What was Aman Goel's schedule when he cracked the JEE?

I’d say, focus less on schedules. Rather, focus more on short and long-term goals.

My long-term goal was: get a top 100 rank in JEE Advanced 2013.

My short term goals used to be like:

• Complete all problems of Rotational Mechanics from DC Pandey.
• Study the chapter on Alcohols from LG Wade.
• Solve all the example problems of Binomial Theorem from TMH.

I’d say that creating a timetable is more like micro-management. It is quite difficult to follow a timetable sincerely. I also tried, but I failed. Sometime or the other always used to come. Be it an extra class, or a relative/friend showing up, or some event, or some urgency, or whatever. In fact, not being able to follow the timetable used to make me guilty. Later, I realized that it is not needed.

So, instead of creating a timetable, I used to make a list of tasks that I am supposed to complete (like the short term goals above). Further, I used to attach a deadline to each of the tasks. This way, I did not micro-manage my day. I rather made sure that I am always achieving the deadlines. This, in fact, gave me quite a lot of flexibility. If I could complete the tasks on time, I used to spend time playing cricket or GTA San Andreas (I love the game even now!).

The above method helped me a lot in the quantification of my targets. I could easily keep a track of how many things I have done and how many things are pending. Moreover, I had the flexibility of reordering the tasks. For instance, if I had 4 tasks to be done over the next week, I could choose to complete the boring task later. Some other day, if things were good, I could switch to the boring task and complete it quickly.

Having said that, I’d say that if you feel comfortable with the timetable method, go ahead and do it. There is no thumb rule. Things that worked for me may not work for you. Experiment with a couple of methods and you sure will be able to find the one that suits you the best.