By T Fightingstar Mawlong
One thing that every serious aspirant for engineering and medical entrance exam should know is that they can crack any entrance exam if their fundamental concept is strong. A careful analysis of the question papers of the toughest entrance exam in India, the “JEE advanced”, reveals that much emphasis is laid on conceptual clarity. Mastering the conceptual edifice is therefore indisputably what aspirants should focus on. They should understand that a comfort level with fundamental concepts is the sine qua non to performing well in JEE main, JEE advanced, or NEET.
Modern high stake entrance exams are administered with multiple choice questions (MCQ) in which each question has four answer choices, of which only one is correct. In “JEE advanced” the questions and the four answer choices are carefully designed so as to elicit ill- suited reasoning patterns; most questions test multiple concepts and require simple calculation; and there are also questions which test a single concept but involve lengthy algebraic gymnastics and computation. The questions are so designed that candidates with low ability would find it hard to decode the question, let alone guess a correct answer. Also the mediocre students are sedulously made prey to over-learning and wrong pre-conceptions.
For example, let’s consider one of the “simplest but tricky” JEE advanced questions:- “A bear falls from a cliff which is at height 19.6m it takes 2 seconds to hit the ground. What is the colour of the bear?” Options given are: (a) white (b) brown (c) cannot determine (d) none of these. Most candidates would choose option (c) thinking that the colour of the bear has no bearing on how fast the bear falls. Only smart students will be able to “instantly” link the colour of the bear to the place and hence to the ‘acceleration due to gravity’ (which is nowhere mentioned in the question). So they will compute the acceleration due to gravity from what is given in question; if its value is 10m/s2, the place is at the pole where a bear looks white in colour; and if the value is 9.8m/s2 the place is at or near the equator, where a bear is brownish.
Another important point to note is that contrary to what most people think, JEE advanced paper is less about solving the mind blowing numerical questions which are there in good numbers but it is more about being smart and being able to flawlessly apply the fundamental concepts and confront those straightforward but tricky questions. It is a game of concepts and the questions are original, very rarely taken from any books. If a student could do all the straightforward questions, he is good enough to get into IIT. But the ‘harsh reality’ is that many simple ‘out of the box questions’ are very tricky, especially in the Physics paper, that I dare say even most of the Physics faculties in our State (in schools, colleges and university), probably more than 90 % of them, will not be able to “independently” decode all the JEE advanced Physics questions or solve them, let alone come up with an effective way to teach student how to confront these JEE advanced questions.
If we want to raise the standard of science education we should understand that discussing the quality conceptual JEE advanced questions is a great way to educate science students (intermediate or graduate), to develop a culture of science and to develop a real scientific mind. But regrettably, there is dearth of enthusiastic and able science faculty in Meghalaya. And unfortunately, the enormous baggage of conceptual problems in science is ‘teacher driven’. A teacher is viewed as an ultimate authority in the classroom. Asking questions in the classroom is, in most cases, not encouraged. So the “superficial explanation” of concepts delivered by a teacher is accepted by the students as it is. The teachers all too often fail to give an overview of the topic necessary for understanding it. Their flawed method of teaching chiefly relies on giving class notes for students to copy. To say the least, our classrooms under-emphasize understanding and are totally oblivious to skillful guidance and fruitful discussion. Conceptual stagnation of students would therefore inevitably follow with a damning consequence for the whole culture of science.
Therefore the “antidote” left for our students who aspire to crack the high stake examination like “JEE advanced” is a “disciplined self study” and enrolling in “distance learning course” of coaching institutes outside the state which undoubtedly deliver unmatched science teaching and awesome study materials. Failing that they have to drop a year and attend coaching outside the state. Now what about the coaching institutes in Shillong? My honest opinion is that students who desire to crack JEE advanced or get into AIIMS, JIPMER, or any premier institutes, should best stay away from the coaching institutes of Shillong. They should not be fooled by the notion that something is better than nothing. It isn’t true here. Again, what about the crash-courses? Well, all I would say is that many good students I personally know are throwing away their chances of cracking NEET or JEE advanced by joining the crash courses. They miss their chance of scoring high in NEET or in JEE mains and JEE advanced because they are wasting their energy and a crucial 30 days before exams. Even those students who somehow qualify for NEET and JEE and get the Medical and Engineering seats, could have performed much better if they had not wasted their time in crash-courses. So those who have ears let them hear.
For those students who are going to appear JEE mains (and later JEE advanced if they qualify JEE main) and NEET this year, I strongly advise them to have confidence in what they have learned during their two years of study. If their aim is to score well in JEE or NEET, what they should do in this precious little time left is “revising” the fundamental concepts and “practicing” copious numbers of previous years and model questions diligently every day in the comfort of their homes. Period. Every hour they waste during these few weeks before exams will lower their chances of performing well in NEET or JEE, no matter how good they are.
And for those students who are going to appear in these exams next year, I suggest they start preparing early. They should understand the importance of “group discussions” and “cooperative learning”. And they should take the whole conceptual edifices of their subjects brick by brick, turn them over and go through them with a fine tooth comb, the way the masters have done it. Last but not the least, the Human Resource Development Ministry of the Government of India last year conceived of a plan to provide “free online coaching” for all students for IIT entrance in which the IIT professors themselves will be teaching through free videos in the “IIT pal website”. There would be detailed analysis and discussion of the 50 years JEE questions as well as the fundamental concepts of Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics in the said website. Last Sunday I heard this IIT pal website is getting ready and is going to be launched very soon. Students of Meghalaya should exploit this opportunity to learn through the unmatched teachings of the IIT professors.
I hope these paragraphs would revitalize the students’ approach in their preparation for the high stake exams. It is with this intent that this write-up has been written.