A Gujarati medium student, cracked JEE without coaching

This will inspire you a lot.

Chaitanya Patel - Writer

My story will be long. But it will be interesting for you to know how I, a Gujarati medium student, cracked JEE without coaching, with only 3 books, with one year preparation. Thanks in advance for those who are going to read it fully.

Background :

I come from a small town called Kadi in north Gujarat having population not more than 1 lac. I am from a middle class family. Mummy is a teacher and Pappa is a shopkeeper. I have a 5.5 years elder clever brother. He passed out 12th with securing 302nd rank in Gujarat and 4th in the district. For those who don’t know : Gujarat education board has low level syllabus as compared to CBSE. Also when my brother was in 12th, there was GUJCET as the competitive entrance exam. Counselling of engineering colleges in Gujarat were done by the merit list which was prepared by combining 12th exam marks and GUJCET marks. Questions in GUJCET were asked from only 12th syllabus, not 11th. Also the questions were easy compared to JEE because it was based on Gujarat Board. That is the reason why even a bright student from Gujarat board can’t perform well in JEE. At that time, students, who did not belong to big cities, didn’t know about IITs. My brother gave AIEEE just for an experience and got around 75 marks. Students only focused on GUJCET and local good colleges to study. (Gujarat Board , GTH!!)

The change came in one year before I cleared 10th. GUJCET was suddenly removed and JEE mains came into the picture. The changed policy was : 11th - 12th were divided into 4 semesters each having a separate exam. 1st and 3rd have only MCQs(each question having 4 options, only 1 is correct). 2nd and 4th have 50% MCQs and 50% subjective part. Merit list was going to be prepared considering 40% JEE mains marks and 15% from each semester exam marks. The main threat was that the CBSE students had a big advantage because for them, JEE mains was easy. But for a Gujarat board student who didn’t learn English other than as a subject, who didn’t learn topics in depth as given in CBSE, who had no idea about what JEE was, it was really hard to crack JEE. My city topper who got 95% average in total four semesters, got highest 128/360 in JEE mains in the year it was firstly introduced. The next batch topper also had not more than 140/360 in mains. (Thanks to Gujarat Board!!) Then I came to 11th.

11th - 1st semester (June-2013)

Nirma was the college that every Gujarat board student used to dream to get into and so was I. I still remembered that when my brother, who was then in a very good college(DDIT) studying CE, used to tell me that there are better colleges other than Nirma called IITs and I listened to him surprisingly like a poor man hearing the story of Antilia (Mukesh Ambani’s house). But he told me that to get into that college, one has to study CBSE or higher level syllabus hardly and also get into well known tuition classes. I didn’t have any of them (Kadi is a small city, can’t even dream to have a proper JEE classes). But now JEE was made compulsory. (This was going to affect my life to a large extent. Thanks to Gujarat Board - This time I’m not being sarcastic. ) So I told myself that I’ll do something later on, let’s focus on boards( JEE ka jo hoga dekha jayega ). I thought I’ll get nearly 160/360 in mains and get into Nirma. So in 11th (sem 1–2), I focused on boards. I got very good marks (sem-1 : 298/300) topped the small city.

11th - 2nd semester (November-2013)

But at the end of the 2nd semester, I realized that time is slipping. I have to do something. So I decided to buy reference books for JEE. I told my Pappa. He went to Ahmedabad. I had heard of something like ‘Tata McGraw Hill’ is a kind of very good publication. So I told my Pappa to bring TMC JEE books. He called me from the book store.

Pappa : Here, there are two types of books. One has written ‘Mains’ and other has ‘Advanced’. Which should I buy ?

I : (carelessly) Buy ‘Advanced’ onces.

Pappa : (In dubious and tensed voice) But these books are very heavy. Everything is in English. Can you prepare it ?

I : Well, bring them. I’ll see what I can do with them.

Pappa : okay.

