TOP TEN STUDY TIPS To Prepare for IIT/BITSAT & AIEEE There are as many different ways to study

as there are different people. The following list is entrance study tips that have worked best for the greatest number of people. Some of them may work for you, some of them won't, but try them all and work out your own study plan. You cannot change the number of hours, but you can decide how to best use them. 1.) Study in the Same Place Find a secluded place, away from distractions, with plenty of space to work. Once you've found it, study at the same place every time. It could be a desk in your bedroom, the kitchen table, or the local library. Laying down on your bed or sprawled across the living room rug are generally not good study places. Also make sure that you keep your spine erect for better level of concentration. 2.) Study at the Same Time Figure out a suitable time of day you can concentrate best, and what works into your schedule. Use that time every day to study. Try to make sure it is not too late in the evening. It is important to have uninterrupted study time. 3.) Use a Homework Box Keep all your homework supplies in one place, ready to be used. Keep them organized, and you won't need to waste your time searching for resources. 4.) Cut out All Distractions If your Study Place is too warm, you might become sleepy. If it is too cold, your thinking may slow down and become unclear. The TV should be switched off, other people's conversations should be in another room, music should be turned down, and phone calls should be taken after you've finished studying. Any other thoughts in your mind should also be set aside for a later time.

5.) Do the Hard Things First If you are dreading a particular assignment, or you are aware that it requires a lot of extra effort, do it first. Your brain will be fresh. Besides, you won't have to dwell on it while you are working on other homework.

6.) Schedule Long Term Projects Larger projects need to be broken into smaller components to make them convenient. For example, these components could be such things as gathering notes, writing a rough draft, making corrections or additions, writing a bibliography, and completing the final copy. Set yourself a deadline for completing each component and make sure you stick to it. 7.) Review Regularly Homework is not just that which is assigned every night. A regular review of your notes should be a part of your homework plan. This takes just a few minutes each day, but will pay off considerably when it comes to test time. 8.) Write up a Contract Each Sunday before a school week, prepare a Weekly Schedule. Update it as the week goes on. Be sure to include times for completing assignments, working on projects and studying for tests. 9.) Schedule Each Homework Session When you sit down to do your homework, make up a quick schedule as to how you are going to use your time. Break it up into blocks of time that you will spend on each task. 10.) Avoid Doing a Marathon If you've followed the previous tips, this last one should never happen. However, you need to know that marathon study sessions are the least productive way to study. So dont keep your things pending till the last moment to avoid unnecessary hiccups.

IITJEE ..Hmm how many days left? Count yourself

Those who are thinking that it's impossible to crack JEE in 5 months here is a short, true story about a boy who was able to crack JEE by preparing sincerely for 3 months itself.

There was a boy named Anirudh who woke up on a day when IITJEE forms were out. It was November.Anirudh was regretting about the time he wasted. He was not at all prepared for JEE.Not even the basics.

But the positive thing about Anirudh was that he never gave up and said to himself that "there is no gain without pain". I will crack JEE in 4 months of preparations. You won't believe guys he kept his mind on cracking JEE in 3 and a half month and worked sincerely for the exam. He studied 10 to 12 hours daily and increased it to 12 to 13 hours after January. He even studied board exam portion too since he had to answer his boards in the same year.

Anirudh was very weak in physics and had forgotten 11th mechanics and chemistry organic. He was proficient in maths only till board level. But inspite of all these hurdles he kept his cool and started the preparations all over again right from the beginning. So how he started. Physics He read NCERT book of physics as fast as possible and completed it in 1 week Then he solved each and every problem in HC Verma.and if he had any difficulty he solved them soon. He read Resnick Halliday thoroughly and even solved problems from it.

In chemistry Started with NCERT and followed the same method as in physics. Read Morrison Boyd and solved relevant problems. And maths he took up coaching material and studied it religiously. You won't believe guys Anirudh mastered his concepts till end of March and scored decent percentage in boards and cleared IITJEE with AIR-1278.

Today he is studying BTech in Aerospace Engineering from IIT Bombay. If Anirudh can do it then why not you. Anirudh isn't any gifted student but is same like everyone of us.He is just an average student. But he also swore that he wont be postponing any more things in his life . So what's the conclusion Studying sincerely for 3 to 5 months = Studying not so seriously for 2 years There is a lot of time for JEE and start for it now itself if you haven't started yet.

'Whenever u need to learn something start with what is necessary, then do what is possible & doing that u would suddenly realize that u r doing the impossible' Don't worry, JEE is not an unachievable task it's just that you think it's unachievable. Leave no stone unturned

Well thought revision plan, The first & foremost step is to build a sound & feasible plan for your preparation.

Divide your entire time into a reasonable time chart with milestones in between & plan your studies accordingly. Do not overestimate the time you have. You are advised to leave free time in between so that if any module gets delayed you dont have to change the plan.

Study the trend of previous year question papers & draw marks distribution of each subject to find out which topics are most important & which are least. Give priority to important topics & try to put them in early stage of your IIT preparation to avoid any possibility of them being left.

Review your plan periodically to find out if there are any lapses & how they can be covered up.

To summarize PAGE counselors believe that most of the students fail not because of lack of ability or intelligence but because of lack of desire, direction, proper planning & discipline.

