DEAR STUDENTS............
I have seen a couple of my friends rote several books and end up failing the JEE. The main point is- Keep your concepts clear. Be very sure of every derivation and every methodology.
BEGINNING:
Try reading the NCERT carefully and practice every derivation. This gives you a good base to build upon. Go for Resnick Halliday! The language is very simple and enjoyable. It's a pleasure reading the book. Understand every topic and practice the exemplar problems at the same time.
LET'S PLAY:
Time to step up the game and Face some real-world challenge. HC Verma is a very good book to start off with. It's a great boost to anybody preparing for JEE. Make sure you've done ALL the questions!
Done? Time to face the Boss! Pick up IE Irodov and have a go. It's great fun and a fruitful way to learn lots of Physics. Try helping yourself to the solutions also because sometimes, it gets a little Bossy.
Victory! Cool! Now to show off your awesome Jedi level skills. Try Zubov-Shalnov and Wolkenstein for further practice. It should be a cake-walk now.
HITTING THE YODA LEVEL:
You can solve past year's question papers or DC Pandey for practice. In the final days I used my FIITJEE material Level-2s for Practice. I was "literally" breezing through them!
In a nutshell - Keep a calm and cool mind, don't be rigid, Don't mug up concepts, understand, analyze, be practical while solving numericals, keep calm.....
and for the rest do visit the following blog to give boost to your preparation:
blog http://amangoeliitb.blogspot.in/2014/03/to-be-winner-start-early-post-for-those.html
Physics, Chemistry and
Mathematics need different approaches to create good concepts. So, I
will deal with them separately. I will also write down the names of the
books which, to the best of my knowledge, are among the all time
classics of Science preparation as well the books which deal with the
need to build up a proficiency beyond the basic concepts.
Physics:
Books:
1. Concepts of Physics by H.C. Verma
2. Fundamentals of Physics by Halliday, Resnick and Walker
3. Problems in General Physics by I.E. Irodov
4. Feynman Lectures in Physics by Richard P. Feynman
Approach of Study:
Perhaps no other subject requires more thinking than Physics. It is highly possible that to understand one simple concept one has to sit down the entire day without having proceeded more than one page of a good book. There is nothing disheartening in that. Of course, one has to be absolutely honest with oneself.
The first step towards learning Physics is to make an all-out effort to forget (yes I am serious) everything that one has learnt till Class X (this includes both state board and CBSE syllabus).
Next step, is to start studying from H.C. Verma's book. Each sentence in that book is a gem. At the end of each chapter there are lots of questions graded in difficulty level. A person who is serious about learning Physics and certainly anybody who is dreaming to get into IIT should attempt to solve each and every problem. I am not saying that if a person cannot solve all the problems he/she should give up hope of getting into IIT but there must be an honest attempt to solve each of them - they are not that hard. Simultaneously, Halliday, Resnick and Walker's book must be started. It is an international classic and, at places, is easier than Verma's book! There is no need to waste time in solving all those questions at the end of each chapter from this book (it is not humanly possible too to do all this! But some problems are very good!). The speciality of this book is that within each chapter there are some conceptual questions - one must make an all-out effort to answer each of them (most of them are really easy but each of them highlights a very important concept). Here I will make a strong statement - a person who is thinking of getting into IIT should be able to understand these small questions and answer them without any teacher's help. As I said they are easy.
Next step, is to start building up a proficiency in solving problems. Trust me, if one has honestly done the problems from Verma's book, he/she will have automatically gained huge amount of confidence. But the real test is I.E. Irodov's book. It is one of the toughest books in Physics (all over the world!). The problems in Mechanics and Electromagnetism are especially useful for IIT JEE (atleast that used to be the case in our time).
Please note that I have mentioned another book by R.P. Feynman. That book is even more famous. Although it is not directly useful for IIT JEE (it is not like a conventional text book) still learning Physics from any other place cannot be more fun. Feynman was a Nobel laureate, a consummate genius and a really "fine" man. It is an honour to learn Physics from his words! More than that, it is enjoyable!
