By Priya Chatterjee

April 8th 2012 will see about five lakh engineering aspirants write the IIT JEE. The first paper will take place from 9am till 12 noon and the second one from 2pm to 5pm. With less than a week left for the exam, students are walking a tight rope with preparations on one side and stress on the other. With the tension at the moment is soaring to an all time high with each passing day, the students must not lose their cool.

Here are few tips to help you be a success in the exam:

• Strengthen your basics as a good foundation is a must for such an exam
• Course planning is a must. Shortlist the topics and rate them in order of importance
• Time management is also a major requisite and mock papers help in building them
• Course must be done with at least one month before the exam.
• Revise again and again with chief focus on your weak areas.
• Attempt enough mock-tests and previous year's papers to judge your performance

During the exam remember to do the following:

• Read the questions carefully.
• Don't be excited if the paper seems easy and don't be depressed if you find it difficult.
• Never jump from one question to another in hurry. Address one question carefully before moving to the next one
• But divide your time wisely and don't spend too much time on one question

Our Expert Gautam Chatterjee, said that since both the entrances AIEEE and IIT-JEE have different patterns students must focus themselves first. Each of these patterns require certain amount of dedication and preparation. One must not take part in AIEEE after preparing for IIT-JEE and vice versa.

Since every student tries to give its best shot its not possible for every individual to get through. So it's important to know that if you don't get through or your scores are not that good for your dream stream you are open to two options. First, is to get enrolled in a different college and second is to drop a year and give it a second trial. Chatterjee said "Students must not waste time if they have not prepared well, but if you have prepared well for AIEEE go for NITs. If you're focused and can handle pressure than you can take a year's drop and prepare for exam next year. Be clear in what you do and study for at least 6-8 hours".

While many are against the very notion of a single engineering entrance, Vikas Naidu, who has 21 years o experience in the IT industry, welcomed this idea stating that it will reduce lots of pressure from the students. In short, Prepare one and take one should be the ideal mantra as a single rank will decide the admission into a college. Chatterjee too said "Single entrance step is good since the candidate doesn't have to take numerous exams but will be slightly difficult for the average students since they will end up studying different attributes of different exams". While IITians feel its not going to make much difference as toppers will always opt for IITs and it will be better for students since there will be a single entrance.

As per the existing JEE rules, a student can attempt this examination twice, once when he is in class XII and again, a year later. But with the recent proposal of the Ministry of Human Resource Development to have a common entrance examination for all IITs, National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and Indian Institute of Science, this might change. The IIT council has proposed that a weightage of 40 per cent be given to class XII marks, and has recommended that students be evaluated with questions on aptitude, comprehension and critical thinking and advanced examination, in addition to physics, mathematics and chemistry.

The recent announcement made by Kapil Sibal on giving a full proof preference to class 12th marks in entrances, Chatterjee said that it is a crucial step as more students will start going to schools and will not take school curriculum lightly. It was more beneficial for the coaching classes as more and more students were giving them more preference over the class room study. Naidu added that Class 12th marks must be given due weightage as students don't focus on their boards and devote their entire energy on the entrances. But for obtaining a job one must have a good result in their boards so students are being misled by the institutes. It will be a great step for the students and it will be in the favour of the quality of the students.

Forget about all the strategies, just keep your cool and get set for the exam.

Mr Gautam Chatterjee is an ex-IAF officer of aeronautical engineering branch and has the Vice Principal of GRK Institute of Science & technology and Head of ECE department of GLA Engineering college. Presently he is the Director of Oriental group.

Mr Vikas Naidu, with over 21 years of experience in the IT domain is currently the Director of Professional Group of Institutes.

Other interesting reads:

- Is the merging of IIT-JEE and AIEEE good for students?

- IITs want to reengineer new test format