Strengthening fundamentals: Most of the questions are based on fundamentals & their applications. So, the first step is to establish a solid base by mastering the fundamentals. For mastering the fundamentals you have to be focused. Dont refer too many JEE entrance books. Decide about the books after discussing with your trainer at PAGE then stick to them.

When you start a new chapter, the learning curve is slow that you do not accomplish similar amount of learning every day even though you spend same amount of time everyday. So even if your learning process is slow, keep studying day after day without getting discouraged. All the subjects are equally important. Devote more time to subject/topic you are weak in (remember most of us tend to devote more time on areas we are strong & often shy away from our weakness). In most of the examinations minimum qualifying marks are there for each subject. Hence make sure that you do not ignore any subject & allocate adequate time to each subject

Strengthening Application of fundamentals

Quality is more important than Quantity: Doing 100 quality & concepts based questions is more important than doing 1000 questions which have not been selected carefully. Remember that the purpose is to sharpen problem-solving skills. Start with conventional methods of problem solving but improvise constantly & build you own shortcuts & ways of attacking a problem.

While practicing the problem always try to solve the problem on your own. If you are unable to solve a problem do not hurry to consult the solution. Study the relevant theory again, paying attention to the finer points and the problem in the back of mind.

Experience shows that studying the theory with a definite problem in mind is very effective and also sharpens the problem solving skills. Remember that directly going through the solutions is not going to help you at all. The key in problem solving does not lie in understanding the solution to the problem but to find out what clues in the problem leads you to the right explanation. In case you are not able to solve the problem try to find out the reason by analyzing the level of problem & practice similar kind of problems so that you can master the tricks involved.

While doing problem solving try to strengthen and develop your conceptual understanding by analyzing deeply and correlating the problem with real life situations.

While practicing identify your strong & weak areas (subject wise/topic wise/question wise). Testing your preparation chapter by chapter can do this. Through a structured test you should be able to diagnose which chapter, which concept & what type of problems you need to practice more.

Strengthening Speed/Strike rate & Examination temperament Always keep track of your average speed of solving questions.

Participating in PAGE programmes helps in time & temperament management during the actual exams. It has been observed that most of the students loose 15 to 20% of their marks not because they do not know the subject but because they fail to apply the basic concepts correctly. This is basically due to examination fear & pressure. These marks that a student looses because of silly mistakes (calculation errors, confusion, fail to apply the right concepts, solving the problem by long method) can be reduced if a student regularly participates in online tests based on the pattern & level of actual exams. The student can also simulate the exam like conditions through PAGE training program.

Get a feedback on your preparation by getting yourself tested by a body other than your school/coaching center. Testing by PAGE would give you an independent and unbiased feedback about your performance. It is preferable if these tests give feedback on National

level.

Please remember that both speed & strike rate are important for success. Continuously develop the ability to do things fast & accurately. Keep interacting with people who are preparing. Since the competition is on National level it is important to compare your preparation with other students preparing across the country.

In short we can say that our tests are not necessarily test of knowledge of basic fundamentals only but are also tests of application of knowledge to solve surprise problems with perfect time & temperament management. Speed: Speed building comes through the following: Memorizing land mark problems (remembering standard formulae, concepts so that you can apply them directly) Being strong in mental calculations (never use the calculator during your entire preparation, try to do first and second level of calculations mentally, remember as vocalization reduces reading speed, similarly doing calculation on paper reduces the speed. Working with choices (see all the options and do not go for last digit accuracy unless required by the problem) when you are doing subject wise exercises you can also calculate speed subject wise.

Here we would like to highlight one more point that just good speed is not enough because of negative marks, so a high speed with less accuracy may be harmful.

Strike Rate: This originates the second important factor, the strike rate. Strike rate means the percentage of correctly attempted questions

Strike rate can be improved with the help of intelligent guessing. Intelligent guessing means guessing a question you are not completely sure but have some idea about. Your objective is not to solve the question but choosing the correct option out of the 4 given choices. So always try to eliminate the choices. Remember that if one choice is eliminated, chances of your guess being right is 33% (in comparison to a blind guess where the chances of being right is 25%) and if two are eliminated the chances of hitting the right answer are 50 %

So remember that a good speed or strike rate alone cannot give you success. One without the other is a good way to mess up a potentially good performance. So, what is required is a good combination of both speed and strike rate.

Question Selection: It is very important to understand what you have to attempt and what you have to leave. There is a limit to which you can improve your speed and strike rate beyond which what becomes very important is your selection of question. So success depends upon how judiciously one is able to select the questions. To optimize your performance you should quickly scan for easy question and come back to the difficult ones later.

Always keep in mind that normally questions in any competitive exams can be categorized into 3 areas

Easy Average Difficult

: Approximately 25% questions in a paper are easy : Approximately 60% questions in a paper are average : Approximately 15% questions in a paper are difficult

The easy and average questions ensure selection whereas the difficult questions make the merit. You should focus on careful selection of the easy and average questions and avoid difficult questions in the first and second round and come back to them once you have completed the entire paper once.

Also remember that cut-off in most of the exams moves between 60 to 70%. So if you focus on easy and average question i.e. 85% of the questions, you can easily score 70% marks without even going to difficult question. Try to ensure that in the initial 2 hours of the paper the focus should be clearly on easy and average question, after two hours you can decide whether you want to move to difficult questions or revise the ones attempted to ensure a high strike rate.