WAY TO CRACK IIT-JEE

It is said that a battle is not won as much in the field as in planning and strategizing for it. The same is true of the IIT-JEE tests. There is no single correct way of preparing for the JEE Examination. What is good for one need not be so for another. Cracking the IIT-JEE is to be taken as a project and therefore, needs to be planned and executed properly. One is not likely to make any significant headway if one goes headlong without a coherent plan while preparing for it. While some elements of such a strategy are common to all aspirants, others entirely depend on the individual. The following are the Success Tips for preparation.

Believe in yourself:
The very first step is to start with the right frame of mind. A positive attitude is needed to survive through the long drawn process. It will require a sustained tempo of preparation for months together. Many may feel like quitting, but what is going to finally win the race is the belief that one can do it. If you think that you are defeated, you are. Remember, the man who ultimately win the race is the one who thinks he can. So being positive is the first baby step.

Know your strengths and weaknesses:
This point cannot be over-emphasized. While you must believe that you can do it, you must also have a very clear idea of where you stand, to begin with. You must know your strong and weak areas thoroughly. It could be anything that has a bearing on your preparation. Some of you, for example, may cover a lot of ground in one sitting, while for others sustained concentration for more than an hour might prove to be difficult. Some of you may have a natural flair for mathematics, while others may have an aptitude for chemistry or physics. It is important to know these nuances of your strengths and weaknesses. The reason is really simple. To plan and work on a winning strategy, you must know which of your strengths need to be further honed, which of your weaknesses you can live with, and which weaknesses you need to work upon so that they don not become a handicap.

Plan your schedule:
Remember that every journey takes its own time. If you wish to reach the destination in time, you need to start right away and plan the details—which milestones you need to cross, and when, before you finally succeed. Plans need to be worked out at different levels. And for this, you need to set specific time-bound targets. Whatever be the schedule one decides on, it may be helpful to remember the following:

Formalise the schedule in the form of a chart you can see easily anytime. There is no point in setting a schedule that needs to be frequently changed.

One ought to set realistic targets, without getting influenced by how much your friends have covered.

Although it is not advisable to change your schedule every now and then, your schedule has to be flexible. You do not need to feel unnecessarily guilty if you have not been able to follow the schedule due to some genuine problem. But of course, remember to cover up the lost ground in the near future.

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Give yourself frequent breaks by keeping aside time for recreation in the form of sports / music or anything else you like. Even chatting with a friend can easily help you recover yourself to take on the task further ahead. Please remember that JEE is more about thinking and application than anything else.

Familiarise yourself with the IIT-JEE pattern:
Many students tend to lay high emphasis on problem solving and not so much on understanding the subject. Since JEE itself largely consists of numerical problems, this approach misleads many into believing—that the more problems one solves, the better are the chances of success at the JEE. While this might be true to a certain extent, solving problems prematurely without adequate grounding of fundamentals is unlikely to help you achieve the final objective. This is like someone locked in a dark room and your trying to find the door by a hit and trial method. Sometimes students also tend to burden themselves with unnecessarily complex problems that have very little relevance to JEE. The students must focus on the questions that have been appearing in the JEE, and be clear about the kinds that they need to practice with.

Be rigorous and persistent:
It is important to realise that there is no alternative to rigour. This means that we must be thorough with our understanding of the concepts. Sometimes while trying to solve a problem, we give up quickly and look at the solution. Many a time we read a topic or look up a solution and think that we have understood it. The words rigour and persistence go hand in hand. Looking at its absolute importance in the context of our preparation, we must try to do the following.

Persist with a problem till you have either found the solution or have come to a dead end. This may take hours, but the learning could be significant.

It may not be wise to skip solving a problem because you think you know how to do it. It may not be quite the same as a known problem.

Even if you have got a solution, you can always try to think up alternative solutions. This process itself could lead to significant insights into the concerned topic.

It might be a better idea to avoid looking at the solution, and, instead, discuss the problem with one's friends. One may learn a thing or two that were hitherto not known.

Quality is more important than quantity:
Very often you may find your friends discussing how many hours they spend every day on their preparation. Do not let any of this big talk bother you. You may be spending less time but getting more productive output. In this context, It is better to confine yourself to a limited number of good books and other study material. Spend a lot of time reading these books and work out the important derivations independently. Work out a limited number of problems, but good ones. Solving too many problems does not necessarily help us in understanding the concepts. Make it a point not to study beyond your fatigue limit.

Have Proper Guidance:
The pattern of JEE has become entirely concept based. So you need to have proper guidance from the best teachers in PCM. Most students take admission in big coaching Institutions in the beginning of class 11th or 12th but they never get selected in any Top Engineering institution. Why? Very simple ! In these coaching centers, blind problem solving is promoted in the name of advanced preparation. No basic concepts are taught properly, rather just formulae are discussed as part of theory teaching. Then right away, very tough questions are introduced which generally pass over the heads of most students. The teacher solves those questions in the class or sometimes the students are given printed solutions to them. The students try to learn those solutions without learning the art that of how to solve a new question by applying systematic thinking to it with the help of basic concepts? So a judicious selection of the best individual teachers is the most important.

Critically assess your progress:
An extremely important element of your preparation is to periodically find out where you stand with respect to your goals. While taking tests is an integral component of this assessment, it actually goes much beyond that. The objective of a test is not only to point out your performance but also your strong and weak areas. If this feedback is not taken seriously and you proceed to take another test of similar scope and nature, you cannot expect much difference in your performance. On the other hand, if you work hard on your weak areas before taking a test again, there is every chance that your performance will improve. It goes without saying that these are the incremental improvements that finally bear the coveted fruit.