At night, he came with heavy books, each weighing nearly 2 kg. I was really shocked by seeing their size. The moment I opened them, it gave me an ‘advanced’ shock. I had no idea about what was written there. I was afraid. Next week, I started 1st chapter of maths : Complex Numbers. (with English-Gujarati dictionary by my side.) Unfortunately, it was the biggest chapter in the book. On the very first page, a term called ‘prime number’ appeared and I got perplexed. I shuffled the pages of dictionary and found out : oh, it means ‘Avibhajya Sankhya’ in Gujarati. Such things continued. I studied one week and could complete only 110 examples given as practice. Not a single question I could do on my own. I didn’t dare to do Exercise. I felt I can’t do it. Next week, I put those book on shelf and started studying for boards. Everything became as normal as before. Again got good marks (sem-2 : 290/300) topped the small city. (My maths subjective part was badly checked :( . I got the paper reassessed. I came to know that I should get 99/100 but I got 93/100 :( . Due to policy, I couldn’t oppose this. So I forgave them :) like a saint - just kidding)

12th - 3rd semester (May-2014)

3rd semester was too much long, about 6 months. Also only MCQs were going to come in Gujarat board exam. Vacation was there but boards tuition classes were started. So I was having a lot of free time other than tuition classes. It was a holy moment of may-2014, when I remembered those books. As I was threatened by Complex Numbers so I decided to take up Physics - my favourite. I studied first 2–3 chapters. To my surprise, it didn’t feel ‘that’ hard. With English I felt awkward but also it was funny. As I continued, I liked it. And then I decided to take JEE seriously.

This was the time when I realized that JEE is not unachievable for a student like me.

Preparation :

In my TMC book, every chapter had 2–3 page theory and then 100–140 questions including all types. My strategy was :

1. Get through the chapter in Gujarat board textbook (I forgot 1st semester things after giving its exam) .
2. Read TMC 2–3 page theory. (It helped to know English words of important terms. Also I got to know any extra topic I didn’t learn from boards syllabus. Formulas were directly given. So I would try to derive it.)
3. Solve questions. (At the beginning, I couldn’t solve it. So I would see the hint and try to understand it. As it was ‘advanced’ book, hint was mostly short. So I would have to do brain-storming to understand what is going on. Many times I couldn’t understand, So I would just keep staring it for several minutes like a puzzled person :) . Sadly, I couldn’t ask anyone for help. Nobody was preparing with me and teachers could not solve that level questions. So sometime I would leave those questions. Multiple answers questions would often teach some theory which was not given at the start. )
4. Prepare for D-day. (I knew that after giving 4th semester board exam, I was going to have only 10 days for JEE Mains preparation. With simple math, I knew that I would have only 1.5 hour(s) for each average sized chapter. My brother gave me golden advice that try to compress the big syllabus. So I mark out only important and tough question , discarding easy and repeated question.)

Time Management - The most important:

I started late. I was equally focusing on boards. I had to give some time to prepare for remaining two semester end exams. So I calculated that I had to complete one chapter in one or two days considering that there were 35 chapters per subject. I stopped going to school. Principal knew that I was preparing for JEE so he let me to do that. But I continued to go 2 days/week just to chill out with friends. I was and I am a human. I need some moments to chill :) . Other days I was totally at home except boards tuition classes. Mummy used to be at school , Pappa at shop and Bhai at hostel. So I was completely alone almost the whole day. I was not an owl and I didn’t like to study at night so I would get up at 5:30 early morning. After getting ready I would to go Hanumandada temple at 6 o’clock on my cycle (I am not a staunch theist but I liked to go sometimes) . After coming back I would study. In between, I would take out some moments to read newspaper (Actually a lot of moments). Everyday I would spend 1–1.5 hour(s) on computer watching movies (shauk badi chij hai). But I stuck to my time-table.

I finished almost all the chapters of three semesters (1st, 2nd, 3rd) in just 6 months of 3rd semester. I still wonder how I did that. I did it because I knew that 4th semester would be short (3.5 months) and it had a long syllabus and I would have to prepare for subjective answers. Also I didn’t leave boards preparation. So I got 299/300 in 3rd semester.

Because of JEE preparation, Gujarat Board was not a big deal for me except some questions which were asked from the corner of the books. (In physics paper, the melting point of tungsten was asked because it was in the theory somewhere in the book. I knew such tricks of Gujarat Board so I had gone through the book just one day before and I got that question right. RIP Gujarat Board. )

12th - 4th semester:

In 4th semester I was only able to prepare Gujarat board and same chapters for JEE. I got less time to revise sem 1–2–3. I got around 293/300 in 4th semester.

Yeh 10 din tumse bhagavan bhi nahi chhin sakta :

After writing 4th semester exam, I became ready for the final battle - JEE which was going to be fought after 10 days. By the time, my aim had soared to 300/360. I fully revised 3 books and became free 1 day earlier. The day before JEE mains exam, I was totally free. I saw ‘The dark night’ almost 15th time that day. I am a die hard ‘Nolan’ fan:) . Till that date, I had not practiced any sample paper of JEE mains. I was kind of careless which was going to beat me the next day.

