can crack the exam very easily if you have prepared well for JEE. Don't forget to cover the topics of JEE main Syllabus because KVPY doesn't have any "well defined" syllabus.
As far as I remember 11 of my friends appeared for KVPY and all cleared stage 1 and stage 2 both.
You will hear a lot from your friends - "Interview is very difficult , they ask tough questions and try to test your advanced skills" - wrong , wrong and WRONG !!
The interviewers are really good , humble and gentle . They assume you to be a student of class 12 and not at all "a scientist". They ask simple questions of board level. You need not look "extremely smart" or an "intelligent guy". They won't judge you by your looks. What they need is a research oriented brain.
Ofcourse most students (including me) appear for KVPY only for a certificate. 
In the end - Keep calm and study!

Revision Strategy

Revision portion is very important as far as JEE preparation is concerned. Human brain is not a 64 GB memory card. You can't store everything at once especially when it comes to inorganic chemistry and practical organic chemistry.
JEE syllabus is huge and they test your memorizing power too!!
There are certain topics that are supposed to be revised frequently. You should do the same for the topics that you forget easily. For me, inorganic chemistry (especially p-block) and practical organic chemistry were such topics. Besides there were some formulae in modern physics and integration that needed a regular revision. For formulas, it is advisable to make a notebook containing all the necessary details. It helps a lot. And don't forget to revise the same on every weekend. You will realize that after say a couple of weekends, you are perfectly fine with those topics. This is the general revision strategy to be followed for entire JEE preparation.

Coming to the revision strategy after syllabus is completed. All I can say is solve solve and solve as many problems as you can from all topics. This will help you in 4 ways :

• your speed will improve
• your accuracy will improve
• No need of explicit revision
• your weak points will come ahead

now after knowing your weak areas, try to solve more and more problems from these portions.
In my case it was Permutations and Combinations, Modern Physics and Thermodynamics and of course a large portion of chemistry because I was relatively weak in that subject.
These chapters will decide your rank because these are the portions where most people are weak so if you cover these, then that would definitely give you an edge over others.
You can also go for specialized revision packages like the ones provided by FIITJEE(GMP + RTPF) or Resonance(Rank Booster).
Joining a test series helps a lot. If you are confident of getting say an under 100 rank then FIITJEE would be a good option but FIITJEE test series might prove to be a disaster because it too tough and far above JEE level. Resonance test series is a good option , although I never tried it.
Go ahead and Crack It!!!

Preparation for other exams

There are a variety of competitive exams besides JEE advanced. Some common ones being KVPY, JEE main, national standard examination in physics (NSEP),  national standard examination in chemistry(NSEC) , Indian national physics olympiad(INPhO) , Indian national chemistry olympiad(INChO) , BITsat, and state entrance exams.

Except olympiads, the other exams can be easily cracked if you have prepared well for Jee advanced.
Jee main syllabus contains a few topics that are not covered in jee advanced syllabus. But covering them is no big deal. Just study ncert books for these topics and you are done. Same goes for KVPY and state entrance exams.

The problem comes with olympiads. You qualify to appear for INPhO and INChO. These exams require indepth knowledge of the topics. These are subjective exams and are much above the traditional jee level. These exams test your knowledge and not your speed(compare it with jee which focuses mainly on speed).

You need to have a firm grip on concepts and an idea of how to "write" rather than "tick".

Around 40 students are declared as "pass" in INPhO and INChO each. If you clear these, then you are eligible to appear for olympiad camps held in Mumbai. Clearing the camps let's you participate in international olympiads!!

Here are some books that are useful.
Physics olympiad: IE irodov, past year papers.
Chemistry olympiad: past year papers.

This year(2013) because the INPhO paper was extremely tough, the cutoff was very low(31/60). The details can be found at www.olympiads.hbcse.tifr

Do appear for NSEP and NSEC.
Cracking the above competitive exams boosts your confidence.

Life @ IIT-B...

