Competitive attitude and continual improvisation are an absolute mandate for the likes JEE or for that matter any competitive exam which has very low acceptance. Now, the right attitude does not come as an intuition. While the knowledge cannot be compromised, you need a high degree of familiarization with the pattern and hands-on practice that can only be achieved by simulated practice i.e. practicing like you are in actual conditions. And, when you have a deep knowledge of the competition, only then can you strategize your attempt to the best of your capability.
1 mark: It holds the power of making or breaking
A close look at the ‘JEE rank’ versus ‘marks obtained’ yields that losing out a single mark can lead to a considerable downfall in the rank obtained. Based on the marks scored by top 500 rankers in JEE, hitting or missing the bull’s eye can lead to a +5 or -5 marks effect in the JEE rank. This effect would be further enhanced from this year as the negative marking has been increased to +2 or -2 making the correct and incorrect attempts rewarding or costing you +6 or -6 respectively. Similarly, a single mark can make a difference of 20 ranks in 500-1000 rank category, 40 ranks in 1000-2000 rank category, and 80 ranks in 2000-5000 rank categories.
Clearly evident by the JEE qualifiers’ score analysis from previous years, the gap seems to become narrower with later ranks.
| Ranks | Percentage Score secured by the candidate |
| 1 | 85-95 |
| 500 | 55-75 |
| 1000 | 50-70 |
| 1500 | 45-68 |
| 2000 | 43-67 |
| 2500 | 42-65 |
| 3000 | 40-64 |
| 3500 | 39-63 |
| 4000 | 38-61 |
Thus, if you take a cue from these statistics, you should realize how good or bad much can 1 correct or incorrect attempt do to your chances.
More Data
Now, to back our assertion further, let us have a closer look at some key figures. Here, we have categorized questions as easy, medium, and difficult based on the percentage of number of total students who sat for the JEE. Easy questions have been categorized as those where more than 50% students have cracked the answer correctly. On the other hand, tough questions are the ones where 20% or lesser students found the answers and all the other questions are medium ones.
It is easy to observe that JEE has 8-18% questions which are easy i.e. doable by more than 50% students. Nearly 45-60% can be categorized as medium difficulty and nearly 40-50% questions can be categorized tough in nature i.e. solvable only by 20% or lesser students.
The same analysis when done on subject basis yields that Physics has had nearly 9 % easy questions, Chemistry has had 13 %, and Math has 5 %. In terms of moderate questions, Physics, Chemistry, and Math respectively have 48 %, 49%, and 40 % and the tough questions are 43 %, 38 %, and 55 % respectively.
Thus, you should understand that you cannot rely on easier questions alone in Physics and Math as these are lesser in number. You should have the ability to attempt medium and even tougher questions. The same holds true for Chemistry but then easier questions can help you more.
The webinar can be viewed on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdnU7GZDSps&index=5.
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