JEE Main 2019 : Four strategies that January exam toppers used to attempt paper online

Strategy 1: Serial order

Gollapudi N Lakshmi Narayanan a 17-year-old from a small village in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh topped JEE Main January paper-II for B.Arch admissions and also secured 99.91 percentile in paper-I for BTech admissions. He finished the competitive exam 45 minutes before the scheduled time.

Talking about his during exam strategy he said, “I started working on one subject at the time, finished it completely and then moved on to next. I found maths and physics in comparison to chemistry.

I kept focus on the subject I was attempting one at a time and then move on to difficult questions at last. This helped me retain attention and focus and I ended up completing the test 45 minutes before the due time.”

JEE Main January 2019 B.Arch topper wishes to work with DRDO or ISRO. Son of a businessman, Narayanan wishes to work for the country. “I want to have a good career where I can serve the nation as well.

As an engineer, I want to work at the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) or the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO),” he said.

Strategy 2: Easy first

Attempting scoring questions first gives confidence to many candidates. JEE Main 2019 topper Ankit Kumar Mishra from Mumbai also followed the same strategy while attempting the test.

It was chemistry that he considered slightly difficult but also believed to be more scoring and less time-consuming. Hence he attempted it first during the exam. “I attempted chemistry first in the exam as it takes less time.

Since it is more about memorising abilities, if one knows the answers they will complete it quickly and it would be a good boost to competition. After chemistry I attempted mathematics followed by physics,” he said.

Suggesting his peers he said, “It is important to keep your cool during the exam and treat each question individually. One’s focus should be to crack as many questions as possible and not on the result. Also, practising mock tests helps in self-assessment.”

Strategy 3: Shuffle between subjects

Shubhankar Gambhir, a resident of Kota, Rajasthan who topped JEE Main January 2019 exam in the first attempt with 100 percentile marks believes the CBT format is easier than the paper-pen exam.

During the exam, said the Rajasthan topper, it is important to keep the brain focused. “Often the brain gets complacent while reading the same subjects for a longer duration of time.

Thus, during the exam, I started with physics. After attempting 15 questions from the section, I moved to chemistry. It was finished in one go and then I attempted mathematics, solved 15 questions and moved back to physics. When I finished it, I attempted rest questions in the maths section,” he said.

Strategy 4: Difficult first

Dhruv Arora, from Indore, has scored 100 percentile score in the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) Main in his first attempt. However, unlike other JEE aspirants, he is not desperate to take admission to the Indian Institute of Technology and told that he will consider IISc as well as IIT at the time of admissions.

During the exam, he said he followed the strategy to give more time to the subjects he found relatively difficult. “I started with chemistry and finished the entire section in 30 minutes as it is based on concepts and is the easiest among the three.

After that, I focused on mathematics and gave as much time to it and tried to be more accurate. I was confident in physics and hence knew I would be able to work through it even in limited time,” said the Indore-topper.

The CBT, added, Arora, was easier for him and gave him an advantage as he was familiarised with the format. “For those preparing for JEE Mains 2019, should also practice and familiarise themselves with the type of questions that are asked in the exam as well as with the format. Solving previous years’ question papers is a help,” he said.

Out of the 8,74,469 students who appeared for the NTA JEE paper I, only 15 students from across the nation have secured a perfect 100 percentile. This is the first time a percentile-based score was issued to JEE main examinees, the final ranking will be also be declared but after the second session of the exam is conducted, which is scheduled to be held in April 2019.