Chemistry:
Books:
1. NCERT Class XI and XII books (I am talking about the official NCERT textbooks, not the tonnes of other commercial books)
2. Organic Chemistry by Morrison & Boyd accompanied by the Study Guide
3. IIT Chemistry by O.P. Lal (I studied this and it is okay)
4. Modern Approach to Chemical Calculations by R.C. Mukherjee
This is the most difficult subject for the beginner and it is also the easiest among the three once the student has got the hang of things. The biggest problem with starting to learn Chemistry is that many of the concepts are overlapping and the best books find it difficult to write anything comprehensively without referring to material from a later chapter. It is very very frustrating to the beginner - after all how do you expect to learn anything when you are already referring to material which has not yet been taught! This is most evident in Organic Chemistry.
Chemistry is divided roughly into a)General Chemistry with a huge emphasis on Physical Chemistry, b) Organic Chemistry and c) Inorganic Chemistry
The best way to start learning is to read the NCERT books. Irrespective of what many people say (including some teachers!) these are really good books. Of course, one has to start from Physical Chemistry which forms the basis of almost everything else.
Simultaneously, one has to start learning Organic Chemistry because the syllabus is really huge. The BEST, the absolute BEST book to learn Organic Chemistry is from Morrison & Boyd. (Irrespective of the subject, many of us IITians feel that this one book is perhaps one of the best written books of all times). Any prospective IIT JEE candidate shouldn't even think of going to the examination hall wihout having digested the book. The easiest way to learn from the book is to study each line of each page! As easy as that! Without even realizing what is happening, the student will learn a treasure house of concepts (which are actually useful for IIT JEE). Some difficulty might be faced and for that Study Guide is there. All in all, it is absolutely delightful to study from this book (I have seen people getting literally addicted to it!). There is a catch however. Atleast for the first 6 chapters or so, a student learning from this book may feel that his/her friends learning from some "simple" college text books are already more conversant with a huge lot of reactions, methods etc. But that is only an illusion. If one can stick to the discipline of learning from Morrison & Boyd, at the end of two years there will be simply no comparison between his/her depth of knowledge with that of others. One must not avoid the questions that are given at the end of each chapter. They are actually very easy but at first some difficulty might be faced but then the Study Guide is always there! Special attention must be given to the reaction mechanisms. They might seem like unnecessary at first but, trust me, therein, lies the real fun of Organic Chemistry and needless to say, some of the "tricks" of students successful in IIT JEE.
Inorganic Chemistry is a big puzzle even to the best students. One has to remember a lot of things here and one trick I employed was to learn a few things in the evening; then, revise the exact same things after getting up next morning. The brain is a marvel really and one has to learn how to harness its capacity. When one reads something new, the natural tendency is to forget it. The simplest guard against such memory loss is to revise them atleast once in the next 24 hours. Trust me, it helps. O.P. Lal's book is actually one of those "commercial" books but it is good in terms of content. I found it particularly useful for Inorganic part.
Some of the most beautiful questions of IIT JEE Chemistry come in Organic Chemistry and Physical Chemistry. I have already talked about Organic Chemistry. For practicing problems of Physical Chemistry, Mukherjee's book is very good. One must try to do as many problems as possible from that book.
Mathematics:
Books:
1. Calculus and Analytic Geometry by Thomas and Finney
2. Trigonometry by S.L. Loney
3. Coordinate Geometry by S.L. Loney
4. Differential and Integral Calculus by N. Piskunov
4. Problem Plus in IIT Mathematics by Asit DasGupta
5. IIT Mathematics by M.L. Khanna
This is perhaps the subject which IIT JEE uses to really challenge the students. I am not saying that Physics and Chemistry are in any way easy - far from that! But, some of the Mathematics problems of IIT JEE over the years have been unparalleled (except of course the Olympiads) in their demand of ingenuity and original thinking.
As with Physics and Chemistry, every student needs to build up a base of concepts and knowledge. But, that is far from enough. Just understanding things in Mathematics is not at all sufficient. He/she will be nowhere if the ability to solve problems on one's own is not there. Unfortunately, this is hardly ever highlighted in our schools (even the CBSE schools). There is a mad rush to somehow get the solutions of the problems from as many different sources as possible, mug up the solutions and then depend on the repetitive question pattern to come out with so called "flying colours" in the examination. Very very few students are fortunate enough to learn from teachers who emphasize the importance of problem-solving and ingenuity. And this is exactly what is required in the Mathematics paper. You can finish all the solved examples from the endless number of Mathematics books but if you do not have the ability to solve even one challenging problem on your own absolutely unaided then you should not think of IIT. I know I am being rude but that is the way it is - a fact.
