By Vinit Kumar Singh
The last month before the JEE Main exam is here. For students who have prepared over the last two years or so it could be a time of fear, anxiety, excitement, hope and melange of emotions. This article is written to help you make the most of these days and attempt the exam with awareness, right approach, and best strategy.
Many of you might wonder how a few days can affect the outcome of JEE Main. While it is true that a few weeks or so cannot help you much in terms of gaining subject wise depth and topic level of understanding required for JEE but it can very well help you consolidate and assimilate the knowledge gained over the course of preparation. There is no magical trick to succeed but there are few success principles that have over the years helped students clear the exam and secure top ranks in JEE Main. This includes two areas first is Academic preparation and other is Physical and Psychological wellbeing. Let’s discuss them one by one.
Academic Preparation
The last few weeks must be utilized in consolidating the long preparation journey. It is time to see the glass as half full and not half empty. It would be detrimental to start a new topic or focus on your weak areas. Here we list a few
Knowledge Consolidation
If there is a topic that you have skipped or paid less attention to during your preparation, It would not be of much help to start them now. It is better advice to focus on your strong areas & areas of average preparation from which you will have a better chance of scoring.
Subject wise Revision Tactics
Your goal must be to increase your chances of scoring the maximum marks per unit time available during these last few weeks . So some general subject-wise guidance is provided below .
Physics: Most Topics in physics are based on concepts that require time and in-depth understanding. But there are few topics in Modern physics, Waves, Optics, and Thermodynamics amongst others where learning and remembering formulas along with a few solved examples based on them can help you solve many of the questions in the exam. Solve an assorted set of problems in a set of 25 questions and with a time-window of one hour as per exam pattern rather than solving problems from individual topics.
Chemistry: The three areas of Chemistry are Physical, Inorganic and Organic chemistry. Out of these, Physical chemistry requires remembering formulas. So, you should revise formulas daily by making a list from your course material. You should give more time to Inorganic chemistry, where you need to remember things and during this last lap time allotted here can be highly rewarding. In Organic it would be good if you repeat and remember the popular name reactions that are asked frequently.
Maths: During recent years the Maths section is usually the most tedious and lengthy. It would be good if you focus on areas that are usually quick to solve. Some of them are P and C, Probability, Vectors and 3-D. There are also a few Topics that are only in the JEE Main syllabus and JEE Advanced. In the last few years the number of questions from these have increased. And most of them are easy. So it would be a good idea to go through them at least once.
The three-one System
Since the final month is a time to consolidate your knowledge and be exam ready, the best way is to adopt a “Three-one system”. To implement this system you divide the total number of remaining days to the exam by four. So if you have 28 days left then you will have seven sets of four days available to you. The idea is to use three days to read all the subjects PCM and use the fourth day to take the exact JEE Main pattern exam and in the exact time slot that you have been allotted. Since the test will require only three hours, use the remaining of that day to analyse the test and see which areas are you making your mistakes or which areas have you forgotten and require revision. Then use the next slot to focus on these areas particularly which had a high number of questions and keep on repeating this for the seven sets of four days. It has been observed that this improves the performance by at least 10% and even up to 50% in just the final month itself.
Undergo Problem Solving Marathons
Imagine yourself developing a practice of running five km per day then for some reason you stop running. What will happen when after a month you try to run back? Chances are you will give up in the middle or you will be highly fatigued at the end. So unless you practice continuously solving problems at a stretch something like a marathon you won’t be able to perform well in the JEE Main exam. The idea is to have dedicated slots everyday of three hours to continuously solve problems and preferably of all three subjects from different topics in 60 minutes as per exam allotted time per subject should be done every day.
Physical and Psychological Preparation
It is easy to see that the Academic preparation is directly correlated to exam performance. But there are other parameters, mainly physical and psychological preparation that is also paramount to the result. We will be discussing a few main points about them here which have to be paid attention to during these final few weeks
Setting the biological clock right
The JEE Main exam takes place in two time slots, one each in morning and afternoon. Paper One is conducted in the morning session between 9 to 12 am and the afternoon session of the exam will take place from three to six pm. Hence it is imperative for students to make sure that they have a habit of performing at their peak levels during their allotted time span . Some students during their preparation prefer studying late in the night and sleep during the day. This causes their biological clock to function at subdued level during the exam time. So make sure that you are sleeping at the right time and have developed a habit of solving complex problems in the morning from 9 to 12am and in the afternoon from three to six p.m. As habits take time, it is advised to start doing it right away if not already done. Do note that it might take a day or two of discomfort in the beginning. But then your mind and body will gradually adapt and adjust to it.
Boosting performance with Visualization
Visualization Technique has been proved to be a booster in performance whether it’s sports or exams. To do It sit with closed eyes and visualize in your mind that you are giving the exam. You are attempting the paper and You are able to solve questions and a few are difficult, but You are skipping them and managing the time well. You are calm and composed throughout the exam. This will help you relax and perform better in the actual exam. At the end it is wise to mention the role of luck, state of physical and mental health and other tangential factors. Give your best and may God bless you with desired success. All the best!
The author of this article is associate director, Aakash BYJU’S, Digital.