‘Make paper-solving your new normal to crack JEE Advanced’, says topper

Yash Bhake, from Apeejay School, Nerul, who secured AIR 973 in JEE Advanced 2022, says he expected a lesser rank. “My parents and I are very happy that I got a better rank,” he says. The young achiever adds it was rigorous question paper solving that prepared him very well for the main exam. However, he also made sure to not exhaust himself and took measures to beat stress. Edited excerpts:

Which IITs are you aiming for?

My top choices are Mechanical Engineering at IIT Bombay, Electrical Engineering at IIT Madras, Electronics and Electrical Communication at IIT Kharagpur, and Computer Science at IIT Indore. I am reaching out to the current IIT students and alumni through social media to get their feedback because right now, it is slightly confusing whether to give preference to the branch or college. So, I am waiting to get insights before making my decision.

How did you prepare for JEE Advanced?

JEE Mains is just a qualifying exam for Advanced. The latter is a lot more rigorous. You need strong intellect, skills, and an in-depth understanding of the subjects. If you have your fundamentals clear, only then can you think of JEE Advanced.

Are there some preparation hacks?

There are no shortcuts. If you are genuinely interested in the subjects, everything goes smoothly. If you are going against your will, you might face difficulty. You need to have a good understanding of Physics, Maths, and Chemistry.

Also Read: JEE Advanced AIR 393 reveals how to prepare for a tricky question paper

Solving question papers and analysing them was the most important part of my preparation. I also made sure to have an open mind for anything new that came my way—like learning subtle tricks from my peers and teachers—which had a cumulative effect in helping me perform well in the exam. Meanwhile, I also took several other exams like KVPY, JEE Mains, and those of private universities including BITS Pilani, VIT, Manipal Institute of Technology, and so on, to become attuned to the exam environment. At the end of the day, what matters is how well you are able to perform at the exam centre—if you falter in those three hours, then everything goes to waste.

How does one actually stay calm during the exam?

For that, you have to be confident, which you gain after rigorous paper solving. I used to solve papers almost every day. This is what gave me confidence. You have to get into the habit of solving question papers even if it may feel monotonous sometimes. That much practice makes you a paper-solving machine, so next time you look at a question paper, you won’t get the jitters. You have to make paper-solving your new normal. You don’t have to make much hype about exams. If you start burdening yourself with expectations about your future, it will lead to no good. If you treat it just as an exam, you will be able to stay calm.

What kind of support did you get at home and school?

My parents were extremely supportive; they did not pressurise me into anything. They were very calm and asked me if I needed any extra support. My school teachers were also very helpful. This time, we could not perform practical experiments—which is very important for JEE Advanced–in the online learning mode amid the pandemic. Sometimes, I would visit school and ask my teachers if I could visit the laboratory and look at the apparatus and they always obliged. My school helped me a lot. I also took out some time to participate in a few cultural activities at school to keep myself de-stressed. This helped me a lot to prevent exhaustion. So, I was actually not very nervous about the exams, whether it was CBSE or JEE.