Students’ Speak: Here’s why you should not be disappointed from your JEE Mains score

By: Donika Juthani

Once you get into a college, the opportunities are endless. You can get wherever you wanted to be, even from non-IIT colleges, if you work with the right attitude and in the right direction. You can further study for CAT examination and get into IIMs who give windfall of money. All you have to decide is whether you really want to pursue engineering or not.

Getting an IIT-tag is not everything. Students appearing for JEE Mains are always in a dilemma if their score is lower than they expected or what they had thought would get them admission into the top technical colleges in the country or not.

Some of the questions that bother them are:

• Career: What would happen to my career if don’t get admission to a good college because of a low rank? What other career options do I have? Will my parents approve of other career options?
• Family: What will my parents think of me because of my low rank? Will my parents doubt my capabilities?
• Expectation: Why are my marks not up to my and/or my parents’ expectations? What should I expect next?
• Society: What will others think of me? How come my friend who was not a topper got higher rank than me? Should I take admission in some local college?
• Life: What should I do in life? Why do bad things happen to me? Why did life treat me this way even after studying hard? What if I do not succeed in life?
• Goal: What would happen to my goal of becoming an engineer? Should I change my goal? Will my parents support my goal? How do I achieve my goal?

It is natural to have such thoughts. There is no need to worry and get into depression.

Talking about colleges, they can be classified as follows:

• Tier-I: Good IITs, Good NITs, Good IIITs, BITS, DTU, NSUT
• Tier-II: IIT, NIT, Manipal, PEC, Thapar, VIT Vellore, USIT, RVCE
• Tier III: others

There are two kinds of students who appear for the JEE Mains:

• Repeat: You don’t have the option of taking a drop. You’ll have to take admission into a college. Now, because of low rank, you may not get admission into IITs, NITs, IIITs, but there are still esteemed colleges like BITS that have their own entrance exam. Other such colleges are VIT and SRM. Do not forget to fill those forms. The main thing for you is to find your passion and think about why you decided to take PCM. If you have that cleared up, decide your stream and then work hard in the college.

Once you get into a college, the opportunities are endless. You can get wherever you wanted to be, even from non-IIT colleges, if you work with the right attitude and in the right direction. You can further study for CAT examination and get into IIMs who give windfall of money. All you have to decide is whether you really want to pursue engineering or not. Another option could be getting into civil services. If all you wanted was to get into an IIT, then after getting a B.Tech degree, give GATE examination and pursue M.Tech in top IITs. You can also prepare for GRE and take admission in a foreign college. Your dream has not shattered yet. All you are facing right now is just a minor injury. All you have to do is realize your mistakes and learn to rectify them by working hard in the future. Dream big. Don’t be afraid to take a step on a road not taken. Remember to understand while you study. If you just learn to get marks, you will never be able to get to the top.

• Class 12th students: You’ll have two options. Either take a drop or get into a college. Everything above applies to you too. Let’s talk about whether you should take a drop or not. Consider this fact - more than 95% repeaters do not get into IITs. If you decide to repeat, it is of immense importance than you know the reasons for your failure. It could one / more than one from the following:
• Lack of guidance
• Bad Teachers
• No notes
• No revision of notes
• Missed Classes
• Inconsistency
• Addiction to smartphone
• Relationships
• Family issue
• Health issue
• Lack of Time management

If you repeat any of the above reasons again in the drop year, you will tend to fail again with the probability of 97%.

“Success does not consist in never making mistakes but in never making the same one a second time.” --George Bernard Shaw

Majority of repeater students lose their enthusiasm with increasing time. They might suffer from anxiety which leads to poor performance, lack of focus and loss of track. To avoid all this, as soon as JEE Mains gets over, start preparing and see if you can study for 10-12 days regularly or not. If your momentum starts breaking in 15-25 days, then take admission in whatever college you get because taking a drop would do you no good. Another thing, get your reasons straight for taking a drop. It can be one or more from the following:

• Family pressure
• To get better opportunities
• To prove yourself
• Society Pressure
• Ego
• Preplanned
• You believe it’s not so hard
• Should not consider repeating
• Could take a year drop

If you do take a drop then go through the following points carefully:

• Coaching: It is definitely required for regularity. Join any coaching centre’s test series. Go to the class to polish your concepts. Sitting with more than 50 students in a class will give you a sense of competition. Hence, coaching will help in creating the right environment and giving you consistency.
• Criticism: This will definitely be there and not only from society but from your own parents too. Hence, you will have to be tough, confident, be clear with your approach and strategy of studying and have the determination to carry on with the flow, without being left out.

Time to see the big picture

If you get admission into any of the Tier-I colleges in a good branch, then taking a drop just for the IIT tag is not worth it. Average package and job will depend on an individual’s caliber and hence, instead of thinking about repeating, try working hard in the first year itself and build a good resume.

If you get CSE or IT in a tier II college, it is not good too. Some big companies like Goldman Sachs, Amazon, etc. do visit those colleges and again, it depends on your caliber.

There are many facets of questions that arise in students’ minds and it is very natural too. However, if you get lower streams like Biotech or Chemical Engineering, you might not get good opportunities.

Many colleges have the system of promoting a student into a higher branch based on first year’s performance. So try your best to get good results and get into CS/IT. If not, build your skillset together with studying for college. Even a student of Biotech can code and apply for tech companies. Many non-tech companies, as well as Deloitte, give good packages.

In Tier-III, the situation is tighter, CS students may get good placements but others do not have good job opportunities. So, before taking a drop, think five times, not just twice.

 “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts” --Winston Churchill

 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.