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Hi Guys!
This is Mayank Kumar. I appeared for my class 12th
examinations in 2003 and qualified the JEE exam in the same year, with AIR 27.
I took admission in the Computer Science and Engineering Course at IIT Delhi,
and passed out in 2007, that is last year. Currently, I’m working as a
programmer with Microsoft, Hyderabad.
In this article, I would like to share with you my experiences when I was at
your stage, preparing for IIT.
Most of my emphasis during preparation was on self-study.
Although I attended one of the best institutes at the time for coaching classes,
I still feel that much of my success can be attributed to the extensive
self-study that I used to do. Of course, coaching classes did help too. My
favorite subject was physics and I read some real good books in this subject: I
remember studying a lot from Resnick-Halliday and doing problems from Irodov. I
got really good marks in physics as a result. I never used to study much of
Chemistry :-)
and I guess that’s the reason my marks in Chemistry were at best average. I
would urge you not to make the same mistake: give all the three subjects equal importance.
I would not like to go into the details of what the best
strategy is to prepare for JEE. I understand that it has already been covered
extensively on this site and I fully agree with the proposed strategy/books.
For those you who still have a year to go, if you rigorously follow the plans
outlined in the articles related to preparation on this site, you will have a
pretty good chance of succeeding with good ranks.
The last few days before the exam were a bit tense! I used
to think a lot about the result. I guess that it is natural. But it is best not
to let the expectations get to your head. They do not contribute positively in
any way. A certain level of tension cannot be avoided. You’d have to be
super-human to do so! :-)
The best strategy for the last few days is to keep in touch
with your syllabus as much as possible through practice of questions. The
litmus test for your preparation should be the previous years’ JEE questions.
If you are able to solve a majority correctly, you can rest assured that your
preparation is pretty good. Also, do as much practice question papers as
possible from any good sources available. In the last few days, you cannot
expect to cover the whole syllabus in its entirety again. The best you can do
is to find out where you are weak by solving questions, and then working on
those parts.
So, I guess that is all I have to say from my side. You can
post questions for me on the website’s forums if you want to; I’ll be happy to
answer them. One thing I’d like to add before signing off: do not let JEE
become a life-or-death question, because it is not so. Every year, thousands
get into IIT, but lacs don’t. Although it is good if one gets into IIT, it is
definitely not the end of the road if one doesn’t. Do you know that Bill Gates
is a college drop-out? What good do you think did college education do him? Not
much, I’d say. Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple, is again a college dropout.
Lakshmi Mittal was not from an IIT. There are endless examples. One’s fate is
decided by one’s will, determination, and talent, and not by which college he
studies in, not by how good he performs on some exam called the JEE one fine
day!
Best of luck!
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