ALL THAT YOU NEED TO CRACK IIT JEE

Trust me; studying can be made fun too. I know you might not need this; afterall you are not a 3^rd standard kid. But you will be amazed at the difference these simple steps can make, if followed. Like your study place.!

• Get yourself a good corner for study. And no, you need not force your parents to renovate the house and no need to force your younger siblings out. You make a small corner cosy and nice for your studies. Stick timetables, study cards, formulae around. Some motivating quotes etc. just make sure its clean, ventilated and lighted. You don’t want to study in some dark corner. And not to worry, there are umpteen number of places that you can use apart from your home, like, the school campus libraries, centre, etc.)Make sure that your place is specific to studying. You are trying to build a habit of studying when you are in this place. So, don’t use your study space for social conversations, writing letters, daydreaming, etc.
  
• Now that you have set yourself a good place to study, next item on the agenda should be to make yourself a schedule. A good schedule can be a lifesaver. Especially when we are talking about IIT JEE aspirants. I need not delve on the course load, you know that already. Make each second count. But with due time for rest and play. Remember all study and no play made Johnny a dull boy. We don’t want to do that now. So the smart thing would be to allocate your precious time wisely. And the most important job is to FOLLOW IT!
  
• Divide your work into small, short-range goals. Take the time table that you have scheduled for study and set a reachable study goal. (for example: finish reading 3 sections of chapter seven in my Physics text book, or complete one maths problem, or solve MCQ’S, etc.) Set your goal when you sit down to study but before you begin to work. Set a goal that you can reach. You may, in fact, do more than your goal but set a reasonable goal even if it seems too easy. Setting too high a goal may eventually lessen your confidence (if you don’t achieve it). Don’t be afraid to revise your schedule. Schedules are really plans for how you intend to use your time. If your schedule doesn’t work, revise it. You must understand that your schedule is to help you develop good study habits. Once you have developed them, schedule building becomes easier.
  

  The problem of when to study is critical. A good rule of thumb is that studying should be carried out only when you are rested, alert, and have planned for it. Last minute studying just before a class or an exam is usually a waste of time.

• One of the most important and generally overlooked part is about reaching the right frame of mind. You are your own best friend, and you have to take care of your own self. But what exactly is a right frame of mind? Few pointers:
  
  • Be an optimist
    
  • Confidence
    
  • Relaxed
    
  • Ambitious
    
  • Positive
    
  • Inquisitive
    
  • Clear vision- you know what you want and you ready to work hard for it.
    

You have to understand that more than 70% students don’t have this frame of mind when they sit to study. And well, this makes all the difference in the world. But don’t worry. If you don’t have this kind of frame of mind, you can achieve it. Help yourself to piece together whats missing.

• Gather information about your interests, abilities, values, and needs.
  
• The following may be useful in this process;
  
  • Counselor
    
  • Parents(who else knows us better)
    
  • Gather information about medical field.
    
  • Get first-hand information from doctors working in field.
    
  • Gather information about medical colleges.
    
  • Get first-hand information form medical college professors or those in the field.
    

On the basis of the information, start making decisions which lead you in directions you want to go.

• Self-help materials.
  
• Attack the problem yourself.
  
• Self-evaluation- try evaluating your strengths and weaknesses.
  

We have a very interesting analysis called the SWOT analysis. It is:

This just might be the kind of analysis you needed most. Just take a piece of paper and

• Motivation Checklist: ever seen the difference between a job you really wanted to do and a job you just had to do? HUGE? Isn’t it? The answer my friend is that you have to have the motivation to do the job. And the constant source of motivation is yourself, and when sometimes that’s not working, you can take heed from some good quotes and lives. ( that is why I am planning to introduce a section on some people who made it big) The following checklist may prove helpful in getting at the sources of poor motivation. If you want to improve your motivation you may want to choose a self-directed improvement program or use the information as a focus for counselling.
  
• To make a career
  
• To get away from home
  
• To prove self-worth
  
• Lack of confidence
  
• Undefined resistance to attending school/coaching or lack of interest.
  
