Students’ Speak: 4 steps to scoring 300+ in JEE Main

By: Abhishek Desai

With JEE Main exam approaching, here are few tips that could help you grab a chance to score over 300 marks in JEE Main through an extensive one-month preparation period.

• The right study material: A big dilemma in a student's mind is about which books are necessary for an exam. Most aspirants have little idea of the requisite books and notes, so they tend to purchase a large load of vague study materials that never get finished due to their sheer excessiveness.

However, most students eventually end up realizing that they never needed a huge collection of books. A major myth is that JEE Mains and Advanced are very difficult exams, so they will need a variety of books. However, while Mains is a strategic competitive exam, Advanced is more of a thinking-oriented; neither being a very difficult exam.

This means that you shouldn't waste your time by taking hours to solve one small but difficult book; especially for JEE Mains. Instead, plan your study time to allow maximum 'types' of questions to get covered with good efficiency, so that, for any type of question that would appear in the JEE Mains paper, you would be ready. Unlike JEE Advanced, Mains has only a specific number of types of questions that may be asked. So, you very well can master them using a small selection of books and solving test papers.

• Focus on exam pattern: From this year on, the pattern of JEE Main has been changed from 30 single answer type MCQs per subject to just 20 single answers MCQs +5 decimal answer types. So the students have a natural fear of these numerical answer types since there is very little opportunity to guess your answer with such tough questions. But, students actually have a benefit with these kinds of sums due to the lack of a brutal negative marking scheme, and as this is the first year with such a difficult pattern, the questions would be comparatively easier.
• Areas to focus on: Although there is no specific percentage of chapters JEE Mains would question exclusively high upon, there are a few very scoring chapters that should certainly not be missed. In Physic it is Thermodynamics, Ray Optics, Modern Physics and Units and Measurements while in Physical Chemistry it is Thermodynamics and Thermochemistry, Chemical Equilibrium and Chemical Kinetics. For Math, study P&C, Probability, and Binomial. However, nowadays, Vector-3D and Conic sections have also been a good source of questions. Calculus comprises of a bit tougher questions.

Nonetheless, don’t rely solely on these stats, as they are just predictions using previous year papers and the combination of chapters could change in 2020.

• Revision strategy for JEE Main: At this juncture, the best kind of revision one can do is solving sample papers of the modern type within three hours. This helps greatly in informing you about which concepts one tends to commit more silly mistakes in, and which concepts need a bit more clarity and refinement.

These concepts can be revised using the books aforementioned. This doesn’t apply for Inorganic, and partly, Organic though because after solving and revising at least two papers daily, your work is to revise Inorganic-Organic for an hour or two.

Do not forget to revise these subjects for at least an hour, using NCERT and your coaching notes; this will become a good habit for you in no time, and these memory-oriented parts will become like an unforgettable jingle.

About the Author:

Abhishek Desai is currently pursuing Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) in e-Business from Welingkar Institute of Management. He has done his Summer Internship in the field of Market Research with 'TimesofMoney'. He's also served as 'Secretary of the Green Committee' at Welingkar.