I am not extraordinarily intelligent. I don’t have a great grasping power. Whatever I read I don’t retain it for a long time. But I have one thing which I think is the most important of all. I am hard working.
I have been good in studies from my childhood. But preparation for JEE is altogether different from earlier studies. It is all about conceptual clarity rather than cramming. So I always focussed on concepts and supplemented it with required no. of problems. I have never done any book completely but I did most of H.C. Verma. I kept tuitions for all 3 subjects. For Maths, my tutor’s assignments were exhaustive and I also practised from A. Das Gupta. For Chemistry I did my tutor’s notes thoroughly and consulted Solomons and Fryle to clear my concepts in Organic Chemistry.
This 2 year journey had been tough. My parents don’t get along well with each other and there is a constant atmosphere of tension in my house. This in fact used to pump me up and motivated me to perform better. My mother and sister have been very supportive. They always motivated me to perform well. My father instilled in me the faith in God and I think that really helped in my preparation.
The biggest mistake I did during my preparation was to lose my self confidence.I always chose the toughest questions to practice. And when I was unable to solve them my confidence level used to fall. Slowly my confidence shattered to a great extent. That was the time when I decided that I should concentrate on AIEEE and hence I joined the crash course for the same . This way my focus then shifted to AIEEE .
It was only after appearing in JEE exam, i realized that i was competent enough to make it in a big way , only if I was confident enough .I still managed to clear JEE and secure a decent rank but I was capable of much more .
My advice to all the IIT is aspirants out there is: Believe in your capabilities and never under estimate yourself. Also choose your study material wisely. You don’t need to be an Einstein or Newton to crack IIT JEE. All you need is an average I.Q. and an undying passion, and trust me you will make it through.
By Atul Sharma