When should I begin my JEE preparation?
By Aman Goel
JEE preparation is one of the most crucial phases of one’s engineering career. JEE is the exam that opens the gates to the prestigious IITs, NITs, and several other institutes, for serious JEE aspirants. If you want to pursue engineering, acing JEE is what you should aim for.
Nowadays, due to the increase in the usage of the internet, the awareness about JEE has increased a lot among the students and their parents. Many questions are flooding the people’s minds and Quora as well, some of which include -- “When should JEE preparation be started?”, “Are two years sufficient for JEE?”, “When should I enroll my child in the JEE coaching?”. Some parents go to extremes like -- “My child is in class 2. Is it too late to start JEE preparation?”. Seriously?
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Studying the concepts proposed in the JEE curriculum and solving questions so as to become proficient in a topic is not the biggest challenge. The biggest challenge is devoting your entire JEE preparation phase to self-improvement and staying focused throughout. There are many sacrifices that you need to make during this phase; the biggest one being sacrificing your social life. You need to cut down the time you spend with your friends. You need to stop attending the majority of the family functions. You need to reduce the number of movies that you watch. All in all, you need to stop doing anything and everything that does not align with your goal -- cracking the JEE!
JEE Advanced 2026 will be held in around 200+ cities in India and at a few foreign centres. The detailed list of JEE Advanced 2026 exam centres will be available at jeeadv.ac.in.
IIT Roorkee will hold JEE Advanced 2026. IIT Roorkee has conducted JEE Advanced in 2008 and 2019 and will next conduct it in 2026.
If a student is hard working, focused, and is ready to make these sacrifices, half the battle is already won! Here, let’s discuss about the right time to start JEE preparation.
Typically speaking, 2 years (Class 11 and 12) are enough to prepare for JEE, if the preparation is done very seriously. However, many students start JEE preparation from as early as Class 8. Also, some students prepare for JEE only for 1 year. Let’s discuss about each case.
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Preparing for JEE for 2 years (only class 11 and 12)
The JEE syllabus typically consists of all that is taught in class 11 and 12. Hence, if the preparation is done very seriously, 2 years are enough for JEE preparation. However, it is not just the 2 years that matter here, it is also the strong foundation of concepts formed in the earlier classes -- Class 1 to 10. Hence, if a student has a strong understanding of concepts taught in class 1 to 10, and also has a good problem-solving aptitude, 2 years of JEE preparation would be enough to crack JEE.
But, if a student has not joined coaching before Class 11, he/she should practice solving mental ability questions so that his/her problem-solving aptitude is developed.
Preparing for JEE for more than 2 years (From before Class 11)
The difficulty level of JEE Main 2025 April 2 shift 1 exam will be available after the exam concludes. Shiksha will provide the difficulty level and JEE Main paper analysis, students reaction based on feedback from students who are appearing in the exam.
The notification for JEE Mains 2026 exam is yet to be released. NTA is likely to conduct the JEE Main 2026 exam in two sessions - January and April. The exact JEE Main exam date 2026 will be announced soon.
NTA has announced the JEE Main 2026 exam dates. JEE Main 2026 exam will be conducted in two sessions in January and April. The exact date of JEE exam 2026 will be announced along with the information brochure on the official website jeemain.nta.nic.in.
Many students join JEE coaching institutes before even entering Class 11 as well. Some students join coaching as early as in Class 8, as mentioned above! However, in such cases, the syllabus taught in the coaching institutes is not entirely the JEE syllabus. The coaching institutes, most of the time, teach the syllabus of the respective Board. However, they focus a lot on mental ability and increasing problem-solving aptitude. They also try to teach concepts that are a little more advanced than what is taught in school. All this is done so as to train the students so that they face lesser difficulty while actually studying the JEE syllabus later.
If a student is enrolled in a JEE coaching institute before class 11, he/she may be taught several JEE concepts in class 9 and 10 itself. This gives the student a lot for time to read theory and practice questions for JEE. Many JEE top rankers start early and join coaching institutes before class 11 as well.
Preparing for JEE for only 1 year
JEE preparation for 1 year is sufficient if a student is not targeting admission into IITs. If JEE preparation is done seriously for 1 year, a pretty good JEE Main rank can be obtained, which would be sufficient to secure a seat in an NIT. Also, serious JEE preparation for 1 year can increase the possibility of admission into the institutes that take admission through entrance exams other than JEE.
Obtaining a seat in an IIT by doing JEE preparation for only 1 year might be a bit difficult since there are very few seats in IITs and all the top candidates prefer joining there. Hence, if you are thinking of joining an IIT, you should consider doing JEE preparation for 2 years or more.
About the Author:
Aman Goel is co-founder at a Tech Start-up. He holds a BTech in Computer Science Engineering from IIT Bombay with a JEE Advanced AIR 33 (Year 2013).
During his free time, he enjoys writing articles/blogs. He is an Entrepreneur, Coder, Speed-cuber, gamer, and fan of Air crash investigation!
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As per students who appeared in JEE Main 2024 session 1 exam, and the subject experts from various coaching institutes - January 29 shift 1 paper was the toughest in comparison to other shift papers. Many students also found January 27 shift 2 exam difficult.
However, students must note that JEE Main question papers are set at similar difficulty level for all shifts and sessions. There may come a few questions with difficulty level higher than the other.