The focus now shifts to the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) which will decide the course of many an engineer aspirants’ career. The paper pen phase of the 2014 edition of the JEE-Mains is scheduled for April 6 and the online examinations will be conducted on April 9, 11, 12 and 19. Let’s look at some last-minute tips for the largest engineering entrance examination in India. The duration of the examination is three hours and will test the candidates on physics, chemistry and mathematics.
Pay attention
Traditionally, mechanics has been the heavy weight test area in physics. Definitely include the areas such as laws of motion, rotational motion, work, power, energy and kinematics in the plan for the final revision. Also do keep in mind that these areas are not compartmentalised as they are presented in your text books. It pays to complete your revision in all the areas mentioned with a comprehensive look at the multiple choice questions you have had difficulty during the model exams. Pay attention to the units and dimensional formulae. Electrostatics, current electricity and magnetism forms the other important set of topics in physics. Together, these two sets of topics have accounted for more than 80 per cent of questions in several of the past editions of the exam. Application questions using Young’s modulus, Bernoulli’s principle etc. are relatively easy, and so, do pay special attention to these while revising. Compared to mechanics, the section on properties of solids and liquids involves more memorising. At the same time, the questions can be presented as a contextual case study.
Revisit the basics
Physical chemistry, organic chemistry and inorganic chemistry have taken up weightages in the ratio of 4:3:3 in the past several years of AIEEE/JEE-Mains examinations. While the questions in physical chemistry could be calculation intensive, the questions in organic and inorganic chemistry will require the ability to immediately bring to mind the several properties of compounds and the manner in which they react with other substances. Most students have one favourite area from among the three. While it is okay to start searching for questions from that area in the actual test, complete your revision in all areas. Many a time, students leave out questions from a less favourite area that could otherwise have been done with ease, just because they did not spend time on the last minute refreshing. It’s a good tactic to revisit the very basics of atomic structure and chemical bonding.
Since you have learned this at the very beginning of Class XI, it will require preparation. Chemical thermodynamics and chemical kinetics is a test area students make relatively more mistakes while actually getting into the final solving phase. Special attention is required for studying the rates of reactions and the concentration of reactants.
Capture standard formats
Calculus – starting from differentiability, integral calculus and differential equations has remained the single largest test area. These topics together have accounted for just over 40 per cent in several versions of the examination over the years since its inception in 2004. The other heavyweights in mathematics are trigonometry, coordinate geometry and complex numbers. There are several patterns of questions — those that are called standard formats. Your revision should capture all the standard formats of equations so that you are able to immediately identify them in a question. This is almost one-third of the work done. If you are able to generally fix the direction of the question, the remaining task will be to work out the specific problem with respect to the variables mentioned.
Margin for error in this examination where more than 10 lakh students compete for admission is very limited. Just a couple of questions can make a big difference in your overall rank. So prepare well and let it show in your performance.
The writer is director, T.I.M.E. Chennai
