How to Go About Co-ordinate Geometry for JEE Advanced
After facing straight questions in JEE Main, it’s time you gear up for the tougher and trickier ones of JEE Advanced that are designed to really test your mettle.
Co-ordinate Geometry is a method of analyzing geometrical shapes. It is one of the most scoring topics of the mathematics syllabus of JEE and other engineering exams. Besides calculus, this is the only topic that can fetch you maximum marks. The Co-ordinate Geometry unit for JEE Advanced covers: Basics of Co-ordinate Geometry, Straight Lines, Pair of Straight Lines and Conic Sections – Circle, Parabola, Ellipse, Hyperbola.
The first thing to do is to choose the right book containing problems of a good level. To master this section, one can refer to the book Co-ordinate Geometry by Dr.SK Goyal (Arihant Publications). You will find concepts explained descriptively and questions divided difficulty-wise.
So, let’s come to the crux of this article: What should be your approach for Co-ordinate Geometry for JEE Advanced? Here are some tips and strategies you can adopt.
Start with understanding the concepts as JEE tests your basics. Without this ground step, you cannot rise high.
- Understand concepts by visualizing them. Getting the ‘feel’ of the subject rather than memorizing stuff is something that is going to help you crack the problems of JEE Advanced.
- Learn to derive a concept from other chapters and use it in a way that eases things. Sometimes, you need to use Algebra or meddle with trigonometry to make problems easier. These tricks should be noted down and revised before every practice session. Once they get settled in your mind, you can easily recall them.
- You will come across a lot of formulae and relations in Co-ordinate Geometry. Most of them will be similar and will confuse you. So, it will be good if you write everything on a chart in a comparative manner.
Solve a lot of problems is all they say. But there is a slip here. Just solving will not help you. Everyone does that. You have to go a step further.
- Take your practice sessions very seriously. Problems from co-ordinate geometry initially take a lot of time. Keep a watch on the time spent on each problem and keep improving it.
- To crack this extra bit, keep twisting each question you solve. Make room for new possibilities and it will help you to understand the subject more deeply.
After solving questions, you should start evaluating your preparation in terms of Speed, Line of Thought (thought process) and Accuracy.
- Maintain a proper rough notebook for important points and revise it.
- Keep a track record of the time you spend on solving a question. Write it on the same page where you solve the question.
- Mark any new problem-solving technique that you used to solve a particular question.
- Write what went wrong or right when you were solving that question.
- Mark the silly mistakes you made while solving problems.
- Identify unnecessary calculations and avoid them the next time.
Revise the rough notebook every time before starting your problem-solving sessions. This way, your mind will always keep track of your mistakes and your problem-solving techniques, making you stronger. You would literally get unbeatable.
A lot of students have this concern that questions in JEE are lengthy if solved by the conventional method. Yes! They are! But looking for hints will certainly help you find a way. There is always a loophole to solve the questions faster.
Remember that Coordinate geometry is an important part of the JEE maths paper. It can really improve your rank. Each year in the JEE mathematics, around 20% – 25% of the total marks of mathematics are from this part and almost 50% of the total questions cover straight line and the circles. Good command over this section provides you with an additional advantage. It would also help you in solving some tough problems of other chapters graphically.
Also, read our guide to crack calculus for JEE Advanced.
