Year 2

If you've been sincere so far, you must be accustomed to certain ways of efficient learning by now. Stick to them, and make them even better, so that you continue to grow. Keep doing the topics that you couldn't pick up in Year 1, and regularly revisit the ones that you could. You've now reached a stage when you need to flex your muscles and put your vehicle in the next gear.

Now you'll need to spend more time on Math than on Physics. Calculus is probably the most interesting field of Mathematics, and, if understood properly, can do wonders almost everywhere. PRACTICE A LOT. Once again, I would recommend Cengage Publications' book, as it has a huge variety of question types, levels of difficulty and formation of problems. Probability and Permutations and Combinations are exciting, but can get confusing too. Probability in particular, requires time, and a lot of practice. 

Keep learning Organic Chemistry. Don't lag. Put in your inputs, and watch it flow seamlessly from the books to your brain and lift you to the next level. Consistent revision is the ultimate key to unlocking an enviable grasp of Organic.

Establish links between Gravitation and electrostatics. Between mechanics and electromagnetism. Physics can be approached efficiently in this manner. Explore the connections already made, link them with existing topics, and use these links to solve numerous problems. Make it a point to study Modern Physics properly - it is easy to ignore. But if you become good at it, it's a guarantee of substantial marks in the exam. Optics is one of the easiest topics in the whole of the syllabus. Go ahead and master it.

In the midst of all this, don't forget Units and Dimensions. You'll be glad you did it.

 

One more advice - do school work regularly, not just because everyone wants you to do well in Board exams, but also because it helps later on. Your sincerity in science practicals reflects in later life, as well as a few questions in almost every entrance exam. Practice from NCERT opens your doors to stronger grasp of the formulas, and familiarity with the most common question types. Needless to say, NCERT Chemistry is the backbone of the chemistry question papers in all entrance exams.

Year 1 Continued...

Patience, persistence and practice - those are the essential ingredients to success in this scenario. So, let's move forward.

When coordinate geometry knocks at your doorstep, open the door and embrace it with both hands. Yes, it is a guarantee of marks in almost all competitive exams. At first, you may feel flabbergasted by the number of equations and variables you have to deal with. You'd be wondering how geometry took this shape. But don't recoil yet, because this geometry is far better than the Euclidean one. It has variety, but in a limited scope. I would recommend Cengage Publications' Coordinate Geometry for practice - it has a lot of variety and is very engaging. You'll love the topic after going through it.

I was personally not very fond of trigonometry. Nevertheless, it is useful. A fine grip on trigo can take you places in calculus. Give special attention to trigonometric equations, because it has many uses in other topics. Solution of triangles is a tricky topic to deal with. If you don't get it first time, don't be disheartened, because you'll get a lot of time to learn it again. If you get it first time, that's great. Keep it in your head and go ahead.

Now is usually the grand opening of Organic Chemistry for most of us. 11th class Organic Chem could be a little boring, but don't take it lightly. General Organic Chemistry is the backbone of the topic, so read it many times before going ahead. I would suggest that you start practicing questions from "Advanced Problems in Organic Chemistry" by Himanshu Pandey. It is an excellent book with loads of variety and proper coverage of all topics.

Physics should be relatively easy now, once you're done with mechanics. Waves and thermodynamics are easy to grasp, so do them properly this time so that you don't have to spend much time on them later. Thermodynamics constitutes a good proportion of questions in JEE, so sound concepts in this field will pay huge dividends.

All the best for the coming year!

A Moment of Reflection

You may be enjoying the ride. You may be just hanging on. You may have not yet begun.

Relax. You have just gone through the initial phase. The subjects have just started revealing themselves. The masks are being lifted. The bridges are being built for the rest of the journey. First, let's pause and reflect.

Are you having fun? That's a great sign. Keep exploring more and start doing huge varieties of questions. The more you adapt yourself to innovative problems, the better. If you have a book like Cengage or Arihant, practice the various styles of questions. See a few video lectures to strengthen your concepts. Don't rush. Give time to absorb concepts.

Are you just hanging on? Things not going the way you thought? Spoiled some test? Okay. Calm down. If you are enjoying even a bit of what you are studying, you'll accomplish more in the times to come. Sometimes, we just don't have the right temperament to tackle a test paper. It's fine. The ability to handle pressure develops with continued practice. Right now, focus on building strong concepts, and don't brood over your marks. For motivation, listen to the title song of "Bhaag Milkha Bhaag".

You haven't yet begun? See, if you want to do engineering, you need to seriously consider being sincere, buddy. I tell you that regret is a very bad feeling. If you've set your mind on engineering, don't waste your time. Your efforts must match your resolve. Stop reading this, and start off. You can do whatever you want, even now. Keep faith in yourself and your will to succeed.

