Cracking jee is tricky, not very tough

Immediately after finishing Intermediate examinations by Tuesday, the students of MPC stream, the engineering aspirants, plunged into IIT JEE Main, scheduled for April 7. The stress levels hit the roof, as they are the first batch to take the changed single national-level A entrance examination, called the Indian Science Engineering A Eligibility Test (ISEET), to replace IIT-JEE and AIEEE. Here comes help from Ramesh Batlish, FIITJEE expert, in comprehending ways to crack the most crucial exam that opens gates to the most A prestigious Indian Institutes for Technology (IIT) and National A Institutes of Technology (NIT) For students aspiring to enter a prestigious engineering college, this is inarguably the most crucial time of the year. With less than two weeks to go for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) -Mains, aspirants are now entering the final lap of their preparations. Nervousness, anxiety and tension are bound to be high as young students go through repeated rounds of mock tests to gauge their levels of readiness. JEE is a tough nut to crack given the sheer magnitude of competition that it entails, and the students know this. The test formerly known as AIEEE opens the way for entrance to the prestigious Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs), 30 National Institutes of Technology (NITs), Indian Institutes of Information Technology and Management (IIITM), and engineering colleges of several other Universities and institutions. Competition may be cut-throat but the students who ultimately make it to the selected category are the ones with the clearest concepts and two years of organised and dedicated preparation. Equally important for an aspirant is appropriate study material. The students need to approach every set of problems differently and with a separate methodology. Regular practice makes a student confident to tackle the problems. Speed and Accuracy is the key to success.

This year, a record 14 lakh students have enrolled for the exam. The registration not only touched the highest ever figure till date, it also saw a jump of nearly 2.8 lakh enrolments as against last year when 11.2 lakh had registered. According to general analysis, about 25% questions in the examination paper are easy, 50% are average and 25% difficult. Last year, the JEE (Mains) Mathematics and Physics sections were definitely difficult as compared to JEE (Mains) 2011. Chemistry was relatively simple.

How to go about solving a problem - Try conventional methods first. - If they don't work out, try to understand the problem again and find clues that can lead you to solution. - Go through the concepts related to the problem once again and see how they can be applied to the problem at hand. - Practice similar problems. Doing 100 quality and concepts based questions is more important than doing 1000 questions, which have not been selected carefully. - Devise your own shortcuts and ways to tackle particular kind of problems.

Last Lap before JEE (Mains) Since it is only two weeks to go, the aspirants must revise all the formulas and the important points rather than studying new topics. One must study all three subjects daily. Here is a step-by-step guideline for what aspirants must do in the last two weeks - Make a note of important points. - Make a Time-table for the coming twelve days to revise your syllabus. Time table must be developed in such a way that you give maximum time to your strengths. Say, if you are strong in Physics, for example in Electrostatics then revise electrostatics, giving enough time to it so that you are sure and confident of every concept of it. If you are not thorough in Modern physics, then only revise whatever topics you have studied. Don't study anything new in the last week. - Cover your syllabus within next 7 days. Now you have to revise your syllabus once. - Take a few Mock Tests to check your Speed and Accuracy. - Identify the Gaps/ Problem areas i.e. where you are wasting your maximum time. Try to analyse where you are making mistakes, which section you are doing best.

A Day before the JEE (Mains): - Do not study anything. You need to stay calm, confident and trust yourself. - Tell yourself that you are excited about JEE (Mains) and that you can crack it easily. - Relax or indulge in meditation to soothe your nerves. - Don't ask your friends how much they have studied. You do not need unnecessary pressure on the penultimate day. - Have a sound sleep for at least 6-7 hours before going for the exam. The most important requirement for cracking JEE is clarity of concepts and regular practice in problem solving. The examination is not difficult, but tricky, and hence its questions do have a need of being tackled with different tactics and perspectives. Both speed and strike rate matter. You need to be quick and accurate to achieve high scores. High speed with less accuracy can actually ruin your results. While preparation counts, of importance also is selecting your questions wisely and not panicking while attempting the paper. If you solve easy and average questions correctly, you can easily get through. You may attempt difficult ones to make merit.

The exam is scheduled for April 7, when the offline test will be conducted, and students will appear for the online version from April 8 to April 25. An Expert tip Always attempt theoretical questions first and then questions which require calculation. Its human nature that if you attempt a few confident questions in the beginning then you feel loaded with positive energy which increases your efficiency and speed for the rest of the paper. It is advisable to avoid numerical questions in the first 10 or 15 minutes of the exam.