To be honest, I didn’t even know what IIT really was during my 10th grade.
Yeah, I’d heard of it — who hasn’t? But I never gave it much thought. Then boards got cancelled, and I just chilled. Relaxed at home, not worried about anything big. No dreams of IIT, no long-term goals. Just vibes.
My JEE prep started like…
My Prep
Then intermediate started — and like many of you, I joined a college that was all about JEE.
My daily routine was intense — wake up at 6:30 AM, rush to 7:20 maths class, followed by physics and then chemistry after lunch. From 5:30 PM to 10:30 PM, it was study hours, with just a short break for dinner. First year, I did study — not with any IIT target, though. I was just trying to keep up, complete concepts, get marks, and move on. Nothing serious.
But somewhere in the second year, something clicked.
One day I just sat and thought — “Why am I wasting lakhs of my parents’ money like this?” So, I decided I had to do something meaningful.
Funny thing though — the moment I started taking studies seriously, my marks started dropping. I was like what even is this?
So, I pushed harder, stayed up late till 12 or 1, woke up early again, and just kept going. Slowly, things started changing, I could feel the improvement — started getting around 170–180 marks in my mock tests. And finally, when the JEE Mains results came, I had scored a really good percentile in both attempts.
Last 50 Days…
After Mains, I came home — and that felt like getting released from jail.
Now I had around 50 days left for JEE Advanced, and in those 50 days, I understood more concepts and studied more deeply than I ever did in those 2 years of intermediate.
For me, physics always felt smooth, I enjoyed it. Then came maths, which followed pretty well. Chemistry… yeah, I don’t know what happened there, but it never really clicked as much. And surprisingly, my marks followed the same pattern too — physics highest, maths next, and then chemistry. Those 50 days taught me a lot. Yeah, and now I’m in IIT.
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Resources
One major help during this time was YouTube. I didn’t use any fancy paid platforms or apps — if you ask me for resources, it’s nothing but YouTube. Whatever subject I was stuck on, I just searched for the topic, and there was always someone who explained it clearly and simply.
And if there’s one book I’d tell everyone to buy — it’s the Previous Year Questions. I started solving them near the end, and they gave me huge confidence. Even if you can’t solve all of them fully, just give it a shot. At least you’ll get the concept behind the question, and that’s already a win. The best part? If you solve any problem from previous years, it’ll feel like, “If I was writing the exam last year, I would’ve definitely solved this.” That feeling really pumps you up and shows how much you’ve improved.
Exam Strategy
When you start the exam, begin with the subject you feel strongest in. Then, go question by question. If a question looks doable, solve it right away. If it seems tricky or needs more thinking, mark it for review and move on to the next one. Try to finish this first round quickly — I’m not saying rush, but don’t spend too much time stuck on any question. After you finish the first round, come back to the ones you marked and spend extra time solving them. This helped me stay calm and manage my time better during the exam.
Finally…
At the end of the day, the only thing that truly works is hard work. Put in the effort, grind every day, and stay consistent. Make a realistic timetable for your prep and stick to it. If you do this, you’ll definitely start seeing the results you want.