How to balance XII Board Exams and JEE Main 2017 Prep

The board exam would commence sometime in the month of March, 2017. And soon after its over, many of the Class XII students will be taking up the JEE(Joint Entrance Examination) Main in April 2017. The exam dates for JEE Main 2017 was released recently.

At this stage, many students would be anxious about how to maintain a balance between their Board exams along with their JEE preparation. After training a large bunch of students each year for these examinations for many years, Ramesh Batlish, FIITJEE expert, would like to share some of the things that would help the students optimize their performance in both the examinations.

Given below are some such tips which may help students to prepare for both the exams simultaneously.

1. Prepare without losing Tempo: While the students are preparing for two distinct examinations, the good thing is that the syllabi and the paper setting authorities are common. The JEE main examination paper as well as the CBSE Board paper both are set by the CBSE. Sometimes considering the proximity of the Boards, students tend to exclusively focus on the board type questions and start losing touch with the IIT JEE type questions. However, one must understand that if one is preparing for IIT JEE, one is automatically preparing for the Boards. The focus should be on understanding the concepts rather than mugging them up. The Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics remain the same, if one has a thorough understanding of the subject, one should be comfortably able to answer the questions in both types of examinations. One should continue to take JEE type mock tests even during this period. In fact I am aware of some students who take JEE type tests even during the preparatory holidays between the two Board Exams and they do exceedingly well in both the exams.

2. Attempt a lot of Mock Tests and Clarify all Doubts: There is a famous saying that “if you want to succeed, double your failure rate”. The essence of the statement in the context of exams is that the students should not be scared of trying new problems. The more problems we are exposed to before the actual exam, the more is the likelihood that we would get it right if a similar problem was asked in the actual exam. Sometimes, students are scared of taking mock tests thinking that they might not do well and may start feeling less confident due to a low score in the mock test. However, it is important to understand that not taking the mock tests test is not the solution. A test only exposes our weak points. Rather than avoiding the mock tests, it is important to ensure that if we don’t get a certain problem right in a mock test; we must clarify it as soon as possible. A mock test is the compass which tells us exactly what we need to focus on.

3. Give special emphasis to the exclusive Board type questions: There are certain sub-topics in various subjects which generally get more weightage in the Boards because the questions are subjective type. There are also some topics which are part of JEE Main but not part of the Advance exam which some students tend to ignore during their preparation. For example in physics the chapters on Semiconductor Devices, Communications Systems and Electromagnetic Waves are parts of JEE Main and the Board exam but not part of the Advance Exam. Students should carefully study these chapters along with the Questions from the Sample papers so that they can comfortably handle descriptive questions from these chapters.

A good source to prepare these chapters would be an Archive of JEE Main/AIEEE questions of the previous years for JEE Main along with a good collection of Sample Papers for Board.

4. Communicate clearly in the Board Type Exams: While the Board exam as well as the JEE Main paper, both are set by CBSE, the approach required for attempting the exams is entirely different. A JEE exam is an objective type exam where it is not important to go through the steps of calculation, one may do all the calculations in one’s head or just some rough scribbling in the question paper. All that matters is that you tick the right option. It does not matter, whether you do it by elimination of other options, or use any other trick. However, in Boards there is step marking and your working out of the intermediate steps is as important as getting the final answer correct. In our experience some extremely bright students tend to lose the marks in Board type examinations not because of their lack of knowledge, but only because of their poor presentation and skipping the steps/ doing the intermediate steps in their head or just scribbling around in the margins.

Start preparing for JEE Main 2017 with this month wise study plan

5. Learn for Board from the writing style of the toppers: Previous years’ toppers answer sheets can be found on the internet for all the subjects by simply googling “best answer sheets”. In fact we have tried to analyse some of the best evaluated answer sheets and what we find that it is not that the student who secured the best marks displayed an extraordinary understanding of the subject. What is important is to write to the point and do a neat and clean work. Try to visualize or put yourself in the position of a teacher who is assigned with the task of evaluating hundreds of answer scripts. What happens when such a teacher comes across an answer script which has a neat and clean work? The first impression is that this must be a good student and accordingly it does in a way influence the examiner’s evaluation of the answer script. Contrast this with the situation when the examiner comes across a shabbily written answer script with calculations scribbled all along the margins, inaccurate free hand diagrams made with a pen, and he has to search for the final answer amidst all the scribbling. It does put a negative impression on the evaluator.

In fact on some of the best evaluated answers sheets our observations are that:

1. The answer script was written with double spacing between the lines
2. The final answer to all the Numerical Questions was put in a rectangular box (so that evaluator may not have to search for it).
3. Units were clearly mentioned along with any numerical physical data.
4. All the diagrams were made with a sharp pencil, using a scale and compass.
5. Wherever algebraic symbols were used they were explained.
6. Wherever there was an error it was neatly crossed with two lines without any ambiguity.

6. The Good , The Bad , The Ugly – The Examination Temperament: For the JEE Examination, what really matters in not how much we know, rather what matters is that how much are we able to deliver in those three hours of the examination. Many students make the mistake of attempting the questions sequentially and finding that there is not enough time left to attempt the questions that they otherwise knew how to do. One must remember that JEE is a low scoring exam. Scoring even as low as 60% marks will get a student an excellent rank. Rather than aiming at solving all the questions, the aim should be to attempt all the questions that you are confident of doing correctly. The best way to do this is to quickly scan the entire question paper and classify the questions in to three categories. The questions that you are sure of doing correctly, you may call them “Good questions” and the questions which seem too difficult/ confusing may be marked as “Ugly Questions”. There may still be some questions left over, about which you may not be sure, these questions may be called “Bad Questions”. Now plan first to attempt only the “Good Question”. This will take the time pressure off and you will be able to secure better marks despite attempting fewer questions. If you are able to finish these “Good Questions” well within time, you might like to try out some “Bad Questions” and maybe you would prefer to recheck your calculations for the “Good Questions”.

7. Stay Cool: It is important not to panic. Worry and Brooding have a negative effect on our ability to study and our test performance. The test should be written without any kind of tension or worry. Write the test like a “Buddha”, without any thought about past or future. As if the only thing that is present is the question, the answer and you!

8. Manage your time well: Time Management Strategy can differ from individual to individual however on an average, the effective attention span of a JEE aspirant is about 2 hours, so it is a good idea to take a small break after every two hours of continuous study session. Smaller study sessions should be avoided because every break in study session means about 10 minutes being spent as warm up time and about 10 minutes as cool down time. One must be selective about the problems one solves during the self study sessions. Do not spend too much time on solving same types of problems. Identify the problems that you intend to solve at the beginning of your session. Also make sure that you memorize all the important results so that you don’t waste the examination time in trying to derive these results. For the descriptive type of questions in Boards, the theory should be memorized as per the standard Sample Papers/ Test Books. Learn to write all necessary steps in desired sequence.

Prepare For JEE Main 2017 With Tips From Last Year's Topper