JEE 2013 Preparation – Week 3

Following is the plan for this week :

MATHEMATICS :

As soon as you are done with Circles, start solving worked out examples of Conic Section – Parabola. The most complicated questions in Coordinate Geometry are from Conic Section – Parabola, Ellipse and Hyperbola. So be thorough with these chapters. Talking about Parabola, do not leave the “Prove that” questions of this chapter because they will help you solve various other questions. It will also help to memorize the results (the relations you are required to prove) of these “Prove that” questions so that you may directly apply these results in other questions. Parabola should eat up about 10 hours of your time.

The same kind of preparation strategy applies to Conic Section – Ellipse and Conic Section – Hyperbola. After going through the “Summary of Results”, solve all the worked out examples and exercise questions including the new pattern questions from Eduwiser’s Coordinate Geometry by Prof. K. C. Sinha. You do not need to solve questions from other sources at this point of time. These two chapters will take additional 15 hours to complete.

For all the chapters under Conic Section, memorize the equations of tangent, normal, chord of contact, etc. in parametric form. In most of the questions in these chapters, drawing a figure and taking coordinates of points in corresponding parametric form are the first two steps in the right direction. Whatever the case, you will always make the questions simpler if you prefer assuming parametric points on the parabola, ellipse or hyperbola instead of assuming the normal coordinates (x, y) and substituting x and y into the equation of parabola, ellipse or hyperbola. One must also note that you will land up with the same correct answer whether you choose the parametric coordinates or the conventional (x, y); just that with (x, y), you will increase the number of equations by one and the complexity of all the equations.  

CHEMISTRY :

This week in Physical Chemistry, we will aim to complete the following topics from Gaseous and Liquid States - Absolute scale of temperature, ideal gas equation; Deviation from ideality, van der Waals equation; Kinetic theory of gases, average, root mean square and most probable velocities and their relation with temperature; Law of partial pressures; Vapor pressure and Diffusion of gases.

Complete these topics from Dr. P. Bahadur’s Numerical Chemistry by solving the worked out examples only. Also solve only the worked out examples from Dr. R. C. Mukherjee’s Physical Chemistry. Do not ponder over your doubts in these topics too much. Ask your teacher/friends to clear your doubts as soon as you have them. This should take about 10 hours of your time. Practice new pattern questions from your Coaching Classes material. This will take another 4 hours. Do not go about looking at worked out examples or exercises with subjective questions in your Coaching Classes material.

In Organic Chemistry, finish off the following : Hydrogen bonds: definition and their effects on physical properties of alcohols and carboxylic acids; Inductive and resonance effects on acidity and basicity of organic acids and bases; Polarity and inductive effects in alkyl halides; Reactive intermediates produced during homolytic and heterolytic bond cleavage;  Formation, structure and stability of carbocations, carbanions and free radicals. You can again study these topics from your Coaching Classes course material and whatever you do not understand from Morrison and Boyd. There is a book on reaction mechanisms by Prof. Sanyal. This book is rare but if you can get hold of it from somewhere, there is nothing like it. The explanations in this book are terse but useful and there are a variety of reactions discussed. Allot about 10 hours for the above topics. There is no need to solve questions from any study material that you may have.

For Inorganic Chemistry, you should finish preparation and properties of the following compounds : Oxides, peroxides, hydroxides, carbonates, bicarbonates, chlorides and sulphates of sodium, potassium, magnesium and calcium; Boron: diborane, boric acid and borax; Aluminium: alumina, aluminium chloride. You can cover these topics from your NCERT books and your Coaching Classes material in about 6 hours. There is no need to solve questions from anywhere on these topics but do so if you have time.

PHYSICS :

Finish off pending portion of Modern Physics because the chapters under Modern Physics are important. You could take an hour to do so.

After you are done with Modern Physics, start Current Electricity from Prof. H. C. Verma’s Concepts of Physics – Vol. 2. Go through the worked out examples from it and solve each question from the exercise. Every book has its own method of solving questions. So, do not get bogged down if you are not comfortable using the method Prof. Verma uses in his books. You may come up with yours. One strategy that I found useful in this chapter was assuming current ‘i’ flowing through the circuit and then dividing into ‘i₁’ and ‘i – i₁’. Go through the entire circuit by different unique paths writing out potential equations to get a set of equations in unknown variables. Solve and get the value of each variable. No matter how complicated the question is, you will always come to the right answer if you write the equations and solve them correctly.