Thomas and Finney's book is very basic but it rescues the beginner from the puzzling scenario one is confronted with when suddenly coming face to face with CALCULUS. Very good geometrical interpretations of derivative etc. are there. But the exercises are really easy. They are of not much use even for State Board examinations. The books by Loney are all time international classics. Honest efforts should be made to solve the problems. The coordinate geometry book is really, really good. Many of the problems themselves are of IIT JEE standard. But, most are easy. Piskunov's book is basically a standard text book of calculus. The exercises themselves are very easy. Too much time should not devoted to solve these exercise problems. As I have already emphasized the importance of solving challenging problems in Mathematics, one needs to practice as much as possible from the IIT Mathematics books by DasGupta and also by M.L. Khanna. There are a huge number of problems there. One can practice to heart's content from these two books.
Overall, for the preparation of the three subjects from these books, there are a couple of things I need to address:
1. Please note that at many points in the above discussion of the subjects I have mentioned that you do not have to practice the problems so much from this and that book etc. This is only a general guideline. If, for one particular concept you feel that you are not getting confident enough, then, by all means, practice those easy confidence-boosting problems. Personally, I used to practice some problems which would have never come even for the Board examinations just to convince myself that I had understood correctly. Academic integrity is of utmost importance. Don't cheat yourself. And do whatever you need to do to get the concept right.
2. With all these advice, I am sure it will confuse and (even more dangerously perhaps) make things look impossible for a 15/16 year old kid. Well, there is no reason to panic. Thousands of similar aged kids have done it till date! But the magic phrase that I have not mentioned even once in this extremely long discussion of mine is HARD WORK. Please do not look at hard work as something that you will have to do. There is no such quota like you have to work for so many hours a day or anything. Just be aware of the things that you have to do and then keep doing them. You will automatically end up working hard! It is also necessary to be really conscious of what you are doing. Just don't get into some inertia of doing things. If you are comfortable with one concept, move on to the next concept. Repetition is good for practice but don't overdo it. A good student always chooses his/her own style of study.
Whatever you do, do not compromise with the basic concepts of the three subjects. Be patient to learn. A good JEE preparation, and above all a good understanding and proficiency in Science can only be achieved with time and honest effort. There is no other way.
Physics:
Books:
1. Concepts of Physics by H.C. Verma
2. Fundamentals of Physics by Halliday, Resnick and Walker
3. Problems in General Physics by I.E. Irodov
4. Feynman Lectures in Physics by Richard P. Feynman
Approach of Study:
Perhaps no other subject requires more thinking than Physics. It is highly possible that to understand one simple concept one has to sit down the entire day without having proceeded more than one page of a good book. There is nothing disheartening in that. Of course, one has to be absolutely honest with oneself.
The first step towards learning Physics is to make an all-out effort to forget (yes I am serious) everything that one has learnt till Class X (this includes both state board and CBSE syllabus).
Next step, is to start studying from H.C. Verma's book. Each sentence in that book is a gem. At the end of each chapter there are lots of questions graded in difficulty level. A person who is serious about learning Physics and certainly anybody who is dreaming to get into IIT should attempt to solve each and every problem. I am not saying that if a person cannot solve all the problems he/she should give up hope of getting into IIT but there must be an honest attempt to solve each of them - they are not that hard. Simultaneously, Halliday, Resnick and Walker's book must be started. It is an international classic and, at places, is easier than Verma's book! There is no need to waste time in solving all those questions at the end of each chapter from this book (it is not humanly possible too to do all this! But some problems are very good!). The speciality of this book is that within each chapter there are some conceptual questions - one must make an all-out effort to answer each of them (most of them are really easy but each of them highlights a very important concept). Here I will make a strong statement - a person who is thinking of getting into IIT should be able to understand these small questions and answer them without any teacher's help. As I said they are easy.
Next step, is to start building up a proficiency in solving problems. Trust me, if one has honestly done the problems from Verma's book, he/she will have automatically gained huge amount of confidence. But the real test is I.E. Irodov's book. It is one of the toughest books in Physics (all over the world!). The problems in Mechanics and Electromagnetism are especially useful for IIT JEE (atleast that used to be the case in our time).
