Tuesday 22 May 2018

Test Series : The Big Gun

Hi readers, Kshitij here.

Having mentioned "Test Series" in one of the earlier posts let's delve deeper into the necessity of a Test Series and most importantly how to extract the best out of it so as to improve your performance.

So again let's start with the fundamental question "Why do I need a Test Series? Is solving books not sufficient?" The answer is a plain "No". The reason is simple. JEE won't ask you routine problems. The problems involve multi-dimensional thinking at a time. You need to use concepts of stoichiometry in a multi-step organic synthesis to predict the percent purity and stereochemistry of the final product. Sounds daunting? It would do only till you are not used to these kinds of unforeseen situations where you need to act quick, taking into consideration every aspect along with accuracy. This is where a Test Series comes into the picture. It is a set of test papers designed to make the student comfortable with all possible varieties of questions along with the various ways in which the same question can be put in order to make the student sweat in the exam hall. 

Remeber the "Decimal-Type Numeric" questions asked in JEE Advanced 2018? which made most of the student suffer had featured already in FIITJEE AITS for JEE 2018. People who took the test series were well aware of how to attempt the questions. Ever heard of "Multiple Correct Integer Answer Type Questions" wherein a question may have any number of integers from 0 to 9 as the answer(Say answer to a question may be 2,3,5,7,9 and you need to enter all of these to get full marks) with a daunting marking scheme of +4/-2. It might feature in coming years in JEE but has already featured in my of my Resonance Tests.

So by the time you convince yourself about joining a test-series, another question pops up, which one? There are a lot of them available in the market? Well, there is no defined answer to it. All of them be it Resonance, Allen, FIITJEE, Narayana, Bansal, Vibrant or Aakash are good in one form or the other. Some are good for their cracking and mind-blowing questions, while some are known for their well-designed schedule to be highly student friendly. It becomes a difficult task to choose one, but there is a simple rule to do so. First of all, analyze the syllabus distribution of all, its availability in your city/town, fee-structure, level of papers (try to refrain from ones having very easy or very tough papers) and the number of tests in an academic session (15-20 tests are good enough).

For those students already enrolled in a reputed Coaching Institute, there is hardly any need to join any other test-series. Just make sure to do the papers of your institute sincerely and you should be good to go. While for others, decide carefully, take reviews from people before investing your time and money somewhere. If you want to know my pick, I did Resonance and FIITJEE AITS. The former is, in my opinion, the ideal test series for it is well in accordance with the syllabus, as well as has questions at par with the prevailing level of questions asked in the actual exam, not to low neither too high. 

So the first part is done. We have selected the test series, but the job is yet to start. Just giving test papers every fortnight and leaving them as it is after the paper is doing no justice to its purpose. Unless you analyze your mistakes and strengths from a test the test-paper is merely a booklet with no use. I remember spending the entire Sunday I had a test and a couple of days to follow in finding answers to the problems I wasn't able to solve, or those which went wrong, researching the web and books to learn some new concepts. It requires a lot of patience, determination and the right approach to analyze a paper and learn from one's mistakes.

The basic way to analyze a paper is to divide the paper into two parts: Questions which you did correctly and questions which you got wrong or did not attempt. So this forms the first branch of the tree. Coming to the first one "The Questions attempted correctly", there are instances when you manage to get the answer just by guessing or eliminating the options. However, this is a very wrong practice unless it's the final exam. So the first step would be to find proper solutions to those problems. Having ensured this make sure to have a look at solutions provided along with the paper to those questions which you solved correctly just to ensure that you are equipped with other possible methods to solve a problem. 

The second part has further subdivisions, first being "Wrong Answers" and "Unattempted Questions". Let's consider the first one. You may get a question wrong due to broadly 2 ways namely Silly Mistakes and Conceptual mistakes

The first one is easy to find, it comprises all mistakes done in hurry, say, calculation mistakes, using the wrong formula, using the long approach and getting mixed up in middle, reading the wrong data etc. The only solution to it is "concentration" while solving the paper. Don't think about anything while giving the test, neither what the person next to you is doing nor about the result. Just focus on reading the question properly and solving carefully. 

The second requires a significant amount of research so as to pinpoint the topic you need to work upon. Say you weren't able to solve a question from Coordinate Geometry. First part of investigation done. So first figure out what were the different conics involved there. Say you figure out to be a question involving Parabola and Circle. Great! The second part of investigation done too. Next, what in Parabola? Tangents and their properties. Okay so that's it the investigation is over and now you understand that you need to work upon Tangents, their equations, properties etc (as related to the question). Now that you know where exactly you need to work, just pick up any resource and go through it once. Compare the process you adopted and the standard one and in almost all cases you will find your mistake here.

The second point in this list is questions which you didn't attempt. Again, there may be many reasons for it. Two major being "not able to read/solve the question in time" the solution to which is to increase your reading and solving speed by doing more problems at home and the second same as doing a conceptual mistake, this time not being able to solve the question due to lack of proper understanding. The solution is same as mentioned in the above paragraph.
  