You should be able to finish this chapter in not more than 8 hours. Another 6 hours should be given to solving questions – subjective and new pattern questions, from your Coaching Classes course material.

This should pack your week with enough work. Do not get exhausted. Just be patient and continue slogging your guts out – after all, it is just for another 7 months.

Until next week, all the best !

JEE 2013 Preparation – Week 2

Anyone who followed my previous week’s schedule must be feeling sleepy. Do not worry because things will be a lot easier this week with respect to your sleep.

Following is the plan for this week :

MATHEMATICS :

Take 4 more hours to finish pending portions of Coordinates & Straight Lines and working out solved examples of Circles. These 4 hours should be allocated in the first 2 days of the week.

This week, you should complete the chapter on Circles. Solve all the subjective questions except the “Prove that” ones. In such questions, notice just the result and do not go about solving them. In the exercise too, you will find a few questions that are similar to the ones you must have already seen in the worked out examples. In such questions, just make the geometrical figure for the question and try to find out the method you would use to solve. Write out the equations and leave it at that. There is no need to fully solve such questions. Why I am asking you to not fully skip such questions is because with a slight change in data, there might be some complications introduced into the same questions.

Solve all the new pattern questions from the book. There is no need to solve new pattern questions from any other source unless you have finished the above material on Circles within 12 hours that I would earmark for it. This time can be distributed in the remaining 5 days of the week.

Go through the “Summary of Results” of Conic Section – Parabola (only) from the same book. This will hardly take an hour’s time.

CHEMISTRY :

For Physical Chemistry, you should try to wrap up Atomic Structure from G. R. Bathla’s Numerical Chemistry by Prof. P. Bahadur, if you have not been able to. Also read through Chemical Bonding from your Coaching Classes course material, NCERT books and any foreign author book. You will face a lot of conceptual issues with this chapter on Chemical Bonding. If you have any doubts, it is advisable to clear them at once, preferably with your teacher. Do not worry much if your problem with the chapter persists, and move on.

The above should take away about 14 hours of your time (2 hours for Atomic Structure and 12 hours for Chemical Bonding).

Also finish the chapter on Nuclear Chemistry that is very simple and interesting and should take not more than 5 hours to complete. Solve only the worked out examples from Numerical Chemistry and not the exercise. Give yourself 3 hours to practice new pattern questions on this chapter from your Coaching Classes course material.    

In Organic Chemistry, finish off Hybridization of carbon, sigma and pi bonds, Structural, Geometrical and Optical isomerism, Newman projections, resonance and hyperconjugation, keto-enol tautomerism and determination of empirical and molecular formulae of simple compounds. You can study the above from your Coaching Classes material and from Morrison and Boyd. Take 7 hours for it distributed over the first 5 days of the week.

Solve questions on the above topics from your Coaching Classes material and from past 10 years IIT-JEE during the last 2 days of the week. Earmark 4 hours for it.

For Inorganic Chemistry, you should finish isolation/preparation and properties of boron, silicon, nitrogen, phosphorus, oxygen, sulphur and halogens from your NCERT book and from your Coaching Classes course material. Allocate not more than 8 hours for it.

PHYSICS :

This week’s target in Physics will be to wrap up Modern Physics. The chapters involved are very simple and scoring. Most of the students keep procrastinating Modern Physics and end up taking Entrance Examinations without any knowledge of it.

Go through the worked out examples from H. C. Verma’s book and solve each question from the exercise.

The load will be less in Physics this week because you would have already covered the same chapters in Physical Chemistry. If you can get hold of a book on Modern Physics by Dr. Anil Verma – Patna University, it will be great but even if you cannot (since that book is rare), try solving questions from any possible source. I know that at your Coaching Classes, your teachers might be teaching you Mechanics, Current Electricity and Magnetism, etc. but not Modern Physics and you would first want them to teach you the theory so that you could practice the questions. Remember one thing, you do not need a teacher to study. So start on your own. Set aside 12 hours for your Physics this week.

You work on the above topics while I will work on preparing a couple of mock test papers to help you score more at JEE Main and Advanced.

Until next week, all the best !

JEE 2013 Preparation – Week 1

There are still about 26 weeks left for JEE Main and about 34 weeks left for JEE Advanced, and we will try to make the best use of these weeks. While you should not expect to become a Scientist in the chapters you study in the coming weeks but yes, you can expect yourself to qualify the concerned competitive examinations.