Friends, parties, gossiping, hostels, assignments, fun, competitions, orientations, sports, rains, seniors, lingo, mentors, sleeping during lecture, food stealing, sleeping late night, ... this is all I can say about IIT-Bombay...
Being at a place which is a "Dream place" for innumerable students has a different experience. Life @ IIT-B is simply awesome.
Its been some one and a half months here and life is amazing. Think of any random activity, and you will find a dedicated club for it here.
You get to know the brilliant minds of the country. People here are simply D-Best. They are good at everything - from academics to sports - All rounders.
There is a hill (Sameer Hill) and a beautiful lake (lake Powai) inside the campus. The campus is literally what you can call as - Green Campus.
The freshies have been allotted Hostel 15-B (I stay at the tenth floor :) ), and the view from my room is beautiful. Sky touching buildings of Hiranandani can be seen...
Here you are made familiar with a bunch of activities - RC plane designing, RC car designing, dance, music, sports, treasure hunts, techfest, mood indigo, Freshiezza, salsa, and many more.
A striking feature of IITB is "Tum Tum", the buses that ply inside the campus, and connect the hostels to the academic area. You can find IITians hanging at the door of buses, Strange isn't it ?? Yeah... you get all sorts of experiences here.

You get to enjoy sleeping during lectures, pain of engineering drawing (Tip: never talk to an IITian about his engineering drawing assignment... he will simply murder you), Computer lab assignments, difficult physics lab experiments, poor examination scores, night outs, etc etc.
Let's talk something different..
What do you call a girl at IITB ?? think??
Answer: visitor :P ... poor joke indeed but it's true.
Here in IITB there is a shortage of girls. People are mad about "Bandis", or rather "despo" about bandis, as you say that in IITB lingo
Here in IITB, I got an opportunity to try many different things - Table tennis, Drama, RC plane, Video making, Photography, Rubik's Cube, Skating and many more.
Coming to sports, there is a swimming pool, volleyball court, Kho-Kho, football field, athletics track, cricket field, hockey field, basketball courts, lawn tennis courts, weightlifting room, table tennis room, squash court etc etc and the best part is - you can try em all !!!
IIT bombay has it's own lingo, it's own dictionary - bandi, DAC, daya, matka, despo, ditch, DoSA, enthu, fart, farra, freshie, machau, give-up, infi, insti, junta, lukkha, mug, pain, poltu, SAC, sophie, tumtum etc are a few commonly used words.
Ragging: IITB has strict anti ragging policy. The seniors are more of friends and are too helpful. Seniors are ready to help you in all possible way. There is a mentor for this who basically is a kind of local guardian. Mentors help us in our problems and ofcourse, if there is a senior with you - then "treat to banti hai!!".
To end, campus life at IITB is an amazing experience. Prepare well for JEE and reach this place - Your life will change. Sacrifice everything to get to this place and you will get back more than what you sacrificed. 

Maths, the horror movie begins

For me, Maths seemed to be the toughest nut to crack. I always committed silly mistakes in Maths. There are a few books that are very helpful for this.
1.) Calculus : for this, Arihant integral and differential calculus is the best book. It contains enough objective as well as subjective questions that are required for Jee.
2.) Coordinate Geometry : again Arihant coordinate geometry is the best book.
3.) Vectors and 3-D : for this, I used M.L. Agarwal book. This book is the prescribed book for ISC board and is really good for basics.
4.) Trigonometry : any board level book is sufficient for this. Rd Sharma would be a good option.
5.) Algebra : TMH (Tata McGrawHill) is a good option for this.

Maths requires a lot of practice to be a master. You need a really good exposure to a variety of problems rather than just reading the theory portion again and again.

Basal coaching sheets are also helpful. Most important thing in Maths is getting a good exposure to a variety of problems. 

Physics, something really "Real"...

