The pre-exam maths jitters are not new to us. This was one of the subjects that scared the hell out of all of us during our school days. However, the situation has changed today. Instead of the rhetoric school papers, now the math exams are much tougher and more confusing.
One of the entrance exams that decide the entire course of your future and heavily depends on the subject ‘Math’ is unarguably JEE. In a traditional 3-hour paper, most students devote about 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes for just maths. Still, they land up scoring the least marks in JEE maths. This article is an attempt to give you some simple hacks to reduce the time that you devote to JEE maths not only during the preparation phase but also the exams.
Read about how to get rid of the maths phobia here.
How to Reduce Time and Increase Productivity During JEE Maths Preparations
Maths is probably the toughest of the three subjects and it takes some time to grasp the concepts (though it varies from person to person). But you can reduce the time that you actually devote to maths significantly by following some simple steps. You will hardly feel a difference in your methodology of the study, though.
1. Firstly, understand the fact that maths is not a subject that you can master by reading the theory or just seeing the way the problems are solved. Many students tend to study maths by reading the solved problems. This practice will never help you excel in maths. Stop it immediately. You need to solve lots and lots of problems if you want to be proficient at it. If you are investing your time to just read problems, then you are wasting it and you need to stop. Solve as many problems as you can because this packs a dual benefit. Firstly, you will grasp maths in a much more efficient way. Secondly, it will decrease the time you take to solve a question, thus helping you save time in the exam.
Also read: our blog on Maths JEE Mains Preparation Tips
2. While solving questions of a particular chapter – say, indefinite integration – write down all the formulae of that chapter on a sheet of paper and keep it with you. This will save the time you waste to search formulas in the book and help you revise them. You could save that surplus time for learning new things instead.
3. If you are stuck on a problem, leave it for later. Don’t let the problem affect your state of mind. It’s OK if were not able to solve an easy problem. I committed the same mistakes while preparing for JEE maths and I wasted a lot of time trying them. Your instructors are always there to help you out in case you get stuck somewhere. Leave that particular sum, go on the next one. Let your subconscious work that sum out and there is a good probability that you’ll solve that problem in your next attempt.
4. When you are solving sums, always start with the easy ones and then go over to the difficult ones. This will help you memorize the concepts and strength your basics.
5. DON’T USE A CALCULATOR. Strictly avoid calculators. Initially, you will face problems, but this will help you drastically at later stages. This practice is very beneficial in exams where you are supposed to perform all calculations without the use of calculators. It also increases your calculation speed drastically.
How to Reduce Time and Increase Productivity During JEE Math Exam
Now, there is a radical difference between the exam situation and the preparation phase. Exam time means a lot of pressure. You need to optimize your efforts in the examination in order to score well. Here are some of the hacks that can reduce the time you devote to maths in the examination and increase your efficiency during the examination.
1. There is absolutely no need to solve the paper in an organised way. In fact, I will encourage you all to solve it in a disorganized way. Devote initial 2-3 minutes in analyzing the paper. Sort out the easy questions from the difficult ones and attempt the easy ones first. This will save your energy and you will not actually waste a lot of time in solving the difficult problems. Always reserve difficult problems for later.
2. Mark the questions that you want to leave for the last.
3. My next tip is a bit unconventional but I would suggest that you use minimum space for solving a problem. Always do the rough work with a pencil so that you can rub it off if you feel the need of more rough space. Although they give blank pages at the back, it takes a lot of time to turn all the pages and do the calculation in the last pages.
4. Try learning some calculations before hand like:
a. Trigonometric tables
b. Square and square roots
c. Cube and cube roots
d. Basic derivatives
e. Basic integration
f. Limiting values
Go through these time management hacks to plan better.
Maths scares many, but this fear can be overcome by working hard in a smart way. By smart way, I mean that you need to reduce the time you spend on studying maths or solving the question paper. These tricks are a bit difficult to follow. You might even face some difficulties initially but believe me, in the long run, they are for your own benefit.
I will be very happy to solve all your doubts regarding JEE maths. All you need to do is just comment below and I will try to answer them ASAP.
You can also check out tips to become a maths genius here.
BEST OF LUCK!