When the Journey begins - Year 1

For most engineering aspirants, the journey begins in class 11. You may have done foundation courses before, but you also know that those were peanuts against the vastness of the course that awaits you in the final two years.

Most of us start off on a high - we are highly motivated to give our best and secure awesome ranks at the end of two years and land at one of the premier engineering institutes of the country. We know we have the potential to do so, and we resolve to unlock it and use it to the best of our abilities.

So we begin.

Generally, the first two months are fine, being holidays. There are two types of students - those who don't study in that period, thinking "we've just given the (mammoth) 10th class exam. Let's relax for a while", and those who study with utmost enthusiasm, who fit the description stated in the previous paragraph.

For the first type, there's one thing I'd like to say. 10th class exams are not that big anymore. They are a cakewalk for almost anyone who studies properly for the last two weeks.

Oh wait, there's another thing I want to tell them. Big results demand big sacrifices, and studying throughout your vacation is not a sacrifice by any standards. If you really want to pursue engineering, this is just the first rock you have to scale - the summit is thousands of metres away.

But the first type still need not worry. The journey has just begun, and there's ample opportunity to reach where you want to.

In the initial stages, focus on building strong mathematical concepts. As H.C.Verma Sir has mentioned in his book, "Concepts of Physics - 1", mathematics is the language of physics. Soon, physics will greet you with problems involving calculus, trigonometry, and coordinate geometry.

Robert Kiyosaki has written in his book, "Rich Dad Poor Dad" that every great salesman knows that rejection is inevitable and only 2% acceptance is good enough. So, be prepared to be rejected by the questions in mechanics. It will haunt you in your dreams why that particular question doesn't have that particular solution, but be patient. Mechanics requires practice - as much as all the rest of the JEE physics. Most of us struggle here, but remember that greats are born out of the hardest of times.

In the initial stages, Chemistry is relatively easy, so you can spend more time on Math and Physics. Once you enter the domain of some real physical chemistry, increase your time spent on practicing it. Regularly practice ionic and chemical equilibrium. Do thermo-chemistry properly once - it will stick around in your memory for a long while.

That's it, right now. Next few posts will cover the rest of your first year.     

Which school / coaching should I join?

The first question that comes to one's mind while thinking about his / her career in middle school / high school is, "which stream should I take?" Unfortunately, that's something I can't answer.

That's because simply saying, "choose the stream of your interest" doesn't work in our country. Firstly, our education system doesn't provide us enough experience in all the different fields to figure out which one is our field of interest. Still, most of us are pretty clear about what interests us more, maybe not to the extent that we'd wish for, but certainly more than other subjects. That's a good head start.

Secondly, all streams haven't grown at the same rate. Some may provide ample job opportunities, and some may not. So, I won't go on to suggest what you should take. Listen to your mind, figure out your interests, talk to your family, and come up with the answer.

So, if you've chosen engineering, the next question is the one in the title of this post. I'll try and answer that.

Choose a school that has compulsory attendance policy - that is, it's not a dummy school. But make sure it's not famous (or infamous) for burdening its students with too much work. This may seem contradictory to many popular beliefs, wherein a dummy school is considered the best choice for preparation for JEE. But I choose to differ, because:

1. School brings regularity to one's life like nothing else can. You won't wake up everyday at 6 am if it were not for going to school.

2. It also helps in destroying the monotony of the sedentary life that many IIT aspirants live. 

3. School teachers and NCERT textbooks always have something good to offer.

As to the coaching, I would suggest one to join a place which has regular classes, and which also provides enough time for self study. Both these are equally important for learning the concepts and proper practice. Preferably join a national level institute so that you are regularly tested at that level, and have an exposure of what a national level exam feels like.

In the end, what matters more than your school and coaching is your dedication and commitment towards your goal and the subjects. If you love studying Physics, Chemistry and Math, you'll enjoy the ride no matter where you study. 

JEE Preparation - General

Since the day I cleared JEE Advanced, some young engineering aspirants have asked me to advise them on the best ways to prepare for the same. I am humbled by the kind of importance people seem to attach to the views that I hold. Thanks for the same.

This was due from a long time - I always wanted to share my experiences of this journey and help other students as much as I can. I hope these blog posts can be of help to those who wish to derive motivation from it, and to those who are confused about various aspects of the preparation - which books to read from, importance to be given to each subject, number of hours to be studied every day, and so on. I also hope that I don't start preaching anywhere through my posts - stop me when I do so.

This blog never has been, and never will be, solely for the engineering aspirants. It is for anyone who is interested in reading my views and experiences.