Please note that I have mentioned another book by R.P. Feynman. That book is even more famous. Although it is not directly useful for IIT JEE (it is not like a conventional text book) still learning Physics from any other place cannot be more fun. Feynman was a Nobel laureate, a consummate genius and a really "fine" man. It is an honour to learn Physics from his words! More than that, it is enjoyable!
Chemistry:
Books:
1. NCERT Class XI and XII books (I am talking about the official NCERT textbooks, not the tonnes of other commercial books)
2. Organic Chemistry by Morrison & Boyd accompanied by the Study Guide
3. IIT Chemistry by O.P. Lal (I studied this and it is okay)
4. Modern Approach to Chemical Calculations by R.C. Mukherjee
This is the most difficult subject for the beginner and it is also the easiest among the three once the student has got the hang of things. The biggest problem with starting to learn Chemistry is that many of the concepts are overlapping and the best books find it difficult to write anything comprehensively without referring to material from a later chapter. It is very very frustrating to the beginner - after all how do you expect to learn anything when you are already referring to material which has not yet been taught! This is most evident in Organic Chemistry.
Chemistry is divided roughly into a)General Chemistry with a huge emphasis on Physical Chemistry, b) Organic Chemistry and c) Inorganic Chemistry
The best way to start learning is to read the NCERT books. Irrespective of what many people say (including some teachers!) these are really good books. Of course, one has to start from Physical Chemistry which forms the basis of almost everything else.
Simultaneously, one has to start learning Organic Chemistry because the syllabus is really huge. The BEST, the absolute BEST book to learn Organic Chemistry is from Morrison & Boyd. (Irrespective of the subject, many of us IITians feel that this one book is perhaps one of the best written books of all times). Any prospective IIT JEE candidate shouldn't even think of going to the examination hall wihout having digested the book. The easiest way to learn from the book is to study each line of each page! As easy as that! Without even realizing what is happening, the student will learn a treasure house of concepts (which are actually useful for IIT JEE). Some difficulty might be faced and for that Study Guide is there. All in all, it is absolutely delightful to study from this book (I have seen people getting literally addicted to it!). There is a catch however. Atleast for the first 6 chapters or so, a student learning from this book may feel that his/her friends learning from some "simple" college text books are already more conversant with a huge lot of reactions, methods etc. But that is only an illusion. If one can stick to the discipline of learning from Morrison & Boyd, at the end of two years there will be simply no comparison between his/her depth of knowledge with that of others. One must not avoid the questions that are given at the end of each chapter. They are actually very easy but at first some difficulty might be faced but then the Study Guide is always there! Special attention must be given to the reaction mechanisms. They might seem like unnecessary at first but, trust me, therein, lies the real fun of Organic Chemistry and needless to say, some of the "tricks" of students successful in IIT JEE.
Inorganic Chemistry is a big puzzle even to the best students. One has to remember a lot of things here and one trick I employed was to learn a few things in the evening; then, revise the exact same things after getting up next morning. The brain is a marvel really and one has to learn how to harness its capacity. When one reads something new, the natural tendency is to forget it. The simplest guard against such memory loss is to revise them atleast once in the next 24 hours. Trust me, it helps. O.P. Lal's book is actually one of those "commercial" books but it is good in terms of content. I found it particularly useful for Inorganic part.
Some of the most beautiful questions of IIT JEE Chemistry come in Organic Chemistry and Physical Chemistry. I have already talked about Organic Chemistry. For practicing problems of Physical Chemistry, Mukherjee's book is very good. One must try to do as many problems as possible from that book.
Mathematics:
Books:
1. Calculus and Analytic Geometry by Thomas and Finney
2. Trigonometry by S.L. Loney
3. Coordinate Geometry by S.L. Loney
4. Differential and Integral Calculus by N. Piskunov
4. Problem Plus in IIT Mathematics by Asit DasGupta
5. IIT Mathematics by M.L. Khanna
This is perhaps the subject which IIT JEE uses to really challenge the students. I am not saying that Physics and Chemistry are in any way easy - far from that! But, some of the Mathematics problems of IIT JEE over the years have been unparalleled (except of course the Olympiads) in their demand of ingenuity and original thinking.
