HOW TO PREPARE FOR IIT-JEE-2008?

St.Francic of Assisi said once, ‘start by doing what is required, then do what is possible and you will realise that you have done the impossible.’

This philosophy works well for the preparation of IIT-JEE, one of the toughest examinations conducted at the plus two level. It is the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) conducted by the Indian Institutes Of Technology (IITs) to admit students into engineering and science courses they offer.

The exam will be held on 13th April 2008 and is going to be totally objective type. There will be one question paper of two hours duration in each of the subjects Physics Math, & Chemistry. There will be short write-ups followed by objective type questions to test the analytical ability of students. Those who get a rank in this exam will be offered admission into IITs or BHU through a counseling session, which is typically held at Chennai for the south zone students.

To be successful in the JEE, a student should first master the fundamentals of Intermediate (or 11th and 12th) syllabus, followed by attempts to get into the depth of the subject by solving relevant short but twisted problems from various text books. Potentially, attending a good coaching centre could boost an individual’s rank or help get a rank in the first place. Parents and students have to realise, though, that a coaching center can never be a substitute for intelligence and hard work.

Though, the model of IIT-JEE 2008 is going to be almost same as that of AIEEE, EAMCET etc., the method of questioning will be completely different. To get through AIEEE, EAMCET, it is enough for the student to know which answer, among the four choices, is correct. To get through the IIT JEE, the student should know why the remaining three choices are incorrect. Though seemingly obvious, mastering this subtle difference can help the students go a long way. The comprehension type questions which are going to be introduced from JEE-2008, demand a much thorough understanding of the questions compared to AIEEE and EAMCET. To be successful in the JEE, a student should develop basic aptitude towards mathematics and physical sciences. This aptitude is best developed among children at the High School level, but most schools prefer the “cramming stuff into the head” approach to the “conceptual understanding” approach. Good coaching centers start to instill the basic understanding approach back into the students, thus providing what the high schools (and many times Junior Colleges) have been unable to. The mad rush to get into these coaching centers is thus an obvious phenomenon.

Thanks to some of these good coaching centers, the number of students appearing for and qualifying through JEE, from Hyderabad, has been regularly increasing. With the crop of these good coaching centeres come the weeds that have brought a bad name to the industry. Taking advantage of the desperate students and parents, they work on the principle of instilling fear of JEE into the hearts of parents and students. The result of this misguidance leads the innocent customers to believe that students need to learn a lot more subject matter and spend a lot more time than they actually have to. The obvious side effects of this have been the decrease in student efficiency (utility or knowledge gained per unit time spent on academics) and a drastic decrease in the amount of time and effort spent on the absolutely necessary, basic intermediate education.

This trend, off late, has lead to unhealthy, cut-throat competetion among students. Camaraderie has long been invisible among the students and the overall development of the child (stressing the extracurricular development) has become lowest among the priorities, for parents, teachers and hence students alike.

A lure of this better higher education has had a blinding effect on our society. The hands-off approach adopted by the parents who strongly believe that these coaching centers are the final authority on their kid’s welfare has given additional leeway for the some of the coaching centers to abuse this power. Portraying the intermediate education as a necessary hurdle, rather than a more accurate stepping stone towards success has benefited the wrong parties, leaving the ill-effects to be borne by the products of our society, namely the students graduating.

This has little effect on the students who lie on either extremes of the brightness scale. The worst effect of this bad trend is clearly visible on students who are moderately intelligent and stand a chance to succeed in this competitive environment only when they get the maximum benefit from every minute they put into their academics. A majority of students fall in this middle belt and are ending up spending their time and money on the incorrect priorities, thus leading to failure, while the coaching centers benefit from the success of the few extremely bright ones who are destined to success any way.

In my years of experience as a lecturer, perfection in the intermediate syllabus, followed by practicing complicated problems based on the simple basics is the correct modus operandi for achieving success in the JEE. Solving a problem is important and more important is doing it within the set time limit. This comes only by practice, not by reading alone.

Depending on the grasping power of an individual, he/she can achieve this either by sitting at home or by attending effective coaching classes. Neglecting intermediate syllabus, attending coaching centres which dump inappropriate educational material (of very high standered) on students, mostly to overwhelm them and adopt scary tactics on the innocent parent community have always been and will continue to be, recepies for disaster. Ignorance can no more be an excuse for parents or students. It is time for us, as a society to wake up and do what we think is best for our children.

Courtesy : krishnamurthyiitacademy.com