Physics was my favorite subject. I was initially pretty weak at physics (the mechanics part). But in class 12th, I came across one of my teachers who changed my perception about Physics. He supported me a lot and it was because of his support/guidance that I was able to crack INPhO and was also selected to represent India at the 14th Asian Physics Olympiad, Indonesia in the 8 member team (although I didn't participate in it because it's date clashed with JEE advanced registration dates).
No doubt, HC Verma is the best book for Physics.

Physics can be broadly divided into the following parts:

1.)Mechanics : for this, HC Verma is the best (along with 
NCERT) for theory and for practice, IE Irodov is the right book. You can also try DC Pandey. Mechanics requires intense practice and good exposure to a number of questions. It is one of the most scoring part of JEE Paper.

2.)Thermodynamics : Again, for this part, HC Verma is sufficient. From this part there will be around 3-5 questions in the JEE paper.

3.)Electricity and Magnetism : For this part HC Verma is not enough. You need to go beyond that, because in JEE, there will rarely be any straight - forward question from this part. Having a command in this part will definitely give you an edge over others because it has a huge weightage in the JEE paper.

4.)Optics : One of the easiest branch of Physics if prepared well. Most  scoring and easy to grasp. But, beware - this part has the widest scope of silly - mistakes. Sign convention must be kept in mind otherwise the question is bound to go wrong.

5.)Modern Physics : Tough nut to crack. Difficult, quite theoretical. This part, besides numericals has a lot of theory based questions. So prepare well especially the Radioactivity and the X-Ray part. HC Verma and NCERT must be thoroughly covered for this section.

To summarize, HC Verma is the best book for Physics. But don't ignore NCERT. Read complete NCERT atleast 2-3 times. You will definitely find something new.

If you simply study Physics, then it isn't going to work. You need to feel it, enjoy it and more than that apply it.

Why should I crack JEE ?...

This post focuses mainly on motivation.
Most students appear for IIT-JEE because of parental pressure ! Some do that simply because their "friends" are preparing for JEE !! 
NO. This is should not be the reason for you to appear for the most prestigious exam of India. You are simply increasing the crowd. And it is highly likely that you won't be able to crack the exam.
There must be some self motivation, a desire to do well, a hunger to study in the Premier Colleges of India, an ambition to go ahead of others, a zeal to prove yourself.

Here is something to motivate you.
The feeling when you crack JEE is different.
The society looks you with respect. You are thought to be as a born genius. People start talking about you. You start feeling like a celebrity. Aunties would say "Wo to brilliant tha hi, uska to IIT me selection hona hi tha". Your photographs appear in the newspapers. Relatives start respecting you. You get numerous phone calls from friends/relatives/teachers, congratulating you and wishing for your success. You get party demands from everyone you can think of. 
This feeling is great. "I have proved myself, I am an IITian now."

You will also find tonnes of people who are jealous of you. But feel lucky - everyone doesn't get the privilege to have "Haters".

During your journey, many will misguide you, demotivate you by telling you that "IIT's are no more that prestigious what they used to be. Now PQR College is more in demand" or any other thing of that sort. But, you must be wise enough to shut your ears and move on with even a higher confidence level.
IIT's are IIT's. Best Colleges of India. They have ruled the "Top Engineering College of India List" from years.

Confidence and Motivation are the key to cracking JEE.

Another point you must keep in mind this that "I want so and so rank so that I am able to get XYZ branch in IIT-Z". That "so and so" must be clearly defined from day 1 itself.
You must be aware of the opening and closing ranks of the XYZ branch in IIT-Z so that your mind is set to work accordingly.
Don't just blindly prepare for JEE. Have a clear-cut target in mind and struggle for it.

All the best.

Organic chemistry, my favorite...