As with Physics and Chemistry, every student needs to build up a base of concepts and knowledge. But, that is far from enough. Just understanding things in Mathematics is not at all sufficient. He/she will be nowhere if the ability to solve problems on one's own is not there. Unfortunately, this is hardly ever highlighted in our schools (even the CBSE schools). There is a mad rush to somehow get the solutions of the problems from as many different sources as possible, mug up the solutions and then depend on the repetitive question pattern to come out with so called "flying colours" in the examination. Very very few students are fortunate enough to learn from teachers who emphasize the importance of problem-solving and ingenuity. And this is exactly what is required in the Mathematics paper. You can finish all the solved examples from the endless number of Mathematics books but if you do not have the ability to solve even one challenging problem on your own absolutely unaided then you should not think of IIT. I know I am being rude but that is the way it is - a fact.
Thomas and Finney's book is very basic but it rescues the beginner from the puzzling scenario one is confronted with when suddenly coming face to face with CALCULUS. Very good geometrical interpretations of derivative etc. are there. But the exercises are really easy. They are of not much use even for State Board examinations. The books by Loney are all time international classics. Honest efforts should be made to solve the problems. The coordinate geometry book is really, really good. Many of the problems themselves are of IIT JEE standard. But, most are easy. Piskunov's book is basically a standard text book of calculus. The exercises themselves are very easy. Too much time should not devoted to solve these exercise problems. As I have already emphasized the importance of solving challenging problems in Mathematics, one needs to practice as much as possible from the IIT Mathematics books by DasGupta and also by M.L. Khanna. There are a huge number of problems there. One can practice to heart's content from these two books.
Overall, for the preparation of the three subjects from these books, there are a couple of things I need to address:
1. Please note that at many points in the above discussion of the subjects I have mentioned that you do not have to practice the problems so much from this and that book etc. This is only a general guideline. If, for one particular concept you feel that you are not getting confident enough, then, by all means, practice those easy confidence-boosting problems. Personally, I used to practice some problems which would have never come even for the Board examinations just to convince myself that I had understood correctly. Academic integrity is of utmost importance. Don't cheat yourself. And do whatever you need to do to get the concept right.
2. With all these advice, I am sure it will confuse and (even more dangerously perhaps) make things look impossible for a 15/16 year old kid. Well, there is no reason to panic. Thousands of similar aged kids have done it till date! But the magic phrase that I have not mentioned even once in this extremely long discussion of mine is HARD WORK. Please do not look at hard work as something that you will have to do. There is no such quota like you have to work for so many hours a day or anything. Just be aware of the things that you have to do and then keep doing them. You will automatically end up working hard! It is also necessary to be really conscious of what you are doing. Just don't get into some inertia of doing things. If you are comfortable with one concept, move on to the next concept. Repetition is good for practice but don't overdo it. A good student always chooses his/her own style of study.
Whatever you do, do not compromise with the basic concepts of the three subjects. Be patient to learn. A good JEE preparation, and above all a good understanding and proficiency in Science can only be achieved with time and honest effort. There is no other way.
for physics...........
I have seen a couple of my friends rote several books and end up failing the JEE. The main point is- Keep your concepts clear. Be very sure of every derivation and every methodology.
BEGINNING:
Try reading the NCERT carefully and practice every derivation. This gives you a good base to build upon. Go for Resnick Halliday! The language is very simple and enjoyable. It's a pleasure reading the book. Understand every topic and practice the exemplar problems at the same time.
LET'S PLAY:
Time to step up the game and Face some real-world challenge. HC Verma is a very good book to start off with. It's a great boost to anybody preparing for JEE. Make sure you've done ALL the questions!
Done? Time to face the Boss! Pick up IE Irodov and have a go. It's great fun and a fruitful way to learn lots of Physics. Try helping yourself to the solutions also because sometimes, it gets a little Bossy.
Victory! Cool! Now to show off your awesome Jedi level skills. Try Zubov-Shalnov and Wolkenstein for further practice. It should be a cake-walk now.
HITTING THE YODA LEVEL:
You can solve past year's question papers or DC Pandey for practice. In the final days I used my FIITJEE material Level-2s for Practice. I was "literally" breezing through them!
In a nutshell - Keep a calm and cool mind, don't be rigid, Don't mug up concepts, understand, analyze, be practical while solving numericals, keep calm.....
and for the rest do visit the following blog to give boost to your preparation:
blog http://amangoeliitb.blogspot.in/2014/03/to-be-winner-start-early-post-for-those.html