Phew! That was too much of branching. Hope you didn't find it overwhelming :P
So, here's a summary of all what I mentioned. (Forgive me for the poor picture quality :P). Hope you find it informative and helpful to increase your confidence while attempting further papers after such a rigorous exercise after the previous.

That's all from my side. Do comment your queries below.

All the Best!

27 comments:

  1. im enrolled in allen, and the test papers they give is at par with resonance's. so should i give fiitjee aits?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Are you enrolled in a coaching Institute that provides Test Series?

      Delete
    2. Sorry, I thought Allen meant only Allen Test Series. Well for that case surely go with Allen Test Series. Also you being a Classroom student would be getting more test papers, quizzes etc along with Test Series. IMO that should be much more than sufficient provided you do it earnestly

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  2. How is pace material and test series?Any idea?

    ReplyDelete
  3. bhaiya should i go for arihant algebra or cengage...plzz reply

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Short Answer : Cengage

      Long Answer : Don't go for Arihant Algebra unless you are too much into higher order Mathematics, say, preparing for INMO and all. It has extremely vast theory and really challenging problems and will consume a lot of time to solve properly and completely. However Cengage presents a JEE oriented approach to every topic. It's content and problems too are very good in order to build a strong grasp on the subject

      Delete
  4. Which mode do you think will benifit more - online or offline ?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Which mode do you think will benifit more - online or offline ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Considering the exam has changed to online mode, it would be better if you get yourself enrolled in an Online Test Series. If it is not available, don't panic, try offline Test Series in that case but make sure to give some CBTs towards the end of your preparation to develop a habit of sitting in front of computer for a 6-hour test.

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  6. Hi bhaiya

    I had just given advance exam and very happy with my performance ..
    and planning for CS

    BUT WHAT SHOULD I DO IN THESE TWO MONTHS , ANYTHING WHICH WILL BOOST MY PERFORMANCE IN COLLEGE OR NOTHING CAN BE DONE NOW FOR COLLEGE ????

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi, Sunny. Hearty congratulations on your splendid performance.

      During this break, what I would suggest is to completely relax from the huge workload of studies. Go and meet your friends, relatives, watch movies (if you do prefer watching them), sleep a lot :P and enjoy. There is no need to worry about college now.

      Then too if you want to do something you may try learning a programming language (in case you don't know), or develop some hobbies which you would like to pursue in college apart from Academics. But in my opinion, there is nothing much to be done now. You will get enough time to pursue your hobbies in college. As of now, just relax.

      Delete
  7. Bro, is dlp good? Which institute should I go for resonance or allen or others... I am studying in fiitjee class XI for JEE

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. As you are studying in FIITJEE, there's no need to go for any other resource. Just do your modules, CPPS, Quizzes etc sincerely. If you still want resources from other institutes, it would be better to join their test series in place of DLP. Thus you would get a better practice, and a more realistic national level standing

      Delete
  8. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  9. Brother, i am quite in deep dilemma, I used to attend IIT Home in nagpur, but after one year, i realised they are nothing but crap. All they do is prioritize stupid things over academics. As I'm in 12th, please suggest, what should i do (p.s.- according to everyone, IIT Home is only sane institute here), should i go for self study or what,, plzz reply, thanx

    ReplyDelete
  10. Bhaiya should i go for arihant coordinate geometry or any other book for it?

    ReplyDelete
  11. Good evening bhaiya.
    I m a jee aspirant studying at resonance kota
    I m working very hard. keeping things in very organized way. Following all the stratergies but not able to scrore well in my coaching test. In the 3 months 3 tests are over and I have able to score consistently 50%. Why my scores are not Improving. Need your GUIDANCE sir. Please help.
    Hope u will reply.
    Yours sincerely
    KUSHAL.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You need to figure out where you are lacking, as I mentioned in the post, you need to analyze each and every paper very carefully so as to find the flaws in your preparation, just giving papers without correcting your mistakes will lead to a troublesome situation. Also, don't be disappointed after just 3 months into the preparation. You have a long way to go, you need to develop resilience to tackle such situations firmly, then only you would be able to do well :)

      Delete
  12. from where do you get resonance material or anyother good stuff..plz tell me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I was enrolled in Resonance's and FIITJEE's Distance Learning Programs and other reference books are available easily in the market

      Delete
  13. I purchased arihanth 37 years solved question papers book and I go to Allen classroom student is it enough to score good marks in jee

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. See, any institute's material is good and perfect provided you use it judiciously and properly. All such of them are created after a lot of R&D to cater the needs of the students as per the latest exam pattern. So, any of them is good provided you religiously solve it. Also 37 Years QP is also a must pary to do so as to ensure all loopholes are fixed.

      Delete
  14. I am a classroom student of Resonance. Do I need to go for any other test series?

    ReplyDelete
  15. Bhaiya I want to know that what is the best way to solve a book.
    like should we solve all the solved examples or Just cover the theory and jump into the Exercise problems??

    ReplyDelete
  16. could you please tell me how to clear ftre with a good rank? plz also tell the books to follow?

    ReplyDelete
  17. Thanks a lot for this wonderful advice!

    ReplyDelete
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