Strategy to solve I.E. Irodov

You can refer this answer for a discussion on Irodov, my pattern to solve it, and how you should solve it.

You can find the solutions to Irodov in these books. These are in the latest edition, so you can order them from here-



These are the solutions I consulted, and they are really clear and crsip. Note that the second book might get out of stock soon, so you can use the kindle edition. It's economical, and environment friendly. Also, you must try a question on your own until you really need the solution.

Here is a list of problems from Irodov which are in JEE syllabus(sorry for the sideways orientation) :p.

Also see: Best books for JEE preparation, Organic Chemistry, Mechanics, Algebra, Motivation

College101- An Introductory guide for about-to-be college students

So, exams and results over. Most of you would have already decided whether to take a drop or not. If not, see this. So, this post will guide you about the Do's and Don'ts for college, based on many messages, emails, and comments I have been seeing over the last couple weeks. I'll be doing this as a Q&A session, based on the questions most requested to me.

1. Which college is the best for me? I am yet to decide my choices for counselling.
Well, check this out, this is a complete guide to choose your choices. Also, please consult people from all the choices you are filling. You can discuss your doubts here. This group has people from all colleges. Also, see this post. It will help you. Finally, I must say that it's your choice to go for a particular college/branch. I am not at blame if you end up choosing something you don't like. Consult many people and decide.

2. What should I do in the 1-month break I have before joining college?
Well, you had been studying for a long time, so I suggest you enjoy this time. You can pick up a hobby, learn to code, spend some time with family and friends, etc. In my case, I watched a TV Series called 'The Big Bang Theory', learned to play the Guitar, made up my Facebook page(like it for interesting stuff on JEE, college, and computers), visited a lot of places, etc. This time is precious as it won't come again. I strongly recommend learning to code in this break. It is because it is fun, every college has a course on Programming, and it's a must-have skill today.

3. How to learn to code in this break?
There are plenty of resources out there on the Internet. I strongly suggest you to learn C++ as a first step. You can do it first by seeing this playlist by thenewboston(really nice work). You will not get everything in the first try, but keep on trying. You can use this book along with these tutorials. For problem practice, I recommend you to practice a bit on SPOJ. Go to the basic problems sections, arrange them in the order of decreasing number of users, and solve around a 100. If you do this you will become really good at coding and will ace the first year(irrespective of whether you are in CS or not). You should see these articles-Getting Started with Computer Science- Part 1 and Getting Started with Computer Science- Part 2

4. Should I buy a laptop for college?
Well, if you have a financial problem, then you don't need to for now, because every college has a Computer lab, but still having one is immensely useful. Everything in college depends on your laptop, and you must buy a good one. If you haven't thought of buying a laptop yet, and plan to do it later, DON'T. Get it now, and get used to it, code a bit, play with it. A good laptop must have an i3 or above processor(7th gen or above), 4/8GB RAM or more, a decent Graphics card, and a good hard drive(SSD preferred, or 1TB hard drive at the minimum). Currently, many back to college and cashback offers are available on Amazon, so you might want to buy from these links. I have searched for the best laptops available in every range(arranged in increasing order of price). Some of these(the cheap ones) don't have OS, you can install Windows(paid) or Ubuntu(free)

Asus Vivobook X541UA-DM1358D (Intel i3 7100U (7th Gen)/4 GB DDR4/1TB/Intel HD Graphics/DOS) - Silver

Lenovo Ideapad 320E 80XL0378IN 15.6-inch Laptop (7th Gen Core i5-7200U/4GB/1TB/Windows 10 Home/2GB Graphics), Onyx Black

ACER E5-575G/Ci5-7200U/4/1TB/W10/2GB GRAPHICS/BLK NB (NX.GDWSI.007)

Dell Inspiron 15 3000 3567 15.6-inch Laptop (7th Gen Core i7-7500U/8GB/1TB/Windows 10 with Office 2016 Home and Student/2GB Graphics)

Apple MacBook Air MQD32HN/A 13.3-inch Laptop 2017 (Core i5/8GB/128GB/MacOS Sierra/Integrated Graphics) (If you can afford 60k, do go for it. Apple is a class apart, unless you are into gaming

HP Pavilion 15-CC129TX 2017 15.6-inch Laptop (Core i5/8GB/1TB/Windows/Integrated Graphics), Silver

Microsoft Surface Pro (Core-i5 7th Gen/4GB/128GB/Windows 10 Pro/Integrated Graphics), Silver

2018 Flagship HP Pavilion 14" WLED HD Premium Business Laptop - Intel Dual-Core i5-7200U up to 3.1GHz 16GB DDR4 1TB HDD B&O Play 802.11ac Bluetooth HDMI USB Type-C Webcam Backlit Keyboard Win 10

The list is by no means exhaustive, but I have tried to cover laptops of all range. If you are too lazy to buy one from out, you can order from here, I have taken this list from various tech websites and personal experience. You will find them good. Avoid watching a lot of TV series/movies.

5. How to survive in college?
Every college has a different culture of study, extracurriculars, etc. Talk to seniors and develop a healthy relationship with them. Ask them about the study patterns. And talk to many people. And try to adjust against feelings like homesickness, lack of friends,etc. Develop confidence and avoid bad habits.

This was all. If you have any more doubts, feel free to comment here.

Coordinate Geometry, 3D, and Vectors

This is usually counted among the tough topics. Because it involves a lot of formulae and calculations(at times) and hence costs a lot of time during exam. You might wanna be very fast in calculations before moving here. So prepare your algebra well!

