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

17 comments:

  1. Thx Soham for sharing ur tips they just awesome!!! Its really informative :)

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  2. bhaiya, i am 2017 jee aspirant and i am weak in organic chemistry. i don't have much time to read foreign book so bhaiya please suggest me an alternative method to complete organic.

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  3. Thx Soham for sharing ur tips they just awesome!!! Its really informative :)

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  4. Which book to b done first hc or dc pandwy or both simulatenously. I heard a guy sayin that u shld first do hcv .he said dcp is a subset of hcv
    Is that true?

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  5. got a problem
    the reso books frm which i m doing dont contain enough explaination .so got advice to finish whole 11th ncert in1-2 month.shld i do this or shld do frm other book instead reso

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  6. My organic chemistry is too weak and I got the worst teacher in that who rushes too fast and explaing that we r revising the topic .plz advise how to proceed for organic chemistry

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  7. should resnik halliday b done simultaneously along with school syllabi or to do after 1-2 chapters (topics) get completed?

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  8. Thanks for sharing! Certainly gives a boost of confidence. Can you please tell your standing (batch, ranking etc) exactly an year ago like Sep 2015.

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  9. Now it seems as if my dream of getting top 20 rank can also come true.. Thankyou..The world needs people like you.. Thankyou aman sir as well..

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  10. Oh yes, just what i needed.

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  11. How can just analysing the test paper make so much difference?
    What else did u do?

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  12. I m in x now and thinking of joining brothers academy near my house.Please help me with some basic tips at the start of my preparation.

    Thank you

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  13. When did you become serious about your studies?????

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  14. I have only one year left for jee.plz suggested me better time table to crack jee under 50 rank plzz

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  15. Hi bhaiyya...I am a jee aspirant. I see thousands of children who are preparing for jee since class 9th 10th. Is it possible to get a top 100 rank if I start from 11th?...

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