The JEE (Joint entrance examination) is the most recognised acronym across India for all science students. Given the fact that engineering is the career choice of every middle class Indian household, it’s not surprising (even though the student may not end up in a strictly engineering job. Now, since over 1.2 million students are preparing for this examination and there are cities whose entire economy is based on this, let’s talk about a few facts regarding this preparation.
JEE Main is conducted by CBSE for admission to all Engineering Institutes of national importance (except IITs) such as 31 NITs and 23 IIITs (5 centrally funded and 18 established under PPP). Also, several Centrally funded institutes (CFTI) also directly participate in the seat allocation process, while other institutes and states use the marks secured in the exam to prepare their own merit lists.
Additionally, JEE Main serves as a qualifying exam for JEE Advanced which is conducted by one of the top 7 IITs. Top 2.2 million students who clear the cut off of JEE Main become eligible to appear for JEE Advanced, top rankers of which get called for admission to the coveted 7 old and 16 new IITs.
Seats to all the above-mentioned institutes are allocated through a joint seat allocation authority based on the corresponding entrance exam. The questions that comes to our mind are:
- Usually, the top 10k students of JEE Advanced (who get into IITs) are the toppers of JEE Main as well. So why have 2 different exams?
- What is the difference in the pattern of these 2 exams?
- And consequently, what is the difference in the preparation strategy that needs to be employed for these 2 exams?
IITs are a world-renowned brand name and in order to maintain that, the Joint Admission Board of the IIT council (the decision-making authority of IITs) decided that they want to still have their own entrance exam which would test the scientific and engineering aptitude of a student in a more rigorous manner to decide the eligibility. The proven difference in the capabilities, aptitude, and consequent success rate of the majority (if not all) of the students from IITs compared to the students of other colleges would be in favour of this argument. But it still doesn’t explain having a different exam because, as we said earlier, the top 10k students of JEE Main are almost always in the top 10K of JEE Advanced.
This can be explained properly by analysing the difference between the 2 exams. JEE Main has 90 questions (30 each in Physics, Chemistry and Maths), each having 4 options, one of which is correct. A correct attempt gets you 4 marks and an incorrect one deducts 1 mark. Also, the level of most of the questions is set to judge your knowledge, the pattern is fixed and a lot of questions are repeated (some questions are asked directly from the NCERT, the book prescribed by CBSE in all of it’s affiliated schools)
JEE Advanced, on the other hand, has a pattern which changes almost every year. There are 2 papers (attempted back to back on the same day) each having a variety of questions from multiple options correct type, to matrix match, comprehension and integer type. Also, the marks per question and the negative marking is different for different type of questions. Lastly, most of the questions are unique and are completely application based, which require concepts of multiple areas and clear thinking. I wouldn’t categorize those questions as tough, but as questions which require you to have complete understanding and visualization of the topic/mechanism so much so that you can apply it in different scenarios which you haven’t practiced before. So, basically, IITs weren’t kidding when they said, they wanted to test you more rigorously. Now this is the answer to our question. The students who clear JEE Advanced have prepared most of the topics to that level and therefore would be more suited to survive and excel in the highly competitive environment of the IITs.
Therefore, we come to our final question, what should be the difference in the preparation strategy for both? Let’s find out:
- It’s very important to define your goal: is it JEE Main or Advanced. Is it NITs and IIITs or IITs? You don’t have to do it on the first day itself, but within a few months of starting the preparation, you should realise where your talent lies, and accordingly set your goal
- The initial part is same for both: start with the most basic level of the concepts (maybe from the class 9th or 10th textbook if required and then move forward. Keep solving questions at every level, start with solved ones and then the unsolved ones.
- Clear your doubts at every level in every topic. There are no stupid questions (there maybe stupid answers). So ask every question that comes to your mind to yourself, your peers, mentors, teachers etc and analyse every answer critically until you get the best one.
- Once finished with the NCERT and the first level books (H C Verma for Physics, O P Tandon and others for Chem and R D sharma for Maths, now, we have different paths Main and Advanced.
- For Main, the priority is now on speed AND accuracy. So keep revising and solving more questions. Have a study plan which covers new topics while making time for revising old ones as well. Solve objective type questions and learn tricks to reduce the amount of time required for each question.
- For Main, once you are done with the first round of preparation, check out the weightage and type of questions asked from each topic and practice on the basis of that. Most likely, that pattern will be repeated.
- For advanced, the priority is understanding the derivation and mechanism in all the topics and solving corresponding questions. For this, refer to more advanced books, work out each and every mechanism and derivations on your own through multiple ways. Learn the applications of all these by working on higher and advanced problems (solved first and then the unsolved ones). Start with subjective questions first. Once, you are completely fluent with the concepts, practice the various varieties of questions available to you.
- In JEE Advanced, accuracy comes before time, as you have a lot of time. You need to correctly choose, which questions to attempt and then attempt them accurately. So, while practicing the various varieties of questions, this is what you need to focus on.
- Lastly, for both Main and Advanced, solve previous year questions and then solve full length mock tests. You should be in a habit of being able to sit for 3 hours and attempt 90 questions (for Mains) and 54+ questions (for advanced) on multiple topics of 3 subjects.
This should give you a general overview of the difference in preparation for JEE Main and Advanced, and therefore, should help you choosing your target. Visit Gradeup for JEE Main, Advanced, BITSAT & all other entrance exam preparation.
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