Be the master of all topics for IIT-JEE

Arun Roy provides last-minute guidance for the second and last lap of IIT-JEE due on May 22

Arun Roy provides last-minute guidance for the second and last lap of IIT-JEE due on May 22

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The basic philosophy of IIT-JEE examination is to test the applicability of knowledge rather than the awareness of topics in the IIT-JEE syllabus. The questions also attempt to test a student's ability to identify the under-current linkages of 3-4 concepts in the same question. For this, a student should not only have mastered the application of laws but also, more importantly, be aware of the fallacies of each law, i.e. the conditions under which the laws do not hold true. Before finding the limits or differentials, one must check, whether they exist or not. While calculating the limits by L' hospital's rule, one must ensure that the individual functions are differentiable, etc.

Paradigm shift
In the past few years, there is a perceptible change in the scope of JEE. Earlier the focus seemed to be on testing what the students did not know. That is why the difficulty level of problems used to be very high and the cut-off marks used to be as low as 25-30. In that situation a good strategy would have been to select a few topics and master them thoroughly, instead of trying to master all the topics. The philosophy has changed and tests the students on what they know. Due to this the difficulty level of questions has been considerably reduced. The questions asked may be from as many topics from the syllabus as possible, ensuring that difficulty level of each topic is not very high.

Strategy
In this situation, it is not advisable to leave out many topics completely. However, if the student feels that there are areas of discomfort — not more than 15 to 20 per cent of the topics in the syllabus — he can do away with these topics at this point of time. The remaining must be done thoroughly.

Success of a grand strategy depends upon the right implementation of many mini-strategies. To begin with, break down each subject into smaller parts and master them individually. Then take up the questions which involve two or more of these concepts. It is not advisable to go for very difficult or challenging problems at this point of time.

• Mathematics: The problems of the level of International Maths Olympiad should be avoided. Instead, standard books by authors like SL Loney, Hall & Knight and I Maron are good benchmarks. One can use standard IIT guides and only concentrate on selected solved problems.

• Physics: In physics, one would do well to drop out very difficult questions from Irodov, but take up problems of difficulty level which are slightly higher than taken in HC Verma's book. Ideally, Resnick Haliday-Walker and Irodov should be the best combination at this stage. G solved problems from standard IIT guides should be gone through.

• Chemistry: In organic chemistry collect names of all important reagents in organic chemistry and master their special applications. For example AgOH and NaBH4 are oxidising and reducing agents respectively, but they do not affect the double bonds. This kind of list is usually not available in standard textbooks. But spending a little time on them will benefit a student immensely. Look for a good book, which contains large number of questions, which involve the application of concepts. Do not neglect recently added topics in the chemistry syllabus, like Carbohydrates or industrially useful chemicals.

Importance of screening
There have been cases where a student getting a screening scores as low as 1860 has cleared the main exam. So don't bother too much about your rank in the screening exam. On the contrary, success in the screening exam should reassure your faith in your own command over basic fundamentals of the topics.

Always remember that this is a test of nerves and your ability to keep cool under pressure will decide the issue. Don't try to stuff too much in as it is difficult to improve upon your knowledge in such a short period of time. Relax and keep your mental acumen at peak. Take to some physical activities. Who knows, in a relaxed frame of mind, you may be in a better position to identify the different links of various concepts in the same question and solve it.

(Prof Arun Roy is an alumnus of IIT Bombay and has been preparing students for IIT JEE for more than 25 years and can be reached at:arun.roy@careerlauncher.com )