JEE MAIN preparation tips

After the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) exams end in a few days from now, budding engineers and architects from across the country will gear up for their biggest test - the all-newJoint Entrance Examination (JEE). Scheduled to be held on 7th April 2013, (offline) and between 8th April and 25th April (online), JEE is expected to be taken by about 14 lakh students in over 1500 centres in India and abroad.

About 1.5 lakh top candidates, based on their performance in the JEE (Main) 2013 (Paper 1) (including all categories) will be eligible to appear in JEE (Advanced) 2013.

The subjects and difficulty levels

Clearing JEE (Main) is not a difficult task. “A systematic approach when preparing for it will help students crack it. In AIEEE 2012, mathematics and physics were definitely difficult as compared to AIEEE 2011. Chemistry was relatively simple. About 25% questions in the paper are easy, 50% are average and 25% are difficult. The cut-off for JEE (Main) is generally around 60% for NITs and IIITs,” says Ramesh Batlish, Noida centre head, FIITJEE. According to Anand Kumar, founder, Super 30, Patna, “The tough chapters include probability, permutation and combination and integral calculus in maths; rotational dynamics and geometrical optics in physics; solid state and inorganic chemistry in chemistry; 3D images in engineering drawing; and logical reasoning in aptitude. Revision of the Class 11 and 12 syllabus and practising the last 10 years’ question papers of the AIEEE helps a lot. For logical reasoning, solving GRE questions is a good idea.”

Some don’ts for the papers

“Avoid looking at the questions asked in past IIT exams. Some students try to solve these questions to get an edge but this is not required if you have solved AIEEE papers and revised Class 12 syllabus well. Avoid writing lengthy solutions for problems — particularly while doing your preparations. Do not worry if the first two hours of the paper prove to be average for you. Make sure that you do well in the third hour. Your target should be to solve one-third of the paper to be able to make it to the top 1.5 candidates,” Kumar adds.

Last-minute tips for JEE (Main)

Try conventional methods first, say experts. If they don’t work out, try to understand the problem again and find clues that can lead you to the solution. “Go through the concepts related to the problem once again and see how they can be applied to the problem at hand. Try to relate the problem to real-life situations. It will help you to analyse it better. Refer to the solution, only when you have exhausted your limits. See what you had missed earlier. Practice similar problems. Doing 100 quality and concepts-based questions is more important than doing 1000 questions, which have not been selected carefully. Devise your own shortcuts and ways to tackle particular kind of problems,” says Batlish.

Paper 2 will test a student for visualising three dimensional objects from two dimensional drawings, visualising different sides of three dimensional objects and also analytical reasoning and mental ability.

“The aptitude test is designed to check a candidate’s imagination, creativity, observation, architectural awareness and perception. The drawing section has two to three questions involving sketching of scenes and activities from memory of urban-scape (public space, market, festivals, street scenes, monuments, recreational spaces etc.), landscape (river fronts, jungles, gardens, trees, plants etc.) and rural life,” says Batlish.

Structure of the exam

Paper 1

This is a three-hour paper comprising three sections: part 1 - physics, part 2 - chemistry and part 3 - mathematics. There are 30 questions in each of three subjects; which are of objective type-multiple choice with single correct answer. In each section there are 30 questions of four marks each. One should be very careful as there is one-fourth negative marking for every question

Paper 2

This three-hour paper consists of part 1 - mathematics, part 2 - aptitude and part 3 - drawing. The mathematics section has 30 objective-type multiple choice questions with single correct option and one-fourth negative marking. In this part, the syllabus for mathematics includes common topics from Class 11 and 12 CBSE or state Boards. The aptitude section has 50 objective, multiple choice questions with four options and one-fourth negative marking.

 Source: hindustantimes.com