JEE Main Experience

Last Updated : 28 Dec, 2023

My Journey Before the 11th:

Starting from the brief intro, learn more about my background. I come from a small town in Bihar state. So, many do not know that coming from a small district can hamper your study a lot for any exams, especially technical ones like JEE, NEET, etc. You will not be able to find good teachers and study resources to prepare for your goal. I have suffered the same thing, but don’t lose hope. I have extensively used the DLPs of some of the most famous and top coaching institutes in India. They are very good, but again, not for beginners; you need to have some background in the topics to understand these materials fully, and the same goes for practice. So, I decided to move to some basic textbooks that help me a lot, like NCERT for classes 11 and 12 in chemistry and math and H.C. Verma for physics. All this I am talking about is preparation until class 10th. Also, I forgot to mention that some books, like Pearson Foundations for PCM, also help in building a strong base. So, I suggest going through them, mainly for students in grades 9–10. This practice will help in future preparation for the examination.

After 10th:

Later, in 11th grade, I moved to a famous coaching institute whose name I didn’t want to mention. But yeah, surely the faculty are exceptional there. They help in clearing all concepts and innovatively teaching topics. Even tips and tricks are regularly shared by them. I will recommend everyone to at least join some coaching, even online, at the beginning of the 11th. Not saying this for the whole preparation as even I have not followed up with the institute later as online classes are not as good as physical ones. I am actually a full-time JEE aspirant. Finally, coming back to the point, I was mainly prepared by self-study after the coaching course was over around 4-5 months before the JEE Mains first attempt. By looking back at my study, I can suggest that the last 4 months of self-study and practice are a must. You have to cover the uncompleted topics in 1–1.5 months.
Then, start revising every subject in PCM topic by topic. You can take two subjects per subject for revision and try to make 1-2 page short notes of each topic in A4 or any white sheet you have, even of the questions you planned at that time. For me, it helped a lot last time. I had many quick revisions of those sheets one day before the exam really helped me a lot. I suggest going for pyq books for JEE Mains, as many questions come on paper, just like those asked earlier. So, pyq has helped a lot in the last some months. Try to solve problems and revise concepts as much as you can. For physics, you can check out the revision checklist by Ashish Arora Sir, I have personally used that a lot, so that is why I recommend it. It helps with very quick revision (1.5x–2x video speed) and having concepts at your fingertips. For books, I will say you can follow any coaching materials, but not all, for making a foundation starting from 11th to 12th (4-5 months before JEE).
“JEE Mains is more of a game of concept memorization and application; critical thinking is also needed, but not that much.”. In the math part, you have to think critically, but physics and chemistry are fine with concepts and applications. For chemistry, I personally follow NCERT 100% for organic and inorganic and coaching notes for last month’s revision. From notes, one important point comes to mind: try to make notes of every chapter along with the coaching lessons or after the completion of any topics (you can even make a short note without the PYQ concept at that time with the coaching material’s best problems concept). I will recommend trying the test series just to test the pattern of the mains and not practising questions if you have less time. I have given 4-5 mock tests only for the main first attempt and 5–6 for the final attempts. I have not covered 100% of the syllabus, and I thought most people wouldn’t be able to do that. Just strengthen your strong topics. You will have to leave something if you have only 1-2 months left. This is my suggestion: if you think you can do that, just go for it. Also, there are some topics on which definitely 1-2 questions are asked, the estimation you can get from PYQ; these are the easiest topics that require the least input and maximum output. These are must-score topics to have a competitive edge over other aspirants. Try to correct every question in these topics (I had to leave some topics in this also due to the time it requires but you can definitely go through them) Lastly, be consistent with studying till all your attempts get over, and not only first. Best of luck to all of you.

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