D-Day : JEE-Mains Exam (xth day of April - 2015)

I had decided to give offline exam. I went there, sat there. Nothing was unusual. I had full confidence. The paper was given. Neglecting my teacher’s advice to attempt chemistry first, I started physics - my favourite. But still destiny had decided to play with me. Physics was very tough. I spent 1.5 hours (a half an hour extra) doing physics and yet could complete only 23/30 physics questions. Other 7 question I left due to uncertainty. ( This would happen when you don’t practice sample papers !) I was very scared. Hands were literally trembling. I thought my hard work would go in vain. But then I thought I would not let it happen. I took a deep breath and started chemistry. I was going through questions so fast. To my surprise, I finished chemistry in just 35 minutes - yaaaaa. (Grand Come Back ! My decision of leaving chemistry was proved right. I would not have finished it so tightly if I would have attempted it first. Things were in my hands now.) So now 1 hour 1 subject - maths - seemed fair. I got more speed. After solving every question, if I found the answer in one of the options, I would slam the bench (slowly) with a sound of ‘yyeehh..’. Last 10 minutes, I had 4 questions of maths left. But I decided to leave that and went again back to physics. I solved all remaining 7 questions. Still 2 minutes - back to maths. I could do 2 out of remaining 4. And the bell rung.

I came out with a sad face. I told my Pappa that I would not secure even 200/360. My whole day went sad. It was not that I did bad. But I knew I wrote most of paper in a very unusual manner - fast and worriedly. Though I calculated around 87/90 questions (attempted all), I was not sure. Next day morning I was reading newspaper - specially about tough part of physics. Pappa came and asked me to check out with the answer key. I didn’t want to do that. But I realized some day I would get my marks. So I took my Pappa’s phone. (Mine did not have internet. I had a ‘not-so-good’ micromax phone which had incoming and outgoing call facility with a very good feature of music player :) - Staying away from Internet was a good decision I think. ) I went on terrace. (Relax folks, I'm not going to leave this world so easily. :P ) I wanted to be alone. I opened resonance website and started checking. To my big big surprise, I was getting all correct. In just 4 minutes of checking, my mood was completely changed. I was jumping out of joy. I started jumping even more as nobody was there to see me. :) I calculated my marks. Very biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig surprise!!

Result declared.

I got 90/120 in Physics. (spending 1.5 hours on that was worth as it was a good score in considerably tough paper.)

I got 90/120 in Maths. (fair enough for the efforts of 45 minutes.)

I got 110/120 in Chemistry. (Big relief ! 110 marks for 35 minutes. :) Highest return of minutes spent !)

Total 290/360 (AIR - 56 in JoSAA). Less than the target of 300/360, but not a bad one!!!

After that I continued the preparation for advanced with the same 3 books. But this time I don’t know why I was not in that much confidence. Before giving advanced, I tried to solve some papers. But I couldn’t solve much questions. I couldn’t ask anyone for help. This was the first time I felt the need of guidance or coaching for JEE. I gave advanced and did very bad.

I got AIR 1386 in advanced. :( (Not good enough to get CSE in top IITs.)

I scored 339/450 in BITSAT. Not as good as expected !

I scored 295/300 average of four semesters of boards. There were two other students having 296/300 so my application to get admission in BITS-Pilani through ‘board topper scheme’ was rejected.

I got 1st rank in Gujarat Board merit list (60% board + 40% JEE-Mains) as my mains marks were way higher than those boards toppers.

I wanted CSE. But my advanced rank was not high enough to get CSE in top 8 IITs. I couldn’t get BITS-Pilani CSE. So I decided to go for IIIT-Hyderabad CSE through JEE-Mains marks. And I am totally satisfied with the choice I made. IIIT-Hyderabad has very good academics, comparable to top IITs. (You can find more reviews on quora.)

I couldn’t get CSE at top 5 IITs as targeted. But now, I am in a far better college than I aimed at the starting of 11th. :)

I sometimes wonder where I would have landed if Gujarat Education Board had not decided to remove GUJCET !

Hope, it inspired you a lot.

Source: Chaitanya Patel's answer to What was your IIT-JEE preparation story?