Most scoring topics for JEE Advanced 2014

Only a month left for JEE Advanced. This is a crucial period and can greatly improve your rank if utilized properly. There are some topics which are the most scoring topics. A firm command over these topics will surely boost your rank. Physics :

1. Kinematics – Very simple questions are asked. If you keep the definitions in mind, then all questions will be easy
2. Newton’s laws of motion – Knowing how to draw a free body diagram will greatly help in solving almost all problems of this chapter
3. Simple harmonic motion – Energy conservation method will be useful in finding time period in even the most complicated cases of SHM
4. First law of thermodynamics – Knowing the statement of energy conservation will help you to solve a number of numericals and theoretical questions as well
5. Current Electricity – A good practice of Kirchoff’s law problems will help you to score cent percent in this topic
6. Radioactive decay – The radioactivity decay formula will be the most useful tool in solving almost all the problems

Mathematics :

1. Conic sections – Knowing the formulas well will help you. The parametric form is one of the most useful tool in solving problems of conics
2. Quadratic Equations – knowing the fundamental properties regarding nature of roots / intervals in which roots lie will help you
3. Progression and series – very scoring and simple chapter. Knowing the definitionsand practising ample of problems would be useful
4. Differentiation – Keeping the formulas in mind will help. Geometric interpretation of derivative is an important concept. A number of simple questions are asked which can be done with ease
5. Vector Algebra – Knowing how to visualize the situation will be useful. The concepts of vector and scalar triple products are most scoring

Chemistry :

1. Alkyl Halides – Simple questions based on reactivity / type of reactions are asked and can be cracked easily
2. Electrophilic aromatic substitution reactions of benzene – standard reactions are the most important. Direct questions are asked from this chapter
3. Chemical Equilibrium - Knowing the basic equation of equilibrium along with a proficiency in solving ideal gas equation problems will definitely fetch you full marks
4. Chemical Kinetics – First order reactions are asked in JEE and are easy if you know the basic definitions
5. Ores and Metallurgy - Standard questions are asked which can be done easily
6. Coordination compounds - isomerism is an important but easy topic and you can easily score 100% in this

These are just the few easy / scoring topics. Ideally you should try to cover the entire syllabus well. Focus on these topics and you will crack JEE with flying colours.

Countdown begins

Exactly 30 days left for JEE Advanced 2014
Almost 99% of you will have just 1 question in mind - 

What is a good plan of action to maximize my rank in JEE Advanced ?

Well I cannot directly give you a plan. I believe that making your own plan would be a better idea. I will list down a few guidelines that will surely help you in this.

1.  Keep a target in mind. You should clearly know that what rank you want. Do you just want selection ? Or do you want a 3 digit rank ? Maybe a rank under 200 ? A rank with which you can get Electrical engineering in IITX ? Or anything else. It's a good idea to keep this figure in mind and get an idea of the statistics associated with your target. You should be aware of the opening and closing rank of the branch that you want. You should be aware of "marks v/s rank" statistics of JEE 2013. You can find all this on JEE website. Though I wouldn't recommend wasting much time on this.
2. From now onwards, I am assuming that you have completed the "Whole" of JEE syllabus , secured more than 113 (last year's cut-off) in JEE Main (so that you are probably eligible to write JEE advanced) , and you are weak in only a few topics. So, this idea is as follows : Note down all those topic in which you are weak. This is a difficult task. You can't just write "Mechanics" in this list of topics because you are weak at it. Mechanics is a huge division of Physics. You need to clearly mention the "chapter" at which you are weak - say "Fluid mechanics".
3. Now once the list is made , try to further go into the depth and find out the exact area in which you are weak. Say, "Bernoulli's equation" or "Conservation of angular momentum".
4. Now, you will have a concise list in which the rank deciding topics are mentioned. These are the topics that will decide your rank. If during this 1 month gap, you are able to cover them, then it's quite sure that your rank is going to be enhanced. So, again the nagging question remains unanswered - "What to do now ?"
5. Well now pick up the standard prescribed books for those topics and try to read the theory of that topic from the books. Weak at permutations and combinations ? Read Arihant or maybe RD Sharma. Weak at Ionic Equilibrium portion ? Read OP Tondon.
6. Another important aspect would be to ensure that you have covered these topics from NCERT well. Since you are appearing for JEE advanced, it is expected from you that you have covered at least NCERT level of problems even from those topics in which you are extremely weak. So, better read NCERT to get an idea of the topic and ensure that you are done with all possible theoretical questions of NCERT level. A good idea would be to give a try to the Exemplar problems provided by NCERT which can be found here : http://www.ncert.nic.in/NCERTS/textbook/textbook.htm
7. Note that these topics will suck a major portion of your time. So, you have to be smart in time management. You should smartly handle both strong and weak topics. A critical balance between the 2 will optimize your rank. It is important to note that spending time "only" on the weak areas will be disastrous because you may forget your strong areas as well. So, keep revising.
8. You need to increase your study hours in the month of May - or better from tomorrow. Your competitors in Kota/Delhi/Hyderabad/etc are striving hard to get ahead of you and with each hour that you are wasting, they are going ahead of you. They will get better ranks and you will remain defeated. It's better to fix this in your mind and take this as a motivation to study as much as you can. If you are aiming for a 2 digit rank, then a minimum of 10 hours of study is recommended per day at this crucial time.
9. For those who are done with the syllabus and do not have any major weak areas - I would suggest you to keep practising problems from various sources. Also, I would advice you to go through past year JEE problems once again. Don't ignore the subjective ones. Subjective problems will help you to develop your concepts in a better way. They will help you to analyse your real understanding of the concept and will prove to be helpful. Just another month more of rigorous hard work and "Hurray!!! Welcome to IIT"
10. So, plan for you people would be to read your notes and solve questions. Nothing else. Just solve as many problems as you can. Take mock tests, solve questions, eat, sleep. Don't exhaust yourself. Stay calm. Don't waste your time in an unnecessary argument with anyone. Each minute is precious. Also make full use of that "Next day plan" strategy that I had mentioned in some other recent post.
11. For those who are weak in some topics, I would suggest you do divide your time equally between "Revision" and "covering weak topics". You need to put in extra efforts to come back in the race.

