JEE Main Prep: “ Focus more on practicals than theory”, suggests 2017 topper Anany Sharma

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Updated on Aug 16, 2018 18:36 IST

In an interview with Shiksha, Anany Sharma shares tips and tricks that future JEE Main aspirants should keep in mind to crack the exam. Read full interview on Shiksha.

Anany Sharma cracked JEE Main 2017 with an AIR (All India Rank) 10. He is currently pursue his BTech in CSE (Computer Science Engineering) from IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) Kanpur and wants to become a good software engineer and an animator in the future.

His score in JEE Advanced was – Physics: 92, Chemistry: 96 and Mathematics: 112 while that in JEE Main was – Physics: 115, Chemistry: 110 and Mathematics: 115. According to Anany, his success mantra that helped him pave his way to success, was his focus on the practical part of the syllabus than the theoretical part. Rather than studying and mugging up topics and portions, he laid more emphasis on solving as many questions as he could. He suggests that students – on the D Day – should avoid any thoughts of underperformance and be confident.

In an interview with Shiksha, Anany Sharma shares tips and tricks that future JEE Main aspirants should keep in mind to crack the exam.

Q. According to you, what is the minimum time frame needed to prepare well for JEE Main? How long did you prepare for it?

After you are fully prepped for the board exams, just a final touch-up involving higher numerical skills in chapters shared by JEE Advanced and Mains and thorough revision of chapters exclusive to mains. I believe 3 weeks is more than enough for it. I managed it in 15 days.

Q. What was your preparation strategy that helped you crack the exam?

Preparation strategy, I believe is quite individual oriented. For example, I used to study at night, someone else might not. My strategy was first mastering my hand at theory and then questions in opposition to the general convention of going through both of them side by side. Moreover, I placed more emphasis on chapters from which questions are frequently asked as a priority and once I was good at them did I divert my attention to the less frequently asked ones. Also, I had a criterion of level of involvement of mathematics; I did topics involving more mathematics first.

Q. Is it necessary to join a coaching institute or is self-study good enough?

This is more of a question of your aim. If you aim for rank up to 500, you can do it without any coaching institute. Just judicious usage of your resources and time needed, is enough for it. However, the two problems you face without a coaching institute are lack of exposure to new problems as well as a lack of a place where you can solve your doubts. And even the competition level from peers. These, I believe is necessary for a rank above 500. But lastly, It is all about how much efforts you have put on yourself.

Q. How did you divide your time between chapters/section? How much time did you spend on revision?

As I have pre-stated. I spent more time on more mathematical and more frequently asked questions. I spent around 3 months on my revision.

Q. How did you improve your weak areas? How did you deal with strengths and weaknesses?

I always initially became confident on my theoretical clarity by reading theory and more of it till I was confident no loop hole was left. Then solve questions on it. If I was not able to do them, I would take a hint from my instructors and then if I was not able to solve it, I would ask for the solution and find a similar problem somewhere else and do it.

Strengths have to be nurtured too while taking care of weaknesses. Practice less on strengths and more on weakness till every topic is on the same level.

Q. Please recommend some study material/ reference books to JEE Main aspirants.

Study materials are not that important as is your level of attention and deduction. However I suggest that the study material of any one coaching institute as well as NCERT should be completed thoroughly.

Q. Can you share 5 top tips to crack JEE Main and JEE Advanced?

Leave a question if you have the slightest intuition of you not getting to the answer
Start with Chemistry
Make sure you mark every non-negative marking question.
Take a chance wherever you can, I suggest do all single option correct questions
Try not to have thoughts of uncertainties to be in your head, and drink water whenever you feel so.

Q. What are the mistakes one should avoid while preparing for the exam?

The biggest mistake is being satisfied at a lower level of performance. You may feel very intelligent at defeating your friend but your competition is with yourself at the very last. Moreover, infatuation with a topic is also devastating, every topic has to be looked after.

Q. Any advice to manage time while appearing for the exam?

As said before, Chemistry should be done first as well as a question should be left if you have an intuition of not reaching the answer.

Q. According to you, which was the most difficult section of JEE Main and JEE Advanced?

For me, most difficult part of my exam was Chemistry in Advanced and Mathematics in JEE Mains.

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