Twelve Steps To IIT JEE

Call it over confidence, arrogance, or anything you may want to call it, but I know the twelve steps that can get you to IIT JEE, even though I'm still in 12th standard, and I'm not yet admitted to IIT. More than steps, these are precautions, or common mistakes people commit, and which become the reason for failure.

1) There is no formula. None of 'em, not even one. Just terms and their definitions. If you visualise a problem rather than thinking what formula you can stick up over there, you'd do better. People will argue that this wastes time; yes, it does, but if you look at the brighter side, you can get more questions correct, and also be sure of the ones you did correctly. If you do it otherwise, their is always a chance you used the wrong approach. You get this into your brain, you're good to go.

If you can't, then know your formula well. How it was derieved, when you can use it, what are the exceptions, and when you should discard it completely.


2) Maths comes first. This is highly generalised, but my experience says you should study Maths before you do Physics or Chemistry. Likewise in the paper. Attempt Maths first. Then goes Physics and finally Chemistry. That's the order for the paper, you can exchange Physics and Chemistry while studying. Doing this ensures you have a balance (in most cases).

3) Don't study harder, but study smarter. Keeping the above point in mind, when studying one subject, do the things you like first. Yes, you heard it right, I said first. People would advise you to do it the other way round, but my experience says that if you get to learn something new, and you find it interesting too, it boosts your confidence. It also increases the chance you'll get marks on that topic. You'll do the boring parts in the end anyway, you have to do it if you want to finish syllabus. That way you tend to remember only the important parts in the boring chapters/topics and so they don't take up much space in your brain. Thus, the part that interests you remains fresh.

4) Do not overstrain yourself. If you go to an institute after school, and reach home at about 9:00-9:30 p.m., do not study for more than an hour after that, however much syllabus you may have left. That extra time will not help you, but sleeping will.

5) Screw your school. Dump it, forget it, throw it away. Save the week before school exams for school study. Do not touch the school books otherwise.(Of course, NCERT is the book that IIT follows too, so look it up if you have any confusions regarding any topic)

6) Do not buy too many books. This is a mistake I and many other dudes out there commit. One book is definitely not enough, many have mistakes, and different books are famous for different topics. My answer to this is, either get hold of a good teacher, or a decent internet connection. A good teacher or an internet connection will help you out in your studies, and can become an authentic source of info. 1-2 books, combined with institute study material should be enough.

7) Get your doubts cleared well in time. If you pile 'em up, you'll never get the time to clarify them. Do not be afraid of a teacher, or do not be ashamed of asking anything in class. Do not think it will make you look stupid. Ask every single thing you have a doubt in.

8) Don't leave questions in between, or discard 'em if you somehow got the answer. You may have got the answer now, but you won't get the same question in the paper. It's the concept that matters; if that is clear, the answer doesn't matter. Also, if you know how to do the question and the conecpt used, do it till completion, until you get the answer. That way you get to know of common errors.

9) Give practice tests, and solve previous years questions. Doing this gives you an idea of how things work, and how to eliminate options in an objective exam. For example, in some questions, it is quite clear that the answer cannot be 'none of these', or 0 or 1, etc. Or in some questions, in Maths and Physics, you can reverse engineer questions, like put the option values in questions, or likewise. These tricks only come to you with practice, and if you develop a habit to look at a question from different angles.

10) Remember, the paper is designed in a way, so that nobody is able to complete the paper. Do not try to guess lamely in a paper, the consequences will be disastrous. Try to do fewer questions correctly, rather than more questions incorrectly. Spend more time on questions on which you get stuck, but have a feeling that you know how to solve it. There is a fair chance that you'll get the answer.

11) Do not leave any question that you have not tried to solve. There may be questions that may seem monstrously difficult or complex, but if you try to think hard, most of the details are given to confuse you. So try to apply the basic law/definition you know related to that topic, and try to build up that question yourself. Maybe you'll get a clue, or a shortcut to the answer.

12) Finally, remember that IIT is not the end of the world. Most popular and rich guys have not passed out from IIT. That'll make you feel better, and make you take the whole thing in a lighter spirit rather than being tensed all the time.