• Fear of evaluation
  
• Difficulty in making decisions
  
• Lack of financial resources
  
• Phobias and other anxieties
  
• Insecurity
  
• Undefined vocational goals
  
• Undefined educational goals
  
• Excessive dependence on parents or others
  
• Fear as a motivator
  
• Parents as motivators
  
• Grades or academic achievement as motivator
  

• STUDY/MEMORIZING TIPS: there are various methods and techniques to make studying actually fun. There will be more articles coming your way in this thread which will delve deeper in this topic. Techniques that I am talking about include:
  
  • Study cards
    
  • Mnemonics
    
  • Link Method and Story Method
    
  • Chunking
    
  • Rhyming
    
  • Mediation/Bridging
    
  • Bed-time Recital
    
• One of my personal problems has been my habit of PROCRASTINATION. And trust me its something that studies show more than 85% students do all the time. But before we go any further, let me give you a little idea about Procrastination. It is the avoidance of doing a task that needs to be accomplished. This can lead to feelings of guilt, inadequacy, depression and self-doubt among students. It interferes with the academic and personal success of student. To beat it, you 1^st have to know why you procrastinating at all?
  
  • Poor Time Management Procrastination means not managing time wisely. You may be uncertain of your priorities, goals and objectives. You may also be overwhelmed with the task. As a result, you keep putting off your academic assignments for a later date, or spending a great deal of time with your friends and social activities, or worrying about your upcoming examination, class project and papers rather than completing them.
    
  • Difficulty Concentrating: When you sit at you desk you find yourself daydreaming, staring into space, etc., instead of doing the task. Your environment is distracting and noisy. You keep running back and forth for equipment such as pencils, erasers, dictionary etc., and wow, your desk is all cluttered and unorganized and sometimes you sit/lie on your bed to study or do your assignments. You probably have noticed that all the examples that you have just read promote time wasting and frustration.
    
  • Fear and Anxiety: You may be overwhelmed with the task and afraid of failing. As a result, you spend a great deal of time worrying about your upcoming exams, papers and projects, rather that completing them. (Honestly what use?)
    
    • Negative Beliefs: Being pessimist may make you to stop yourself from getting work done.
      
    • Personal problems: For example, financial difficulties, low self esteem, etc.
      
    • Finding the task boring
      

You may believe that you MUST read everything ever written on a subject before you can begin to write your homework assignment. You may think that you haven’t done the best you possibly could do, so it’s not good enough.

• Fear of failure: You may think that if you don’t get the top marks, you are a failure. Or that if you fail an exam, you as a person, are a failure. Rather, believe that you are a perfectly OK person who has failed an exam. Ask around. I am sure most people around you (your parents/profs etc) must have failed at least once in their lifetime. So chill, its perfectly all right. Just don’t make it a habit!
  

Okay. Now that you know why u procrastinate, what next? Simple. How to Overcome Procrastination

• Identify your own goals, strengths and weaknesses, values and priorities.
  
• Compare your actions with the values you feel you have. Are your values consistent with your actions?
  
• Discipline yourself to use your time wisely: SET PRIORITIES
  
• Study in small blocks of time instead of long ones. Motivate yourself to study and set realistic goals.
  

• ACADEMIC NOTE-TAKING: learn how to make good notes. You don’t have to copy each word that you hear in your lectures. But you should put in writing all the important points. This helps you heaps when you want to revise. And even during the last minute revision before your exams. Some tips to make them better:
  
  • Color code your notes.
    
  • Keep them short and to-the-point : a co-student I knew use to start from the “preface” while making the notes! Allright, pretty neat. But hey, you don’t really need to revise the preface to your biology textbooks!
    
  • Take notes during class.
    
  • Try to read and write shorthand. You don’t want to miss the next line as you are busy jotting down the previous one.
    
  • Listen actively – if possible think before you write – but don’t get behind. Also read up the topic before the class.
    
  • Be open minded about points you disagree on. Don’t let arguing interfere with your note-taking. Write down the point even if you disagree. This will give you a chance to reflect.
    
  • Raise questions if you don’t understand something. If your teacher is good, he/she wont have a problem you asking questions. But if the teacher is not clear on the subject, you have even more right to raise a doubt!
    
  • Develop and use a standard method of note-taking including punctuation, abbreviations, margins, etc.
    
  • Leave a few spaces blank as you move from one point to the next so that you can fill in additional points later if necessary. Your objective is to take helpful notes, not to save paper.
    
  • Many teachers attempt to present a few major points and several minor points in a lecture. The rest is explanatory material and samples. Try to see the main points and do not get lost in a barrage of minor points which do not seem related to each other. The relationship is there if you will listen to it. Be alert to cues about what the professor thinks is important.
    
  • Copy down everything on the board, regardless. Did you ever stop to think that every blackboard scribble may be a clue to an exam item? You may not be able to integrate what is on the board into your lecture notes, but if you copy it, it may serve as a useful clue for you later.
    