To conclude, I would say is that make full use of this time.

The student who wastes this time would be wasted.

There is a good saying - "Waste your time today and tomorrow time will waste you".

All the best

You are free to post "all" types of doubts here because I couldn't entertain your doubts in the past few days

Revise class 11th parallel to class 12th

The post will be useful for the following :

• JEE 2015 aspirants (those who are entering class 12th this year)
• JEE 2016 aspirants (those who are entering class 11th this year)

How to revise ? One of the most difficult question a JEE aspirant has to face.

How should I revise class 11th syllabus parallel to class 12th ? - I will try to answer this question in this post

Different methods are suitable for different subjects.

Some people would prefer revising from books. Others are comfortable with revision packages.

We will go subject wise :

Revising Maths : Keep solving as many questions as you can. This is the best way to revise maths. It has a number of benefits, most important one being - you won't forget formulas. Additionally, if you are prone to forgetting the formulas, then you should maintain a notebook enlisting all the important formulas in a clear and concise form so that you can go through them quickly in a very short time. Note that you have to prepare the notebook in such a way that you can go through it in a very short time. The reason is that - it's boring to revise the same old formulas if it takes a lot of time. However, if they are written in concise form, then you will be able to revise them more number of times. A better option would be (what I did) to write the formulas in an A4 sheet and carry it with you always. So that you can go through it when ever you have time.

Reading the entire topic again and again from a book would be waste. If you have already covered a topic well, then to revise - the best choice would be to solve problems. For this, you may pick up anything - FIITJEE GMP / TMH / your own coaching material / revision packages. The point is that you should try fresh questions. Also note that you should remember standard questions that have a hidden trick so that you can co-relate it to some other question.

The key to learning maths is solving problems

Revising Physics : I would take up chemistry in the end because it needs more description. Class 11th physics mainly involves mechanics and thermodynamics. The plan would be almost same as that of maths - solve as many problems as possible from the revision packages / books. Additionally, you need to revise the theory portion in physics. For that, I would suggest reading HC Verma. HC Verma is very important from the point of theory. There are small hidden theoretical points that are usually overlooked by students and then these points are asked in More than one correct type questions in JEE. So, it's better to give this book a quick reading over the weekend.

To solve questions, I would prefer revision packages over books because they contain objective type questions that are in accordance to the current JEE pattern. I was from FIITJEE so, I used to solve FIITJEE workbooks, Review package, GMP(I got it from my centre at the end of class 11th itself), and of course HC Verma.

Revising Physical Chemistry : Physical chemistry is more like physics. So the approach would be same as that of physics - read books, solve questions. I would suggest reading NCERT so as to cover all the minute theoretical points that are commonly picked up. Basically NCERT will do the job of HC Verma (for theory). To solve problems, I used same material as given in physics section. Additionally, I solved subjective (solved) examples of RC Mukherjee to develop a deep thinking and a better command over the topic.