Finally, I thank some of my seniors whose blog posts helped me a lot while preparing - Raaz Dwivedi and Aman Goel. I will essentially be addressing similar questions to the ones that you have answered, so I hope you will not mind if similarities pop up. If you think there are way too many, please let it be known to me, and I'll remove that content right away.

I think many more such highly successful people should contribute by these means, as it is an added motivation to the aspiring students when they feel low, or when they are perplexed due to the vast variety of options.  

My Journey Towards KVPY

I have become a KVPY fellow now. It feels great, and I want more people to feel that greatness. When I was preparing for the exam, I found that there were hardly any sources online that supplied helpful and informative content regarding the scholarship and the exam. So, I decided to contribute some things from my side and bring a slight change in this trend. Here's my story:

As soon as August approached, the 11^th class students were abuzz with news of the KVPY application forms being available, and the registrations beginning. Let me introduce the exam:

Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahana Yojna is an ongoing fellowship program introduced by the Department of Science and Technology, India, and conducted by IISc Bangalore. It began with an initiative to identify students with aptitude in basic sciences and to provide them with scholarships for pursuing courses in the same. In simple words, it aims to reward those who want to become scientists and serve the country. The selection process is carried out in two stages – a written aptitude test and an interview. Those 11thies who had scored over 80% in 10^th are eligible to appear. 

I started studying in October – not very hard core, just revising the old topics and revisiting some stuff from 9^th and 10^th. FIITJEE conducted a few mock tests for the written stage, and I performed well. Going through 10^th class Bio seemed nice then, as a break from the monotonous studies of Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics.

We came to know that we had three big weeks to come, with a test on each Sunday – Phase test 2 on 21^st October, FTRE on 28^th, and KVPY on 4^th November. There began my preparations for the phase test. Eventually, I was able to cope up with the pressure and did well in the first two. Then came the big day, on 4^th.

My centre for KVPY aptitude test was Sagar Public School. The paper began at 10, and was a cool ride throughout. Three hours were a lot of time, and I made full use of them. Completed my paper in two hours and then went for the questions that I had left. After handing over the OMR sheet, I was happy with how I had done.

The official answer key came about a week later, and I checked to find that I was getting 81.75 marks out of 100. That was much more than I had expected, and I was happy with my score.

The wait for the results wasn’t too long, as the news of my selection came on 7^th December. I was happy, but there was work to be done. Altogether, 1025 students had been selected to appear in the interview out of 55,000 participants in SA stream (1.86%) and around 300 (0.54%) were going to make it to the final list.

The interview letter came on 31^st December. Mine was on 14^th January, and the reporting time was 2 pm. So, the deadline had been decided, and I had to start preparing in the right manner. There you go!

The journey was very exciting, and tiring. Those were probably the toughest days of my life in Class 11. Coping up with school work, coaching stuff and interview preparation all at the same time was quite stressful, but the motivation of success kept me moving on. 

We got a lot of help from school too. On our insistence, our English teacher delayed the deadline for a book review on “Pride and Prejudice” by a week (especially for us), our Chemistry teacher allowed us extra time for the Chemistry practical file. Although our physics teacher didn’t delay the date for submission of the physics file, but I took it in my stride and did that work too.

In those fourteen days, I revised all the chapters of Class 11, some Biology from Class 10, and many other concepts of Class 10 Physics and Chemistry too. I also tried doing the coaching work on time, but I fell behind in Math. 

And then came the 14^th of January.

I arrived at the centre at around 1.20. I was confident that I’d do well, the same way that I had felt before the NTSE interview. 

I was called at around 2.20. I went and sat on the chair outside the interview room (Committee 1). My heart raced ahead, and I clinched my files, tightly pressing them against my chest. I was waiting for the bell to be rung, and that would be my cue to go in. I had to wait for about ten minutes. Then, the door opened, and the previous fellow walked out.

My heart was racing at a phenomenal rate. Then rang the bell. I stood up, adjusted myself, and opened the door.

As soon as I walked in, I was greeted by a panel of 8-9 people sitting round a parabolic table, and my chair was placed at its focus. I greeted them, went and sat on the chair, and gave my files to the man sitting right in front. He spoke in excellent English, “So, Nishit. What is your favourite subject? That is, what would you like to be quizzed on?”

I replied confidently, “Mathematics”. So he directed me to a lady sitting on another corner of the table. She asked me to stand up and go to the white board. Then she planted her first question, “You have n balls, and n boxes to put them in. What is the probability that exactly one box remains empty?”

I was stumped. This was a question of probability, and I had no idea how to go about solving it. It also involved Permutations and Combinations, so I said promptly, “I haven’t yet studied Permutations and Combinations, Ma’am.” She replied in a sarcastic manner, “Why, wasn’t it there in Class 10?”

