IIT-JEE: Cracking the success code

You have burnt the midnight oil to prepare for this one crucial exam to realise your engineering dreams. What does it take to succeed in the test? Experts share their strategies. 

A childhood dream nurtured by ambitious parents for some or an entire year after school completely dedicated to preparing for one test for some others. Ultimately it all boils down to one day — April 8, 2012, when the IIT-JEE is slated for.

Being the last year, the IIT-JEE continues to be as elusive and no one can really predict about. “There are no patterns that can be traced in JEE. No question is ever repeated,” says R. Gurumurthy, who trains students for the JEE exam. “However, since it is likely that the exam would be scrapped from the next year, there is high probability that there will not be any radical change introduced this year. The pattern is expected to remain the same.”

It is quite common to find students who have worked hard lose their cool in the last few days approaching the exam but students who have cracked the exam say it is important to remain clam. “JEE is about the concentrated effort you have put in over two years. There is not much that can be done in the days running up to the exam. So it is better that students read those areas they are thorough with. This can boost your confidence,” says Chandranshu Nanda, a second-year student of IIT-Madras.

The last few days can be effectively spent by working out question papers of previous years and answering test series in a simulated timed environment. It will also help in better time management during the examination, say trainers.

“When students write the exam it is important to go through the entire question paper once. If you cannot crack a question beyond four minutes, move on. Instead you can spend the remaining time effectively in answering other questions,” says Mayank N.K. Choudhary, a student of Biotechnlogy.

Over the last four or five years, it has been noticed that there was an emphasis on the Class XII portions. “Don't ignore the portions in the board exams while preparing for JEE,” says Nishanth Tipathy, centre co-ordincator, Kilpauk branch, FIIT-JEE. “The weightage for Class XII topics such as modern physics, increased from the earlier four per cent to 10 per cent. Similarly, in organic chemistry the NCERT textbook is considered the Bible,” he says.

In an attempt to increase transparency of the examination and to make it student-friendly certain measures are being taken. “This year we are giving students two pages in the ORS answer sheet. Instead of pencil, students should use a pen. They can take home the second carbonated copy,” says Arindam, chariman, IIT-JEE 2012. “There were too many RTIs filed for the answer sheets. The answers will be uploaded on the website shortly after the examination, and students can cross-check their answers,” he adds.

All said, it zeroes down to the performance of a student in those six hours. “Even that two-hour break between the two papers is crucial. There should be enough enthusiasm when we go for the second paper, even if paper-1 was tough. Often when we chat with others who might have found the exam easy, we lose our cool and end up faring poorly in the second paper too,” says Chandranshu Nanda.

Mayank agrees. “The whole environment is really tensed and I didn't want it to psyche me out. I listened to music for an hour, had lunch and walked around. After all, there is more to life than JEE.”