IIT-JEE

Many students have a deep rooted feeling that they do not stand to succeed in IIT-JEE if they have not been doing extremely well in studies in Classts X to XII. IIT-JEE requires an analytical approach and it is quite different from normal studies. To have optimum success & avoid failing, one has to develop excellent temperament besides knowledge of the subject and problem solving skills. Yesterday I met an IITian from IIT Roorkee who held a B. Tech (Industrial Engineering) degree and he said that to achieve this, one should follow the following guidelines:
• Be clear in your goal and have determination to achieve it. Always think of getting into IITs/other top Engineering Institutes. Develop your own plan to produce desired results.
• Do not dilute preparation of any topic because of any factor etc. Unlike school/board exams you cannot score in IIT-JEE without reaching a certain level of proficiency.
• Mere understanding of a concept is not adequate. You have to learn to apply these concepts in solving tricky problems. Problems in IIT-JEE are not direct application of a single concept. Many IIT-JEE problems involve more than one basic concept.
• Develop your analytical skills. Do not give up solving a problem after one or two attempts only. It is only by doing and trying to do difficult problems that you can improve your analytical skills.
• You have to optimally use the time available upto IIT-JEE. This would also mean realignment of your extra curricular and sports activities etc. Realise that the time available in a day is still the same.
• There is no dearth of books and problems available. A.C. Verma can be your one choice. One has to draw boundaries and concentrate on quality rather than quantity. It is possible to prepare a topic by doing 30-40 problems only, if you try to solve them completely by yourself. This may involve devoting half an hour or one hour or may be even more on a tricky problem.
• Carefully revise concepts and again solve those stumbling block problems you faced during your preparation.
• Take several tests in right environment. Join a good coaching institute. A good and authentic institute may not charge you more than Rs.10,000.00. These are a must to convert your knowledge & skills into marks. This alone will make a difference between success & failure, a good rank & a bad rank. On the other hand your preparation can be very weak and hollow even if you have attempted more than 200 problems on the same topic in the same time, thereby devoting much less time on difficult problems and leaving them as doubts to be cleared from your teachers.