  • Sit as close to the front of the class, there are fewer distractions and it is easier to hear, see and attend to important material.
    

Now a very important component of IIT JEE preparations is “remembering”. You read, studied and understood everything. But it wont help you in your IIT JEE & AIEEE examination (in any examination actually) if you don’t remember the facts that you have studied. And to be honest after 2 year of hard preparation there will be so much to memorize that you definitely need more than 2GB memory to do that.! But don’t worry, help is on the way. There are well used and proven methods to assist you in remembering the fact right.

But 1^st you should know the kind of memory you calling for. You are confronted with two kinds or types of memory work. The first and more common is general remembering or remembering the idea without using the exact words of the book or teacher. General memory is called for in all subjects. The other type of memory work is the verbatim memorizing or remembering the identical words by which something is expressed. This type of memorizing may be called for in all subjects but especially in science, engineering and mathematics, where the exact wording of formulas, rules, norms, law, or vocabulary must be remembered.

1. Understand thoroughly what is to be remembered and memorized. When something is understood, be it a name or a chemical chain it is almost completely learned, for anything thoroughly understood is well on the way toward being memorized. In the very process of trying to understand, to get clearly in mind a complex series of events, or chain of reasoning, the best possible process of trying to fix in mind for later use is being followed.
   
2. Spot what is to be memorized verbatim. It is a good plan to use a special marking symbol in text and notebook to indicate parts and passages, rules, data, and all other elements which need to memorized.
   
3. If verbatim memory is required, go over the material or try to repeat at odd times, as, for example, while going back and forth to school. ( I suggest using study cards for this)
   
4. Think about what you are trying to learn. Find an interest in the material if you wish to memorize it with ease.
   
5. Analyze material and strive to intensify the impressions the material makes.
   
6. Close your eyes and get a picture of the explanation and summary answer. Try to see it on the page. Underline the key words.
   
7. Make you own diagrams, applications, flowcharts, examples, illustrations.
   
8. Reduce the material to be remembered to your own self-made system or series of numbered steps.
   
9. Represent the idea graphically by use of pictorial or diagrammatic forms.
   
10. Form a variety of associations among the points you wish to remember. The richer the associations, the better memory.
    
11. Discuss the topic with a friend or even in front of the mirror (pseudo friend). Talking certainly helps.
    
12. Follow all this with suggestions for reviewing. This is an important part of remembering
    

• Another very important point is about the TIME MANAGEMENT. Time is the most valuable resource a student has. It is also one of the most wasted of resources. Just remember, every second counts. You don’t want to regret the time wasted!
  

or inefficiently. The way we use time (or waste it) is largely a matter of habit patterns. One of the best techniques for developing more efficient habits of time use is to prepare a time schedule. Research psychologist and efficiency experts can produce impressive statistics demonstrating the efficiency of a well-organized time schedule. The work habits of students who have achieved outstanding success at national/state level invariably show a well-designed pattern or schedule (for this you can also take help from your teachers or seniors). When a person has several duties confronting him simultaneously he often will fail to do any of them. The purpose of scheduling is not to make a slave of the student, but to free him from the scholastic inefficiency and anxiety that is, at least partially, a function of wasted time, inadequate planning, hasty, last minute study, etc.

• The most successful system for most students is to combine long-range and short-range planning. Thus, a student can make a general schedule for an entire quarter and then prepare a more specific plan for two or three days a week at a time.
  

Some suggestions for developing a long-range strategy – i.e., a quarter schedule.

1. PLAN ENOUGH TIME FOR STUDY.
   

Serious preparation for IIT JEE & AIEEE ‘s requires a student to average about six hours in studying excluding time spent in the classroom. This is an appropriate and realistic guideline. A genuinely high ability student may get by adequately with less. However, many students would do well to plan for an average output of 6 hours of sincere, serious studies.

1. STUDY AT THE SAME TIME EVERY DAY.
   

In so far as possible, a student should schedule certain hours which are used for studying almost every day in a habitual, systematic way. Having regular hours at least five days a week will make it easier to habitually follow the schedule and to maintain an active approach to study.

1. MAKE USE OF THE FREE HOURS DURING THE SCHOOL DAY.
   

The hours between classes are perhaps a student’s most valuable study time yet, ironically, the most frequently misused. A student may effectively utilize these hours reviewing the material and editing the notes of the preceding class and/or studying the material to be discussed in the following class.