So, the topics will be 

1. Straight Line and Basics- This is the most important chapter because this forms the basis of other chapters. There would be various forms of lines, and you must be familiar with each and everyone of them. There would be lots of definitions in this chapter(orthocentre,incentre,etc.)Lots of formulae, learn them all by heart.  Shift of origin and family of lines are two important topics which will help you solve questions fast. Practice a lot, and different types of question, don't solve 10 questions of the same type. Solve 10 questions of 10 types(i.e.1-2 questions of each type).

2. Circles and Conic sections- You must be well prepared with formulae of equations in standard form, parametric form, positions of foci, vertices, length of latus rectum,etc. tangent, normal, etc. Joint equation of curves and lines is very helpful at times. There are a few special results(e.g. reflection properties of parabola and ellipse). It's tough to remember them all in one go. Take your time and try to apply them in questions to learn them. Do a lot of locus problems. Again, lots of types, and solving many problems of different types will help you.

3. Vectors and 3D- 3D is just a continuation of 2D Geometry. Have a good thinking of the problem in 3D. It will help you. Again, formulae-remember them. You won't face much problem in 3D. Vectors would give you problems :p. Well, try to think of vectors in terms of 3D when in trouble. There are a few standard techniques(taking dot product, cross product with something, etc.) try to implement them and see if they help. Keep on solving a variety of problems. Various lines forms get confusing. Tricky questions can be easily formed in vectors. Try to think of all the formulae available to you. It will surely help. Again, this is mostly based on revising and practicing. 

So, Coordinate Geometry, Vectors and 3D are mostly calculation based, with a handful of central concepts which apply to all the problems and situations. If you study it deeply you would find beautiful connections between various formulae and situations. I'll leave them for you to discover(NCERT style :p).

BOOKS

As usual, if you go to a coaching, follow that book. If you don't you can take this book from Resonance. I can't find the link for other books, so you'll have to take the ones mentioned below(I was from Resonance and found their study material pretty good).

If you want more practice, go for Arihant coordinate geometry and Vectors and 3D.

S.L. Loney is another beautiful book, with some very good questions. It is surely worth solving, if you have time. Apart from this, A. Das Gupta has some really nice questions in 2D coordinate geometry. Do solve them if you want a very good grasp and rank.

So, do well in coordinate and Vectors and 3D. They carry a huge weightage. They need some revision and practice. Give your best, and let me know if you have any doubts by commenting below.

All the best!!!

Also see : Calculus, Algebra, Trigonometry, Best books for JEE

Revision in class 12

Hi guys!!!

Many of you had been asking me for a post on revision. Especially students of class 12. At this moment class 11 students don't have much to revise, so this post is mainly for students of class 12. But I recommend everyone to read it(so that class 11 students can avoid common mistakes people usually commit).

So there would be two kinds of students-

1. Who studied well in class 11(i.e. all their concepts are clear, they didn't leave many topics, practiced a lot, remember all formulae, equations, reactions, etc.)
2. Those who didn't study very well(i.e. have many backlogs, have forgotten many concepts, or don't remember them very well, or just didn't prepare for the exam).

Both kinds of people need to revise well now. But the strategies would be different. Don't feel bad if you didn't study well in class 11, you can still do wonders. Just follow the below guidelines sincerely, and I assure you good revision.
Coming to those who have studied well in class 11. You might be students aiming at IITs, and are really serious about it. You might be aiming for a top 100 or 50 finish. You have studied well in 11th. Half the job done. Now, make sure you don't get relaxed now and study even more. Attend all classes in 12th and clear every doubt. Make sure you understand class 12th well too. Now coming to the revision part, you should take out a fixed amount of time everyday(or make a few big slots every week). Make a diary and list all the topics in which you feel the slightest of doubt. Then pick up few of them everyday and design a schedule as to when are you going to cover them(you can adjust on the basis of your coaching test schedule maybe). Read theory quickly first (short notes help in this, and I recommend you to make them if not done yet) and then practice some good quality questions. Try to cover all major types of questions so that you revise everything(marking important questions while solving a book/coaching module helps in this process, so do it now if you haven't done it before). Try to give regular tests so that you have an idea of your progress. Also, try to mark yourself after every revision session. Use a timer to time yourself. Make sure you analyze,e your mistakes during those sessions. This will improve both speed and accuracy.

Now coming to students who didn't study well/didn't study at all in class 11, you have lots of time left. 1 year is enough to score any range of marks in JEE. I mean it. Just be patient and follow these points-

First of all, sit-down, take a copy and note down all the reason which due to which you couldn't study. Was it lack of awareness? Lack of commitment? Lack of hard work? Lack of Intelligence(well trust me on this, JEE doesn't need intelligence. All the intelligence factors fades away if you work hard enough).

Try to remove that as much as possible. You have already wasted a year. If you can't focus now, I am sorry, you can't make it. But if you are ready to focus, it's not that tough.

Coming to the point, first list the topics into three categories- topics you are comfortable with, topics which you are okayish with, and topics you don't know at all. Now sit with a teacher and sort the list on the basis of their importance in class 12 topics (e.g.- Ionic Equilibrium is required for Electrochemistry). Now sort it such that the most important topics come at the top. Starting from the top, try to cover the ones which you don't know at all. Pick up a Sunday/holiday, sit for 10-12 hours and complete it. First read theory(class notes/NCERT/any standard book, go to Books post if you don't know about it). Then start with some easy questions(exercise 1 of coaching sheet or any good question bank). Slowly advance to the more tough questions. Try to decide topics of class 11 which you'll improve on a weekly basis. Like I'll revise chemical and ionic equilibrium this week, etc. If you follow this and work hard enough, I guess 2 months are enough to clear most backlogs. And then follow the rules I mentioned for the students who studied well in class 11. And try to do more tough questions once backlogs are clear.

I hope this will clear confusions. Comment anything which you wish to ask. Follow the blog for regular posts.

All the best!!!

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