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Free coaching for Physics, Chemistry by this YouTuber has 1.89 million tuning in
The popularity of this Kalandipuram resident has even earned the 26-year-old Pandey YouTube’s coveted ‘Gold Play Button’—awarded only to those who bag over 10 lakh subscribers.
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At a time when coaching institutes are minting money hosting classes for aspiring techies and medicos, Prayagraj’s Alakh Pandey imparts free physics and chemistry coaching online. In just two years, he has notched up 1.89 million subscribers on his YouTube channel - not just in India but even in other countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Saudi Arabia.
His popularity can be gauged from the fact that today videos of this BTech graduate from Harcourt Butler Technological Institute (HBTI)-Kanpur attracts around 22 million viewers each month on his YouTube channel ‘Physics Wallah’, emerging as one of the most popular online gurus in the world.
The popularity of this Kalandipuram resident has even earned the 26-year-old Pandey YouTube’s coveted ‘Gold Play Button’—awarded only to those who bag over 10 lakh subscribers.
On popular demand, he has even launched a website, through which also he makes available notes, books and hosts quizzes for teens and youngsters, again free of cost.
But this popularity did not come easy. It was the struggle that Alakh experienced during his school and college days that prompted him to begin this initiative to help and guide students.
“I used to reside in South Malaka with my family. But there was a severe financial crunch that forced us to sell the house to move to Kalandipuram. After completing my intermediate from Bishop Johnson School and College in Prayagraj in 2010, I started preparing for engineering entrance exams and realised first-hand how costly coaching and guidance was. So, I relied on myself mainly,” Pandey said.
He said that in 2011, he cleared the engineering entrance exam and got admission at HBTI-Kanpur. After completing my BTech in 2015, he came to Prayagraj and started taking coaching classes in partnership. “But all the time, I knew that my heart was in helping as many students as possible and so I decided to turn to YouTube.
“In 2017, I created the YouTube Channel ‘Physics Wallah’ and started uploading videos explaining different concepts of physics and chemistry. Slowly, the number of views and subscribers started rising and within a year-and-a-half I quit teaching in coaching classes and devoted myself completely to the channel,” he added.
“On an average, it takes me six hours to make a 40-50 minute video and I upload 28-odd videos every month. The biggest drawback of video coaching is the inability of the students to ask a question to clear their doubts. So, while making a video you have to anticipate the possible questions that a student may have and then incorporate it also in the video lecture,” explained Pandey, who has turned down numerous offers from coaching institutes around the country to join them and teach.
Though his lectures are primarily based on the NCERT syllabus and focused on engineering entrance exams like JEE and JEE (Advanced), due to his unique and easy style of teaching he even attracts intermediate-level students and budding medicos wishing to bone up on physics and chemistry.