“No, Ma’am. It is in Class 11, and I haven’t yet studied it. Still, I’ll give it a try.”

I suddenly jumped to an obvious conclusion. “Ma’am, exactly one box will remain empty implies that n-2 boxes will have a ball each, and exactly one will have 2 balls.”

“Very good. There’s your starting point. Go ahead.”

I had no idea how to go ahead.

I wrote some gibberish on the board, and she soon realised that I knew no further, and changed the question. The next question was even trickier.

“Prove that 2.101001000100001... is an irrational number.”

I pointed out that it is a non-repeating, non-terminating decimal number, so it is irrational. She agreed, but asked for more explanation. I further explained that it can’t be expressed in the form p/q, to which she agreed again. She asked for more explanation, but now I knew no other method.

She hinted at Binomial Theorem’s use, but I had no idea how Binomial Theorem could be used here. So I gave up. She asked two or three easy questions then, which I answered promptly (why pi is irrational?) and then came the turn of the man who had originally addressed me to start his questioning in physics.

He asked me to write the formula for electrostatic force acting between two point charges q1 and q2, separated by distance r. I wrote that, realising that probably these guys were hell bent on taking my head off then and there. Electrostatics is a topic of 12^th class, so if he asked me any further on this, I would be blasted. But what came next was a surprise. He asked me to write the force between two point masses and then compare the two equations that I had written. I did so, saying that both involve r² in the denominator. He asked me to further compare the dependence on mass of the bodies. I did that too, and the person was quite satisfied.

Now came the turn of the Chemistry professor. He asked me what catenation is. That was easy. He asked me why carbon exhibits a higher property of catenation than silicon. I started searching my mind for likely reasons. I soon found one, and I said that carbon has a smaller size, so it can bond better. He said, “Yeah. But there are other more important contributing factors too.”

I listed out a couple more factors (IE, Electronegativity) but he was not convinced. He told me to go to the basics of chemical bonding. I went there (inside my brain, of course), and started off on atomic orbitals. He corrected my pronunciation there, telling me that it was aur-b-eye-tals and not aur-be-tals.

I was getting humiliated by the second, but I kept thinking on, and told him how bonding takes place. Finally, he said,

“You’ve reached there. Which orbitals take part in bonding in carbon?”

I replied, “p”

“Is it just ‘p’?”

“No, Sir. It’s the 2p orbitals.”

“and in silicon?”

I got it. I explained that silicon-silicon bonds require bonding between 3p orbitals, and that bonding releases less energy as compared to 2p orbital bonding, as these are farther from the nucleus and bigger.

He then asked me the solubility order of alkaline earth metal sulphates. This was the first question that I was truly sure about, and I answered correctly. Finally, the bio teacher asked me an easy question as to when the growth of cells is harmful for us.

The interview concluded, and I moved out.  I wasn’t very satisfied with the way events had unfolded. I had been good in Chemistry and Bio, and not very good in my mentioned favourite subjects. I had my fingers crossed from then on.

Many events happened from then to the day we received the results. Firstly, school exams drew nearer, and studies for the same heated up. I and Shashwat used to discuss at length as to our chances of making it through in the KVPY. I must say, I fancied my chances, but I was prepared for the worst. I had day-dreamed many times about the day that the results will be declared online. I would open the list, then I’d click on the “Find” button of Chrome, and enter my name. And there, my name would be, with a decent rank.

On 29^th of March, Friday, I was revising some stuff as the Reshuffling Test 1 was to happen the next day. At 11.15, I got a message from Pandey Sir, in which he asked about my KVPY result. I replied that it hadn’t been declared.

He sent another message, saying that the results are out.

I switched a PC on, my heartbeats racing very quickly. Unfortunately, the net stopped working the moment I clicked on the link for the list of the selected students.

Then I grabbed my laptop and connected to a different modem through Wi-Fi.  This one worked. I opened the first list, hoping that my name would be there. When it opened, I didn’t do what I had always dreamt about.

I didn’t search for my name.

It somehow occurred to my brain that my name must be in the screenshot that was visible. I started reading down from AIR 1. In a few seconds, my intuition had been proven right.

I dialled my dad’s phone number, and I told him excitedly, “Dad, KVPY ka result aa gaya. Meri All India Rank 18 aai hai!”

Yes, that was true. I was not able to believe it myself, but that was the fact. I was jumping in the air. I told my mum then, and then checked for my friends.

My Final Score:

Application Number: 1331296    

Seat No. : A0820376

Name: Nishit Asnani

All India Rank (General Merit): 18

Marks in Aptitude Test (/100):  81.75       (75% = 61.31)

Marks in Interview (/100):       69.14       (25% = 17.29)

Total Marks:                           78.60