Students’ Speak: Dream big, stay positive, work hard and enjoy the journey

By: Donika Juthani

The students can be divided into two categories, one category includes students who are in class 12th and the other includes students who have dropped a year. To be honest, class 12th students should be studying for JEE Mains in a way that drop is not required at all because if you study with the mentality that you will take a drop year and study later, your morale will decrease and performance will reduce too. But after getting the not satisfactory results of JEE Mains, you should consider whether to take a year drop or not.

Don’t curse yourself

Let’s first talk about the students who have already taken a year drop and still did not perform well. I would not recommend you to take a year drop. This is because the first time you had a fair chance and that time you studied for 12th boards and could not prepare well for JEE Mains. But after the drop, you had a full year to just prepare for JEE. In spite of this, if your result did not turn out as expected, give a chance at other examinations like BITSAT, VIT, Manipal, RVCE, and Thapar University, etc.

There is no need to get depressed and curse yourself for not performing well. There is only one percent of dropper students who can do well. Maybe you have different talents like digital marketing or investment banking or acting, singing, dancing and you will explore this once you enter the college. So, there is no need to worry, try every examination because the third attempt might be a waste of time.

If you are a class 12th student, you might lie in one of the following two categories - students aiming for IITs, NITs, BITS, IIITs, NSIT and students seeking admission in Manipal, VIT, Thapar, and RVCE, etc. Now, these students should consider the following and then decide for themselves.

• Myths
• Taking a drop year will land you into a good college
• Taking a drop year will increase your performance and you will get a good rank.
• Reasons to drop: First of all, ask yourself why you want to take a year off.

Your reason might be one or more than one from the following:

• Family pressure
• To prove yourself
• Ego
• Prove society
• Did not get admission in a good branch in esteemed colleges of the country
• Had already planned to devote 11th and 12th for CBSE Boards and then take a year to prepare for JEE.
• Want an IIT tag.

In my opinion, take a drop only if your main reason is one of the 2nd point or 6th or both.

• Reasons for failure: What is the reason for getting a low rank? If you cannot think of reasons, taking a drop might not be worth at all. Consider the following reasons:
• Addiction to cell phone
• Relationships
• Family matters
• Bad routine
• Low attendance and irregular schedule
• No time management between CBSE and JEE
• Weakness is one subject.
• Strength in only one subject
• Nervousness during exam
• Addiction to video games  

If you can avoid all the above reasons, only then think of dropping a year.

• Coaching: Is coaching necessary or not?

The answer is yes. You need regularity. Just sitting at home and studying by yourself might bore you and you might not understand the speed of covering the portion. Tests at coaching will help you with the same. You can leave out the classes for the topics which you have a good grip on, but never miss the tests. You will be able to revise weak topics and also maintain your rhythm

• Criticism: You will get a lot of criticism mainly from home and society. There will be a lot of remarks and comments regarding your decision. Don’t let this demotivate you. Don’t let all this affect your confidence. If other peoples’ remarks affect you deeply and you spiral into self-doubt, dropping a year might not be a good idea for you because many students let the criticism affect them leading to lack of confidence and enthusiasm which eventually leads to an unsatisfactory result.
• One Book: The idea here is to do smart work and concentrate on one book per subject. Take your coaching material or one good book and there will be no need for a huge pile of books. Studying one book 10 times is better than studying 10 books one time.
• All Subjects (PCM): For a good rank, all three subjects should be prepared at the same level. Even if one subject is weak, your performance will reduce and your rank will be affected significantly.

Don’t waste your year

There may be many students who are willing to go for government jobs. These students should reconsider their decision about taking a year drop. Many students think that getting into an engineering college before applying for government jobs would be a good option because they might have a backup. Such students should not think about wasting a year preparing for getting into an engineering college when your main aim is to get into a government job. So, just take admission into any college you get and concentrate on government job examination. Decent hard work will help you get decent placements once you get into a good stream (CS, IT, ECE) in an average college.

There may be students who only want to get into an IIT. Now, if you get a good branch in colleges such as NITs, NSIT, DTU, BITs, there is no significant gain if you drop a year and aim for IIT. All the big guns such as Microsoft, Google, Goldman Sachs, and Amazon, etc. come come for campus placements in these colleges. Even if you plan to do M.Tech or MBA, it would hardly make any difference. If you decide to study abroad, your tag of IIT will surely help a lot. However, if you have potential, you will be able to grab a good placement even from a small college. IITs are better but for the streams like CS, IT, ECE, it doesn’t make much difference.

If you are branch-specific, consider the above reasons and judge for yourself whether taking a drop is worth it or not. Even if you get in core engineering (chemical, mechanical) streams in top colleges, you will be able to grab good placements. You need to compare the benefits and disadvantages of losing a year.

Consider non-engineering fields

If there is no option left and you are not getting admission in any college, consider the non-engineering fields such as BSc, teaching, etc. There is no need to lose hope because there are many things you can do in your life. JEE is just an examination and there are many more to come. Taking risks is necessary. If you want to stand out from the crowd, you need to take risks. If there is an 80 percent chance of failing and a 20% chance of succeeding, take that risk because only those people are successful in life. The majority of people do not wish to take risks and remain in their comfort zone. This will definitely not lead you where you want to be. If you do well after taking a year drop, your confidence will reach cloud nine. After that, even if you fail again in life, you will have the confidence of gathering yourself up and try again.

Avoid distractions

You will have to leave behind some distractions such as social media. The main reason behind this is that your friends who might be in good colleges would be posting about their colourful lives in college which will demotivate you, make you doubt your decision and depress you. Use your Instagram to follow the motivational pages that post good quotes. These will keep you inspired. Make your own small world where you won’t be affected by what your friends are doing.

Give yourself one hour every day and do something you like- it could be cycling, walking, sports, etc. Physical activities would help your body. You wouldn’t get bored with studying and the whole year would pass effectively. At each point of time, you should constantly remind yourself of the reasons for taking drop otherwise your enthusiasm will die. You obviously wouldn’t want to bore yourself but also keep the distractions in check. Your morale should not break. You could use social media for your benefit if it pleases you. YouTube is an unlimited source of knowledge but at the same time, it is also a huge distraction. Limit yourself and control yourself if you are willing to take a year drop.

About the Author:

Donika Juthani is an experienced team leader and ML enthusiast. Skilled in Python, HTML, CSS, and MySQL, she is a student of B.Tech in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) at Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology (DAI-ICT) and also, a member of the Programming Club.