A special post by AIR 19, JEE(Advanced) 2018

This is a post by a junior in IITB CSE. His name is Shalabh Gupta and he secured AIR 19 in JEE(Advanced) 2018. He will be sharing his JEE preparation story. It's really good and thanks to him for this wonderful post!

"Hey..this is Shalabh Gupta. I am from New Delhi and I achieved an All India rank 19 in JEE(Advanced) 2018. It was no cakewalk for me to do so. Currently, I am in IIT Bombay CSE. Here I am, writing my JEE preparation story!

I had been an average student from the starting. I had no definite plans as to I what I have to pursue in the future. Then in class 9th, I took admission in FIITJEE Dwarka in Delhi. Life was still a puzzle for me but then I realized the faith my parents had put into me and paid a hefty amount just so that I can achieve something even I was unaware of. FIITJEE transformed my mindset towards studies and slowly I developed a taste in PCM and decided to pursue engineering as my field of interest. Through this, I want to convey to all the students out there, that they need to decide what they want to do till class 10th..if not that, then at least midway class 10 should be it. If you are studying for JEE in class 11 but have no interest in it, then it’s probably not your cup of tea. It would be better if students develop a taste for the subjects beforehand.

I started my JEE preparation in early class 11th. As other beginners, I was unaware as to the path to be followed. Everybody used to recommend a hell lot of books which made things really confusing. The material I used to get from my coaching centre was enough, so I stuck to it until I really felt a need to purchase any other book. I strongly believe that doing the material which you get from your coaching centre is enough along with previous year questions and some basic cliché books like hcv for Physics. Literally speaking, I used to do only HC Verma till about complete 11th class. My batchmates used to do DC Pandey and some irodov too (which I also did once I was confident enough in hcv). According to me, if you are thorough with each and every concept and question in hcv, then most of your work is done. You just need to revise them again and again and keep them fresh in your memory. But still, if you find time..like I did after class 11th, you can solve certain recommended questions from irodov(not all). But remember without revision of topics..all the work you do is a waste.

Coming over to Chemistry, I used to learn concepts by heart..and also the reactions. My teacher used to provide me with enough sheets to practice. But if your teacher doesn’t do so , then you can buy some books such as Peter Atkins for physical chemistry(one of my friend who is air 44 used to study from it), Peter Sykes for theory of organic chem and ms Chauhan and himanshu pandey for org chem questions(almost all of my batchmates used to do it) and JD Lee for inorganic(this is used even in our college). But don’t forget that just doing books is not enough..you should remember all the concepts as well as the reactions along with their mechanisms.

For Maths, the previous year questions will be the perfect key to preparation. I bought just trigo SL loney in class 11th just for inverse trigo(but ended up doing some trigo equations etc). Then in class 12th, I bought cengage g tewani for calculus. I believe it’s a must for calculus(or you can buy Arihant too). My roommate (CSE only) used Sanjay Mishra for algebra. There is cengage also  available for algebra if you want to do but I won’t recommend it because it contains a hell lot of questions and you may find yourself in a confusion whether to do it or not. Remember that being confused is the last thing you should do while preparation. It reduces confidence to a large extent. For coordinate geometry, SL Loney again would be a great choice. It covers almost everything.

Also, remember that the archive i.e. the previous year questions are the most important thing to do and should be their first priority.

Coming to my preparation strategy, I can proudly say that I followed the correct path. By correct path I mean the correct planning required. Some students, despite of studying for a lot of hours are not able to perform well because they don’t have any proper planning and management as to when to study, when to relax, when to revise, and many other things. I do not suggest making a proper timetable for studying because most of the time, we are unable to follow it which leads to backlogs. I used to do as much as I could do effectively. It was never fruitful when I used to force myself to study while I was stressed or had my mind wandering over various other things. Aim for small targets(like completing 10 ques in 1 hour or so for eg) and complete them. This was my mantra and I used to gain a lot of confidence from this. I used to study about 8-10 hours on an avg per day. I think any jee aspirant aiming for a decent enough rank should study that much at least.

Lastly, I want to talk about the most important thing, exam temperament. There are many students who study very hard but are unable to produce a great result. All depends on exam temper. I used to remain calm and composed while giving any mock test or any paper. This composure comes by itself when you have practiced enough. Try to attempt as much mock papers etc as you can..make mistakes and learn from them. But I used to do that only after I had revised everything and had full confidence in most of the topics. Also through attempting more test papers, you get to know your weaknesses and are able to focus more on them. So try to develop exam temperament through the tests you give.

Best of luck to all aspirants!!!

Thanks, Kalpit for giving me the opportunity to reach out to many students through your blog."

Thanks, Shalabh!

Feel free to post your doubts here.

Also check : Best books for JEE , A complete JEE preparation guide, Organic Chemistry, Mechanics, Algebra, Motivation