The New Year begins on a fresh new note for exam aspirants across the country: the JEE main exam will be held by the National Testing Agency (NTA) twice in 2019 - once in January and again in April.
One of the most prominent exams within the country, the JEE Main will be conducted across 273 cities in India and abroad. Though the exam pattern has not changed in the last five years, it has moved to an online-only mode for a better and more accurate evaluation. Before we proceed to discuss how to attempt the exam, let us understand the paper pattern of JEE.
JEE Main is a 3-hour long exam consisting of objective type and drawing aptitude questions. It has two papers: Paper 1 for BE/BTech and Paper 2 for B. Arch/B. Planning.
The subjects tested are physics, chemistry and maths and all questions are from class XI and XII syllabus.
Every subject carries 30 questions each. Every correct answer fetches you 4 marks, while each wrong answer takes away 1 mark.
When attempting this paper, the strategy will not be the same for every aspirant.
{{/usCountry}}When attempting this paper, the strategy will not be the same for every aspirant.
{{/usCountry}}Depending on their preparation level and aptitude, every candidate will have a different strategy.
Keeping that in mind, we have three different strategies in this article. You can choose the one that seems suitable for you:
Strategy 1: For those who have a good command over the entire syllabus of all three subjects
There will be 90 questions to be answered within 3 hours. Begin the paper with Chemistry and allocate 40 minutes to complete all thirty questions within that time. If any question takes more than the average time, mark it for review later. Move on to Physics next and give 60 minutes to all thirty questions. Use the remaining 80 minutes wisely. Provide 70 minutes to solve all thirty Mathematics questions and 10 minutes to solve all pending questions of all subjects.
Strategy 2: For those who have focused more on their Board exam and less on JEE
Read all 90 questions in the first fifteen minutes and segregate the questions based on class 11th and 12th. Spend 75 minutes solving all 12th standard questions. The rest of the time can be allocated to solving all 11th standard questions.
Strategy 3: For those who do not have a good command over all three subjects
Here is a step-by-step guide for this strategy.
Step 1: Allocate 15 minutes to read all 90 questions and separate the easy, moderate and difficult questions with a pen and paper. Easy questions would typically be the ones you can solve within a minute. For questions that require higher calculations, mark them as moderate. The difficult questions would be the one you are not familiar with.
Step 2: Now, solve all the easy questions first. If it takes longer than a minute to solve an easy question, select the Mark for Review and Next option and move on.
Step 3: When attempting questions in the moderate category, don’t spend more than two minutes on any question. If you are not too confident about your answer, you can save it and mark it for review later.
Step 4: Now get to the difficult questions but don’t spend more than 3 minutes on each answer.
Step 5: Resolve all the questions you had marked for review.
While these strategies may help you select the right approach to the exam, it is up to you to prepare daily and actively. Make sure you practice every day and solve as many mock tests as possible. With a clear head and a precise approach, we assure you that you will definitely get a high score. And if you don’t, you have another 70 days for your second chance in April.
(The author is Academic head and VP (JEE and NEET) at Gradeup. Views expressed are personal).