15 Most Common Mistakes Students Make during JEE Exams!

Your scores in JEE exam (and your Class XII board marks) decide which engineering college you are or aren’t going to. One cannot emphasize enough on the importance of remaining calm during the JEE Main and JEE Advanced exams  and sleeping for at least 6 hours on the night before the big days. Unwavering confidence, determination, consistency and hard work are the lucky charms that all JEE aspirants need to embrace. But you must also know what to avoid.

Here are the 15 most common mistakes that candidates make during JEE exam preparation  or while solving JEE exam paper :

1)  Buying Heaps of Books: Most JEE aspirants start out by spending thousands of rupees on buying books and study material they never ever refer to. So, stick to your school textbooks and NCERT books. For reference, you can form study groups and share books. Study material provided by coaching institutes and online study material for JEE exams often contain gist of all the good books in easy to understand language.

2)  Stick with One of the Subjects: It is easier to get above average scores in all the three subjects instead of exceptionally high score in any one of them. So, maintain a balance between Maths, Physics and Chemistry during JEE exam preparation. Balanced scores work in your favour in the final exam ranking.

3)  Ignoring Questions They cannot Solve: When you solve previous year question papers, sample papers or mock tests, it is not enough to see how many questions you have solved correctly. You must understand why and how the other questions should have been solved. Ask your teachers and practice until you get them right. This is the only way to improve your JEE scores.

4)  Learning & Practicing Questions but not Taking Enough Tests: Taking JEE exam is akin to boxing. No matter how much theory you learn and how many practice exercises you do, you have to get in the ring to learn to fight. Similarly, you need to take timed tests (preferably in the simulated exam environment) to score well in the actual exam. askIITians test series is one such tool to offer you enough exam practice.

5)  Overlooking Class XI Syllabus: You need to revise old topics as well. JEE syllabus includes topics covered in Class XI and Class XII. Hence, 8-10 months before JEE exam, start at least one chapter a day from your Class XII books too.

6)  Partying & Romancing: When you are preparing for JEE, you hardly find time for anything else. Wooing your beloved, texting and chatting with friends, partying, and forwarding jokes can all happen when you are in college. During these two years, you need to focus on your education and career goals instead.

7)  Too Much or Too Little Stress about JEE: Now, we keep hearing how we should not take too much pressure about the exam. If you have studied well and practiced enough, you will score decently in the exam too. However, there are some who are at the other end of the stick. They are so carefree that they would hardly bother to do their last-minute revisions before exams. Some stress can give you an adrenaline rush but too much stress breaks you down. So, learn stress management.

8)  Waking up all Night a day before the exam: If you wake up all night, chances are you will feel sleep while giving the actual exam. To make sure that your brain is alert and bright at the time of exam, get a full night sleep and eat light breakfast on the day of the exam.

9)  Doubting Oneself: Lack of confidence is one big obstacle for JEE aspirants. You have to believe that you can achieve your goals to actually reach them. If you feel you lack in a particular sphere, make up for it through hard work.

10)  5-minute Pee Break: Serious JEE aspirants know that it is always best to go to toilet right before you enter the examination hall. 5 minutes of break can cost you time you could have used to solve 2 questions – which could have made a lot of difference to your JEE rank.

11)  Gawking the Pretty Invigilator: It is a wonder how teen hormones take over some JEE aspirants’ concentration away from the question paper and on to the beautiful invigilator in the examination hall. Look around the examination hall and you are sure to see some of them checking out teachers instead of JEE questions.

12)  Skipping over Long Questions: Some questions might be long but are actually very simple and easy. Do not skip them only because they seem to have a lot of text. Read them carefully and you might just solve them in less than 50-60 seconds.

13)  Spending more time on Easier Subject: Maintain a balance between the three subjects. Just because you find questions of a particular subject much easier, make sure that you do not spend more than the planned time on that section. If you have planned 1 hour for Physics, try to solve as many Physics questions as you can in 1 hour and then, move on to the next subject. If you have time in the end, you can devote it to solve rest of the questions in the subject you prefer.

14)  Marking all your answers on the ORS sheet in last half an hour: This is applicable to paper-based JEE exam. If you have decided to mark all your answers on the ORS sheet only at the fag end of the exam, you might find yourself gasping for time. In hurry, you might also mark options incorrectly and you won’t be able to change them too. Luckily, computer based JEE exam saves you from such a scenario.

15)  Discussing question paper performance with your peers: After exam, avoid discussing the question paper with your peers. You may analyse it to fine-tune your strategy for the next paper but do not indulge in defending your answers. It unnecessarily wastes your energy and time, and may dent your confidence.