Revising Inorganic Chemistry : It is highly likely that you did nothing in inorganic chemistry except chemical bonding. When I say inorganic chemistry, I mean s-block and p-block. Now is the time to do it. You can easily prepare it if you spend just 1 hour a day - 15 minutes revision and 45 minutes mugging new things. Read read and read - nothing more. Inorganic is all about revision and cramming (with sometimes logical thinking as well).

Revision plan :

Now I will be answering the question - "How to balance revision + backlogs + current chapters"

There are 24 hours in a day. Assuming that you sleep 8 hours a day, you are left with 16 hours. Now you might dump another 3 hours in your daily work like eating, bathing, etc. So you are left with another 13 hours. Assuming that you need 3 hours of relaxation, finally you are left with 10 hours - That's a God damn huge amount of time!!!

10 hours a day

Now, let's plan it in our way.

We need around 2 hours per subject daily to progress in that subject. So, this way, 6 hours are gone. We are left with 4 hours, or rather 4 study hours (note that we have counted 3 hours of relaxation and 3 hours extra already). Assuming that you are spending 1 hour with inorganic chemistry, you are left with 3 hours.

Now in these 3 hours, you will be doing 2 things - 

• covering previous chapters in which you are weak
• Revising the previous chapter

Both of them cannot be done in a single day usually.

So, you might plan to cover your left out weak topic say on Monday and you may do the revision the next day - and repeat this.

Monday - cover weak topic

Tuesday - revise

Wednesday - cover weak topic

Thursday - revise

.

.

.

.

Now you might be thinking that how to plan all this on coaching days ?

For that, you will have to cut short the things. First of all, you should not spend 3 hours in relaxation - that's a huge wastage of time. Secondly, 1-2 more hours can be saved from those 3 extra hours. I wouldn't recommend decreasing your sleep hours because I believe that body needs 8 hours of sleep. On coaching days, you will have to plan your day yourself - remember I mentioned in one post that I used to plan my next day every night before I slept ? It's one of the best planning tools.

Those who attend school : You people need to plan the things yourselves. Some 7-8 hours a day are usually wasted in school you you need to plan the things in a really smart way.

To summarize - These are the general revision strategies and you may like to use them throughout the 2 years. You may use the techniques mentioned to revise your class 12th syllabus as well.

PS : Do not post questions like "Is ..... possible in 2 months ?", "Which revision package is the best ?", "Can I get .... rank if I study only for 1 year ?", etc. Such questions won't be answered and would be completely ignored.

As far as choosing revision packages is concerned - go through other posts and the comments in them.

JEE Main 2014 Review

JEE Main 2014 paper was conducted in offline mode on April 6th, 2014
Following the usual trend, chemistry section was easier as compared to maths and physics section.
The paper was overall a bit lengthy and calculative however it was easier than JEE Main 2013.

Chemistry : This section was the easiest. There were very few difficult questions. Most questions were directly picked up from NCERT. An average student can easily score above 80-90 in this subject.

Maths : This section was slightly tough and calculation demanding. Those who are aiming for top ranks should score not less than 100 in maths. If a candidate is cautious enough to avoid silly mistakes, then he/she can even score 120/120 in maths.

Physics : This section was the toughest. Those who didn't prepare well were bowled. Paper required calculations and was indeed conceptual. There was a large portion from Mechanics.

Overall : Those who have scored above 270 are likely to do well in JEE Advanced too unless they mess the paper. 300+ is outstanding. The highest marks are expected to go down (as compared to 345 last year). However, since the paper was simpler, the cutoff might go slightly up. The inclusion of Board's marks will have a significant effect in the ranks of students.

Those students who are aiming for an under 100 rank in JEE advanced should score not less than 300. Note that if your score is less than 300, then it doesn't mean that you can't get an under 100 rank in JEE Advanced. Take it the other way, if you have scored more than 300 in JEE Main, then it doesn't mean that you will get an under 100 rank in JEE Advanced.
If you performed well, then take it as an achievement and let your confidence go sky high. However, if you couldn't perform well, then don't panic. JEE Advanced is very different from JEE Main.
Even I couldn't do well in physics in JEE Main 2013 but that does not mean that I was weak in Physics. So keep calm and continue preparing for JEE Main.
PS : Please don't post comments regarding cut-off etc. I cannot give any comments. All I can say is that cut-off might be around 125 (That's a guess)
Also, I have no idea about rank v/s marks distribution for JEE Main and lastly, no comments on rank v/s college (NIT etc)