Finding Out Your Strengths to Crack JEE:
What are you good at?
That’s a question we all want to know about ourselves, as well as the question that occasionally comes after it: What aren’t you good at? If you don’t have any clue about how to answer those questions about yourself, keep reading—I’ll help you come to a better knowledge of yourself and crack JEE Advanced with élan.
To begin with, my dear reader, you need to know that every student who is working to crack JEE has access to the same material. It is all going to be about a similar set of books or study materials, and the concepts in these materials remain the same. In the end, it comes down to your state and presence of mind during the exam. And yes, also about those extra hacks you apply to give you a certain edge over other competitors. Knowing your strengths and weaknesses and how to use them to your advantage is one of the advantages that you can have.
Before I tell you how to identify your strengths and ace your exams, let me quickly run you through the 3 crucial things that worked for me during my JEE journey.
Planning: I’ve always been a planner. I kept my strengths and weaknesses in mind, and the time available, to create a meticulous plan of study. It can be done by setting up milestones according to months, weeks, days and hours.
Determination: To crack JEE, you need to be a person of determination who executes the plans steadfastly and thoroughly. That’s exactly what I did. Remember! Making a plan and not acting upon that or procrastinating and making alibis will not take you anywhere.
Trusting the ‘Gut Feeling’: I never took guidance and advice from others unnecessarily. What I did instead? I figured out exactly where I am getting stuck and searched for answers from reliable sources (Teachers, Books, Magazines). Please keep your mind, ears and eyes open, and develop a power of discrimination between what advice is required and what is not required.
Now, before you use any outside sources to help identify your strengths and weaknesses, let me tell you that there are two ways to figure out your strength points. Here’s a glimpse of the easier version first.
How to Find Out Your Strengths – Approach 1
Take a notebook and on three pages give the heading Good Preparation, Bad Preparation and Average Preparation.
- On the first page with the title Good Preparation, note down the topics you are very confident about.
- On the second page with the title Bad Preparation, note down topics which are the least scoring for you at the moment.
- On the third page with the title Average Preparation, note down those topics that have some scope of improvement.
Every three days, look at these three pages and ask yourself two questions:
- Is there any topic under Bad Preparation that I can now move to Average Preparations?
- Is there any topic under Average Preparation that I can now move to Good Preparations?
If your answer is yes, reward yourself! Go ahead and indulge in your favorite ice-cream or chocolate milkshake.
This is the simplest way to understand your strengths and start working on weaknesses.
How to Find Out Your Strengths – Approach 2
Here, I’ll be talking about SWOT Analysis, which is a technique meant to give you an overview of your standing while letting you plan activities to circumvent problems. Firstly, what does SWOT stand for?
S – Strength W – Weakness O – Opportunity T – Threats
For tackling your exams by using a SWOT analysis, the following information should be known to you. Take up a couple of mock tests before you build this list. You can build your list based on the table that has been given below.
| Strengths | Weaknesses | Opportunities | Threats |
| Build a list of the easiest topics according to you, from which “all” questions can be answered correctly by you. | Build a list of topics which you are not confident about and therefore cannot answer “all” questions that come from here. | Build a list of topics on which your preparation amount is average and therefore problems can either be tackled or not, depending on the question. | Build a list of topics which you always somehow do incorrectly. This may also include types of questions that you mess up. |
| You need to be confident about any questions that come from these topics. Make efforts to ensure that the topics from this column do not shift to others. | You may have to work hard to tackle questions from these topics. These topics need work. | These topics can be converted into strengths and eventually all questions from these can be tackled. | Take appropriate measures to shift topics and questions from this column to opportunities. |
So, you could create a SWOT list for each subject separately and further preparation can be planned based on this analysis.
It’s crucial to identify what works for you to manage your time better and reduce the stress quotient. Also, remember that the guys who listen to radio, take weekends breaks, visit relatives, and still manage to get a good score are more common than one believes. You’ll be successful if you immerse yourself in the task at hand. In a way, you need to be a Zen master.
Build a plan, and study when you study. Don’t give in to distractions, and don’t get up before you complete the chapter you’re working on.
Determination and planning are keys to crack JEE Advanced. Here‘s how you can plan better during your JEE Advanced preparation.