Each day has 24 hours and I am going to divide these 24 hours into – School time, Coaching Classes time, Sleeping time, Eating, Freshening up and Leisure time, and Self-study time at home.

The basic break-up of these times for the weekdays should be :

School time : 6 hours

Coaching Classes time : 2 hours

Sleeping time : 5 hours

Eating, Freshening up and Leisure time : 2 hours

Self-study time at home : 8 hours

And for the weekends, the basic break-up of these times should be :

School time : 0 hours

Coaching Classes time : 2 hours

Sleeping time : 5 hours

Eating, Freshening up and Leisure time : 2 hours

Self-study time at home : 15 hours

The only time that can differ above for students is the Coaching Classes time because some students are enrolled for the weekend classes and have to take classes of 6 hours each on Saturday and Sunday, while other students are enrolled for a ‘4 days per week batch’ having 3 hours of classes each day. In either case, the average time for Coaching Classes is 12 – 14 hours per week. Many students and parents would be worried about the sleeping time. I know the students are going to find it a challenge to just sleep for 5 hours a day but trust me, this will be difficult only for the first week. From next week onwards, you will be comfortable with 5 hours of sleep but you have to make sure you keep awake for 19 hours a day for the first week even if you are not able to concentrate properly on studies. Human body and brain will condition themselves to your way of working. When people around you tell you that a minimum of 7 hours or 8 hours of sleep is essential, tell yourself and them that it is all in the head.  

So coming back to our case, we will have about 70 hours per week for our self-study at home. For these 70 hours, I am going to keep things light the first week so that you adjust to the new schedule.

Following is the plan for this week :

MATHEMATICS :

The most important topics first, we will hit Coordinates and Straight Lines before anything else. You must have already covered this chapter in Class XI. Do not worry if you think you have forgotten everything. Jump directly to Section II of Eduwiser’s Coordinate Geometry by Prof. K. C. Sinha. First go through the “Summary of Results” of the chapter - Coordinates and Straight Lines, after which you should try to SOLVE the worked out examples without looking at their solutions. Also solve all the subjective questions and the new pattern questions based on JEE Main and Advanced. If there are any subjective questions that you are not able to solve by yourself, skip them for the time-being. If there are any new pattern questions in the exercise that you are not able to solve, mark them for attempting them later. Do not ask any of your teachers/friends for solutions to them at this point of time.

You should be able to complete the above in 10 hours. Distribute these 10 hours across 5 days of the week so that you do not get bored. Set aside 3 hours of time for the last 2 days to solve only new pattern questions from the course pack that you might have from any of the Coaching Classes.     

In addition to Coordinates and Straight Lines, start Section II of Circles from the same book. Be thorough with the “Summary of Results” and go through the worked out examples (preferably solving them without looking at their solutions). This should take 8 hours of time that you can distribute across the week as per your convenience.

CHEMISTRY :

For Physical Chemistry, you can start with Atomic Structure from G. R. Bathla’s Numerical Chemistry by Prof. P. Bahadur. Try solving the worked out examples but do not panic if you are not able to solve any question; just read through it. Once you are done with it, you should solve the worked out examples of Bharati Bhawan’s Physical Chemistry by Dr. R. C. Mukherjee. Allocate a total of 9 hours to complete the chapter from the two books. Use another 3 hours to solve new pattern questions from your Coaching Classes course material.

For Organic Chemistry, take not more than 4 hours to read through and practice Nomenclature from your Coaching Classes course material.

PHYSICS :

In Physics, you must have already covered Motion in 1-D and 2-D, Newton’s Laws of Motion & Friction and Work, Power & Energy. Revise these chapters from Bharati Bhawan’s Concepts of Physics – Vol. 1 by Dr. H. C. Verma. Pick questions at random to practice but do not skip the questions you found difficult and/or could not solve earlier. Just in case you are unable to solve any question, discuss it with your teacher at your Coaching Classes or your school right away.

Devote 4 hours to Motion in 1-D and 2-D, 4 hours to Newton’s Laws of Motion & Friction and 4 hours to Work, Power & Energy. You can distribute the above among the first 5 days. You will also have to practice new pattern questions from your Coaching Classes course material for a total of 9 hours (3 hours each for the three sections mentioned above). 

The above schedule is only for 58 hours this week instead of 70 hours to give you time to adjust. When we are back next week, I do hope the above topics are covered and you are geared up to take up more each week.

Until next week, all the best !