Students’ Speak: How to get 300+ JEE Mains score?

By: Donika Juthani

The most effective way to plan is to make a timetable (completely out of your comfort zone). Timetable word itself may give you a feeling of regret. But trust me, students in the top one percent category of ranks are the ones who follow a strict time table. Just remember every small effort adds up to your result.

Getting 300+ in JEE Mains is not a joke. You can easily get under 200 rank with those marks. This is tentative obviously because the rank depends on the number of test-takers, difficulty level, etc. But, it surely means that you will be able to get a good branch in a prestigious college.

This is the goal of every student and to achieve this, one surely requires lots of hard work and utmost dedication. To be frank, more than 95% of the students whose JEE Mains marks are in the range of 330-360 would have started the preparation since 6-7th standard. There are many students who complete with 11th-12th portions when they are in class 9th. They learn many things in a small age and study a vast number of books for each and every concept.

But, generally, students start preparing for JEE Mains from Class 11th standard onwards. Many students fail to handle the pressure after Class 10th, lose their track in Class 11th and then start preparing quite late. Let’s make one thing clear, no one is at fault here. Each student is different. There is a wide spectrum of students wherein some have high capability, some have a good strategy, etc. So, the students who have not significantly prepared much for JEE Mains require a streamlined approach and specific number of books. If you lie in this category then all you have to do is follow a regime.

If you are going to a good coaching institute, you would have already been given many tests and last month before the examination is just for revising and improving your speed. Following are the tips that might help you:

• NCERT: NCERT is required for conceptual based questions and board exams. Just solving NCERT will give you the confidence to solve 15-20 questions of JEE Mains.
• Coaching notes: Coaching notes are very important. Revising clean and clear notes gives the confidence of tackling any question because then you have understood the theory well. Also, just mugging up the concepts and formulas will not at all be helpful. So, please focus on the interpretation of each concept.
• Coaching material: Solving coaching material 3 to 4 times is of immense importance. There should be three phases of revision from coaching material:

1. While solving it for the first time, mark every question as e, m, or d which stands for easy, medium or difficult.
2. While studying for the second time, only solve medium and difficult questions.
3. For the third revision, just solve hard questions.

This way, your revision will be fast and effective.

• DC Pandey objective: The questions are classified into JEE Mains and JEE Advanced categories and solutions are also provided, so you will not get stuck on a single question for many days. Solving this book will take less time if you are thorough and hence I would strongly recommend it. On average, there are 40-50 JEE Mains questions in each chapter and all of them are quality questions, hence solving and revising those will be great.

To conclude, mere coaching material is more than enough and solving it hundreds of times until you are completely thorough with the topic, will give you sufficient confidence.

If you do not go to any coaching class, for self-study, you could follow these tips:

• NCERT books
• Coaching material: If you buy coaching material of some institute then learn and understand theory from it. Approach your temporary teacher to solve doubts and keep solutions to all the questions too. In addition, in this case, do not misspend your time solving the below books. If you are not buying it then books are important.
  • HC Verma: This is a great book with crisp and clear explanations of every topic. Must solve.
  • BM Sharma: This is a bit expensive and thick because it contains a very detailed explanation. Hence grasping concepts might be easy.
  • DC Pandey: This is also a good option for studying. The book is sufficient in itself.

There are many great books out there but with limited time and limited efforts, it is unreasonable to grab everything and absorb nothing.

Now, coming towards planning. The most effective way to plan is to make a timetable (completely out of your comfort zone). Timetable word itself may give you a feeling of regret. But trust me, students in the top one percent category of ranks are the ones who follow a strict time table. Just remember every small effort adds up to your result. Whenever you say yes to some extra activity (other than studying), you are drifting away from your goal. Do only those things which, if not done, could lead to disastrous consequences. Classify your day to day activities into the following four categories:

• A - Avoid

Do not do that task.

Eg: going to the movies with your friends, going for a relative’s marriage.

• B - Bypass

Give it to someone else.

Eg: running errands.

• C - Curve

Postpone it (not procrastinate!).

Eg: Studying English for board exams, studying chemistry ahead of school/coaching.

• D - Do

Do it now/today without delay. This category of activities deserves a place in your timetable.

Know your sitting hours. Some might have the capacity to sit for four hours straight while some may get distracted in just one hour. The default time for which a human being can focus completely in 25 minutes. You can increase this period with practice and regular studies. However, this block of time should only be utilised for the assigned task and nothing else. Switch off your cell if you have to go to the washroom beforehand, sit with some snacks. Just do not get up for that period of time and you’ll see an increase in your efficiency. After that, you are free to take a 5-10 minutes break and do what you love, maybe read a book or check your Instagram feed. Another major thing is to not to shift your tasks in subsequent time blocks.

Now coming to the topics that you should revise in the last 30 days.

There are four categories:

High output, low input

Chapters in this category are:

High output, high input:

Low output, low input:

Low output, high input:

Set your timetable according to this list and you will be ready to break every question of JEE Mains.

“There is no shortcut to any place worth going.”

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.