An insurmountable syllabus and extremely limited time. Maybe brushing up the Inorganic Chemistry notes is the best thing to do. But then what about those electromagnetics questions? Or calculus? I still don’t think that I have memorized all the theorems. Nah, I think I am just exaggerating. Attempting the mock tests is probably the best thing to do. But what if I don’t score well on them? Oh no! What if I don’t crack JEE? What will I do? The two years’ worth of efforts flushed down the drain? Oh no! I don’t want to attempt the exam once again next year!
Now, we don’t know about you but our minds were bombarded with these thoughts when we attempted for our JEE exam. With the fear of failure lingering upon us every day, it was not easy at all to open a book, and just read. The “What If” scenarios were just too frightening to actually concentrate. It would have been about an hour or two of juggling between books before we managed to finally sit down and not pay heed to such constant thoughts lurking around the corner of our minds. We still are yet to come across a life event that has greater mental pressure than what the last two months of JEE preparation had. Having been through this phase, we completely understand your occasional haphazard days, inefficient study timetables, and the constant mental toll. At the expense of coming across as too dramatic, we would like to be the Iron Man to your Agent Romanoff. But instead of asking if you missed us, Agent Romanoff, we would just go ahead and share our two cents on how to manage your time and preparation during the final months before you go on and sit down for the dreaded JEE exam.
The wild species
When you started your journey to reach IIT, you probably thought to leave the Inorganic Chemistry for the last two months. And, believe it or not, ‘the last two months’ have arrived. Now, it might happen that you have completed the Inorganic Chemistry syllabus during the extra days you gained because of lockdown, but Inorganic Chemistry is a different kind of species. Apart from learning it, you have to keep the knowledge alive in your brain and gain confidence that you will be able to remember it when the time will come. The only method that can help you tame this wild animal is to keep practicing questions daily. The same goes for other topics that you have to learn (that just cannot be understood) from Chemistry as well as Physics.
What you know and what you don’t?
The exam is approaching and the big question is ‘should you strengthen your strong topics or should you give your weak topics one more try? Well, our suggestion is to focus on strengthening your already strong topics so that you don’t have to regret leaving a question from these. For weak topics, you must at least learn and understand all the formulas to solve any easy question appearing in the exam to gain those unexpected marks.
On your mark. Rehearse. Perform
Can you imagine going to a concert where the artist didn’t rehearse for the performance thoroughly? Even if it’s Katy Perry (Yeah, we roar), the concert would probably suck if it’s just unplanned choreography and random songs. The same goes for JEE. Many things can go wrong during JEE and you don’t have full control over these things, but you can surely reduce the odds of anything bad happening by simulating the exact JEE environment with the help of mock tests. Practicing one mock test daily during the original timing of the JEE is a must. It is recommended to start giving these mock tests at least two weeks before the exam day to have a fair idea of your speed and to figure out the best strategy “suitable for you” to solve the question paper. You can purchase a mock test book but the recommended option is that you practice the mock tests available online.
What’s more important than attempting mock tests?
A to the N to the A to LYZING. ANALYZING your mock attempt (What, did someone just yell boomer? How dare you). Jokes apart, if you play chess you would know that merely playing games of chess doesn’t make you better at it, it’s the grinding analysis at the end that helps you figure out and realize what went wrong and how it could have been avoided or improved. Similarly, if you are just attempting mock tests, checking your scores and moving on, you are missing out on the very important and much-needed improvement. Because you can only improve if you know what topics you are weak at and what topics you are slow at. So, check the answer key and take note of what went wrong. Give special emphasis to those topics/subjects and slowly they shouldn’t be a problem anymore.
Prepare a time-table
We know it’s the most boring part of anybody’s preparation but it’s also indispensable if someone wants preparation to go smoothly as they planned. Now, we have tried to list above all the ingredients required for the last two months. What you need more is to just plug them all and prepare a neat schedule for yourself and that’s it. Don’t worry if you face problems following your schedule initially (happens with everyone). Just analyze it and tailor it again according to your fit.
We are fully aware that this is not an exhaustive list but this is the essence of every tip that you will hear from your teacher, your senior, or anybody on the internet. You just have to stay positive and patient while following your schedule honestly.
Oh, and one more thing. Don’t stress out. While the above tips should help you capitalize on your two years’ worth of hard work and preparation, it’s easy to feel burdened by the fear of failure. So remember, don’t stress out. The anxiety and panic will only harm you and cause you to crave into some really pointless and negative thoughts. Relax reasonably. Take a walk, sit down and have a chat with your parents or tune in to your favorite show once a while. Get rid of the pressure and before you know it, JEE is just another exam waiting to be cracked by you.
Best of luck!
Team Paperfumes
If you feel that we missed out on any last-minute preparation strategy, drop a comment below or write to us using Ask Toppers Anything on the bottom right of your screen. We will get on it pronto.
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