Although it has been more than five years since I went thru the horrors of JEE, the entire phase of preparing and appearing in the dreaded exam is something I have not been able to shrug off from memory. Well, JEE probably is one of the ’’Great Indian Middle Class’’ Aspiration Barriers and for people aware of the other side of the pasture, like yours truly, A Big Myth too.
But both ways, it’s an experience worth going thru.
For beginers, I will not elaborate on the fundamentals of the process, for that go to any IIT website and check it out yourself. On tackling the exam part, there have been few great reviews on this forum, one mentionably from my hostel senior@IIT M , Vyom.
What I am going to say is somewhat different:
1. The Exam: There have been a gradual change in the focus of the profs regarding the kind of intake they want. Hence, nowadays you have two papers (the high scoring objective one made ’’Screening Paper ’’, this again after reports that many times people scored much more in Objective than Subjective part in the combined paper that we used to have and hence the kind of application that the profs demanded was seen lacking). Even now, the Screening Paper has undergone a lot of change. I for one, saw my brothers paper and saw there were hardly any ’’ direct calculation’’ type questions and most questions must have forced people to scratch their heads.
The subjective ’’Mains’’ Exam too has been completely revamped. No more ’’Fruit’’ questions (the sitters in IIT lingo) which essentially eliminated non serious guys. Time management and speed , big time key with around 20 Qs in 2 Hrs.
The Papers: Physics: I had gone thru my bro’s Mains paper (JEE 2003) and noticed a big time shift. There were Qs (and many in no) from topics junta hardly focussed. Lot of modern physics, Optics (esp Wave), EM theory; far away from conventional myth of Mechanics + Electricity = 60 % theory that most coaching classes employ. So one thing very clear, Yes, JEE Physics nowadays tests more of Width and Span of Preparation than the Depth of Application , gone are the days of 10 Qs in 3 Hrs when you slog to do 4-5 correctly and feel you?re safe. Now you need not do all of Irodov , however covering of width very important. The formula is Have Speed, Cover Everything and Do as much as Possible.
Chemistry : The dew and honey for many a top rankers, this subject is supposedly the easiest of lot and very scoring too. Even in new pattern, it still is, most crucial among them being those innumerable Reactions of Organic and Non-organic , mechanisms and simple reactions included. These cover about 40% weightage and cracking them is never very difficult. For gen preparation O P Agarwal and physical chemistry, R C Mukherjee is definitely helpful.
Mathematics: Presently the most difficult subject of the three. The reason is that profs have noticed people clearing JEE, and then in IIT doing horribly in Maths in first year and later in department courses. There has been a gradual recognition that this subject is what differentiates an IIT?ian from any other Engineering Graduate and hence over the years Maths has grown in difficulty level and Physics has become easier. Again, I feel most crucial are Calculus and Co-ordinate Geometry, most difficult as well as scoring and still covers more than 60% of the paper.
All said and done, the basic rules still apply:
1. Move over to the next question within 2 mins if you haven?t formulated more than one equation in the problem.
The paper will still consist 20% Easy, 60% Medium Difficult and 20% Very Difficult problems. Make sure you identify and do the 20% easy part in initial half an hour.
Read the problem atleast twice before attempting it, there will mostly be one or two catch words which will entirely differentiate the problem from the example you solved the day before.
Very Very important, have a good nights sleep the day before exam.
Best of luck to all of you attempting JEE 2005.