There is no unique way of preparing for the IIT-JEE. What is good for one need not be so for another. Clearing the JEE is a project and as such needs to be planned for and managed properly.
It is said that a battle is not as much won in the field as while planning and strategising for it. The same is true in the case of the JEE. One is not likely to make significant headway if one goes headlong without a coherent plan while preparing for it. One needs to make a sound strategy for clearing the JEE. While some of the elements of such a strategy are common and equally applicable to all aspirants, there are others entirely dependent on the individual.
The first step is to start with the right frame of mind. A positive attitude is needed to last through the long drawn process. It will require sustenance of tempo for months together. Many may feel like quitting, but what is going to finally win the race is the belief that one can do it!
This point cannot be over-emphasised. While you must believe that you can do it, you must also have a very clear idea of where you stand, to begin with. You must know your strengths and weaknesses. These could be anything that has a bearing on your preparation. Some of you, for example, may cover a lot of ground in one sitting, while for some, sustained concentration for more than a specified period at a stretch might prove to be counterproductive.
Some of you may have a natural strength in mathematics, while some may have an aptitude for chemistry or physics. It is important to know these nuances of your strengths and weaknesses. The reason is really simple. To plan and work on a winning strategy, you must know which of your strengths need to be further honed, which of your weaknesses you can live with, and which of the weaknesses you need to work upon so they don’t become a handicap.
Any successful implementation of a project is the culmination of successfully completing smaller projects and even smaller tasks. Remember that every journey takes its own time. If you wish to reach the destination in time, you need to start right away and plan out the details—which milestones do you need to cross, and when, before you finally succeed. Plans need to be worked out at different levels. And for this, you need to set specific time bound targets.
Whatever be the schedule one decides on, it may help to remember the following:
Many of us, while preparing for the JEE, tend to lay high emphasis on problem solving and not so much on understanding the subject. Since JEE itself largely consists of numerical problems, this approach leads to a false belief among the students—that the more number of problems one solves or goes through, the better are the chances of success at the JEE. While this might be true to a certain extent, solving problems prematurely without adequate grounding of fundamentals is unlikely to meet the final objective. Sometimes we also tend to entangle ourselves with unnecessarily complex problems that have very little relevance to the JEE. Students must study the kinds of questions that have been appearing in the JEE, and convince themselves about the kinds that they need to practice with.
It is important to realise that there is no alternative to rigour. This means that we must be thorough with our understanding of concepts. Sometimes while trying to solve a problem, we give up quickly and look at the solution. Many a times we read a topic or see a problem or a solution and think that we have understood it. The words rigour and persistence go hand in hand. Looking at its absolute importance in the context of our preparation, we must try to do the following.