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!!!