1. PLAN STUDY PERIODS TO FOLLOW CLASS PERIODS.
   

This should be done whenever possible. The next best procedure is to schedule the period for study immediately preceding the class. A student should specify the particular course he will study rather than just marking “study” on his schedule.

1. SPACE STUDY PERIODS.
   

Fifty to ninety minutes of study at a time for each subject works best. Relaxation periods of ten or fifteen minutes should be scheduled between study periods. It is more efficient to study hard for a definite period of time, and then stop for a few minutes, than attempt to study on indefinitely.

1. PLAN FOR WEEKLY REVIEWS.
   

At least one hour each week for each class (distinct from study time) should be scheduled. The weekend is a good time for review.

1. LEAVE SOME UNSCHEDULED TIME FOR FLEXIBILITY.
   

This is important! Lack of flexibility is the major reason why schedules fail. Students tend to over-schedule themselves.

1. ALLOT TIME FOR PLANNED RECREATION, SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS ACTIVITIES, etc.
   

When a student plans his schedule, he should begin by listing the activities that come at fixed hours and cannot be changed. Classes and laboratories, eating, sleeping, etc. are examples of time uses which the student typically cannot alter. Next, he can schedule his flexible time commitments. These hours can be interchanged with other hours if he finds that his schedule must be changed during the week. Recreational activities are planned last.

When forced to deviate from his planned schedule (and that will invariably occur), the student should trade time rather than steal it from his planned schedule. Thus, if he has an unexpected visitor at a time he has reserved for study, he can substitute an equal amount of study time for the period he had set aside for recreation.

• If you have come this far, I am sure, you will be needing some RELAXATION TECHNIQUES. But don’t overlook relaxation. You need to indulge yourself. A relaxed brain will be a sharper one. There are many approaches to relaxation, and if you find anxiety difficult to control or a hindrance to your everyday life, then you may want to consider seeing your school counsellor. However for most people, these relaxation ideas may help, and can probably be used in a lecture or exam, as well as in private.
  
  • Choose an area of your body, such as your hands or shoulders and tense the muscles as much as you can (just let all your troubles flow in) for a few seconds. Release back into the most relaxed position, just letting your hands fall, or your shoulders drop, and move on to the next body part. Your body will feel the difference, and the automatic nervous system will adjust your heart rate and other symptoms accordingly.
    
  • Breathing becomes more shallow and rapid when we are anxious. Some people find actively thinking about their breathing is counterproductive, and they do better to ignore it focusing on another body part and allowing the breathing to slow naturally. Others find it very helpful to concentrate on breathing not from the upper chest, but diaphragmatically, in the abdomen. Don’t hold your breath, but do try to settle into a steady rhythm. (This is impossible to do properly if you are holding your stomach in!)
    
  • Close your eyes and pretend you are staring straight ahead into space, and try to ignore all the noise around you. Keep ‘looking’ at this point, and begin to focus on your breathing and gently slowing it down, without allowing yourself to open your eyes or starts listening to the outside noises.
    
  • Give your eyes and muscles a few seconds to relax in every five or ten minutes of work. Look away from the page and allow your eyes to relax. Stand up, and then sit back down, thinking carefully about your posture as you do so.
    
  • This piece of advice is coming straight from my family physiotherapist. A good and correct posture can do wonders to your efficiency and also help you relax! So the million dollar question- how do you get good posture? The answer is by not trying! Okay, this does sound a little odd but it is perfectly true. Get yourself a straight flat chair to work on. The hand rest should neither be too high nor too low. Adjust your chair height and study table so you can sit up close to your work and tilt it up at you. Rest your elbows and arms on your chair or desk, keeping your shoulders relaxed.
    
  • Don’t work in or on your bed. Keep your bed for relaxation and sleep. And this will also help you in sleeping better. Keep those working and sleeping zones separate!
    
• Switch off your study system before going to bed: stop working at least an hour before you intend on going to sleep and spend time doing something more relaxing e.g. listening to music, talking to friend, doing some sport, etc. in short, just relax.
  
• Do not ‘catastrophise’ about not being able to sleep well i.e. stop telling yourself that you will not be able to do anything the next day if you cannot get good long sleep. Even when you are not sleeping much you will still be able to function well, thinking logically and working. It is mundane, vigilance-type tasks and mood (e.g. irritability) that are affected by lack of sleep.
  

If you have come this far without losing focus; I must congratulate you on your persistence. It will take you far. And here wishing you all the very best to get yourself well prepared to face the IIT JEE and other engineering Entrance Examinations in life.