Organic chemistry for me was the most fascinating part of chemistry - most logical and of course, most scoring. If you know that "a nucleophile attacks an electrophile", your half portion of organic chemistry is done (believe me). Entire organic chemistry is dedicated to the above statement.
There are some "Named Reactions" which are very important. I will name some of them - "Reimer Tiemenn" reaction, "Cannizarro" reaction, "Friedel - Craft's" reactions and many others. They all form the backbone of organic chemistry and must be thoroughly covered.
Another important aspect of Organic Chemistry is GOC - General Organic Chemistry. In the recent years, a lot of questions have been asked on - resonance stability, carbocation stability, type of reactions, hyperconjugation and many more topics from this chapter. So it is advisable to cover them well.
For Organic Chemistry, I would suggest a book named "LG Wade" by "Pearson Education". Though the book is not designed for JEE aspirants, it definitely serves the purpose. Do cover the book thoroughly. Practice a lot of questions in order to have a command in Organic Chemistry.
My approach towards learning organic chemistry was "mechanistic". I focused a lot on the reaction mechanisms. In 15 minutes, you can solve entire JEE organic chemistry (if you know the solution). Rather than mugging up organic chemistry, try to understand the mechanism. In JEE, they ask you the entire mechanism of the reaction through Paragraph type questions.

Book recommendations: Best books for JEE organic chemistry

Inorganic chemistry, key to getting a TOP rank in IIT-JEE...

Surprised ?? Yes this indeed is the bitter truth.. Inorganic chemistry is that branch of chemistry which most toppers study very seriously as compared to others and this is where they defeat others.

Well I am writing on inorganic chemistry first, because most students think that "Ahhh, JEE tests only concepts and logic, there will be hardly any question from inorganic part" . Moreover, some think that "inorganic is wrote learning. I will do it in the end". But the truth is that besides testing your thinking ability, JEE also tests your memorizing capacity through the memory based questions asked under inorganic chemistry and some part of organic chemistry(Practical organic chemistry).

I can give you numerous examples of students who didn't give importance to inorganic chemistry, and got a rank which was higher(higher means higher in magnitude) than what they deserved. One such example is my friend, Aniket Gupta (AIR-641, IIT-JEE 2013) who neglected chemistry(mostly inorganic chemistry). He was superb at Maths and Physics and he could have easily got a rank under 500 had he studied inorganic chemistry seriously.

For inorganic chemistry, keep the following 3 points in mind:

1.) NCERT is the GodBook. Learn "each and every" word of NCERT for inorganic chemistry. In past few years, IIT's have picked up questions directly from NCERT. Once, an 8 marks matrix match was also picked up directly from NCERT.

2.) Don't leave the inorganic chemistry for the last 2 months. Start preparing for it from the first day itself and seriously "learn" inorganic chemistry for 2 whole years.

3.) Do regular revision. I can bet you that if you don't revise it for about 15 days, then you are sure to forget a large part of it.

Besides NCERT, if you have some time left in your hand, then you can (infact you must) go for JD Lee. It's one of the best books for inorganic chemistry and helps you do develop concepts of inorganic chemistry.

WARNING: Refer to IIT-JEE syllabus if you are deciding to pick up JD Lee. It contains a lot of stuff that is of no use for IIT-JEE.

Download NCERT from HERE

And the fight continues

At FIITJEE, regular all India tests were organized. I was regularly analyzing my performance in each test. It was during these tests that I learnt a very good habit - "always note down the mistakes that you committed in a particular test and make sure that you don't repeat it in the next test." This is a very important task and is basically the ONLY thing that distinguishes toppers from others.

I used to solve FIITJEE packages and simultaneously, past years JEE problems.

The following are the books that I referred besides the material provided by FIITJEE:

PHYSICS

1. Mechanics: HC Verma and IE Irodov (don't get scared by this book, it's not that difficult as people exaggerate)
2. Other parts of physics: HC Verma(Please don't neglect the Objective 1 and 2 problems of HCV. They are the best collection of questions for more than one correct type questions). Also do read NCERT Physics at least once after completing the syllabus. You will definitely find new things that you have never heard of.

CHEMISTRY

• Physical Chemistry: NCERT and OP Tondon (sometimes) and RC Mukherjee for questions
• Organic Chemistry: NCERT and LG Wade (Pearson Education - Best book for organic chemistry)
• Inorganic Chemistry: NCERT(very very important. Learn each and every alphabet of NCERT for this) and JD LEE(only for reference, don't pick up this one if you don't have spare time).

MATHS

• Algebra: Tata McGraw Hill (TMH)
• Calculus: Arihant (for both, differential and integral calculus)
• Co-ordinate geometry: Arihant again
• Trigonometry: no specific book, although RD Sharma is sufficient for this or ML Agarwal (ICSE Board maths book)

The above is the set of books that I used. Maybe some of them don't suit you. So it's better to choose your books wisely.

Another piece of advice - DON'T fill your cupboard with a lot of books. In the end you will get confused. Read the theory from a single Standard textbook and move on to solving questions from multiple books

And the journey begins

As I have already mentioned, I didn't attend the school (best strategy for JEE preparation). This left me with a huge amount of time. We had 3 coaching classes a week. I used to wake up in the morning at around 6.45 AM. At around 7.30, I was ready to study. My parents ensured that this schedule was followed strictly. My peak study time (the time when you get maximum output for a given input) was from 7.30 AM to 10.30 AM and i tried to avoid any kind of distraction during this interval. This time is very crucial for your preparation and varies from student to student. Some students are comfortable at night but I avoided night studying. I hardly remember any day where I can imagine myself studying after 8 PM.

During your JEE preparation, you will have to face many barriers and to be successful, you need to tackle them wisely. Many people start the preparation with a huge energy but soon get distracted - malls, friends, family, cousins, relatives, girlfriends, boyfriends, cigarette, drinking and a bunch of other stupid things. Seriously, I would say that "Shut your brain for everything else and bang your head on the books!!!"

Everything will be yours if you get a decent rank in JEE and I promise you that your relatives would be the first one to "taunt" you or better "leave" you if you fail..!!

Beginning of my JEE Preparation

In class 10th, I was taken to IIT-Kanpur by my school. That was simply an "amazing" place to be at -"huge campus", "one of the largest libraries of India", "sophisticated laboratories" and everything else you can imagine about a reputed engineering college. It was this day that I decided that I have to get into the IITs. I got a target for me. Soon after my board exams got over, I started to look for a good training institute for IIT-JEE 2013 preparation - tough task indeed.

Most of the coaching institutes claim that - "we are the best, we produce the best results." So, it was very difficult to choose the right institute. But, in the end, I decided to join FIITJEE Kanpur - a great decision indeed.

I missed the FTRE - "FIITJEE Talent Reward Exam", but I appeared for FIITJEE's admission test(in April 2011) and got 65% tuition fee waiver. 

The classes began on 29th April, 2011. We had about 35 students in our class. It was at this moment that I took a life changing decision for me - "I Left my school (ICSE Board) and joined a CBSE Board dummy school". In dummy schools, attendance is not at all mandatory. So I got sufficient time for my JEE preparation and I prepared for the exam of my life, whole heartedly.

I believe that joining a coaching institute gives a direction to one's preparation. Self study is also a good option but for doubt clearance and a healthy competition, a coaching institute is a good choice.

And now, the long journey began.

My first post

Hello reader, this blog was created soon after the JEE (Advanced)-2013 results were declared. I had nothing to do and I decided that blogging would be a good idea. It would not only help me to get my time passed but also my English would be improved (I am pretty weak at that).

Well, let me introduce myself. My name is Aman Goel, a student who cleared JEE (Advanced)-2013 (formerly referred to as IIT-JEE) with an All India Rank of 33. I have decided to join Computer Science and Engineering, at IIT-Bombay, my dream destination. I belong to Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. In this blog, I would be describing my IIT-JEE preparation.

The two years of JEE preparation are crucial and decide your future. Cracking JEE is the key to getting admission into the premier engineering colleges of India- the IIT's. There are lakhs of students striving hard to crack the toughest engineering exam and the change in pattern of exam this year has made it even more difficult.