For Students of class X going to XI or class XI going to XII
The students going from class X to XI have a lot of fire in them (carry over from class X board exam time), and so do their parents. Board exams have been rated so high (as a performance measure) in the minds of the students, that they put in everything they have in terms of scoring well during these exams. They are told throughout their class X that this is THE year, their ULTIMATE test of intelligence and aptitude.
The sad part is that it in reality is just a simple test of knowledge. It does not, in any way, measure the student in terms of (a). Grasping power (b). Conceptual understanding (c). Thoroughness in all the areas of a ’subject’ and definitely not (d). Intelligence.
I have got so tired of telling parents about this again and again that I really felt the need of just writing this down in a blog and post it on my website for everyone to see.
1. “My daughter has scored 93% in her board examination, then she is definitely a very intelligent girl and therefore has the aptitude for engineering and a chance to make it to IIT”
My take on such statements or thoughts is that your daughter is definitely ‘hard-working’ and ’sincere’, but is she intelligent…? I am not sure. So how can we be sure about her intelligence. Well, class XI might be the best initial measure for it. Class XI brings a whole variety of concepts, new theories, and entirely different set of fundamentals. If she is able to grasp class XI fully and with ease, then I can surely say she has the potential (just like I said, inital measure of intelligence). I know lots of students who secured 90% and above in class X and thought that . They thought the root sign simply cuts the square powers. I hope you get my message here, that concepts are a completely different ball game.
2. “My son had scored 90% in class X and is scoring above 80% in class XI. Therefore he is capable of clearing IIT also”

Once again, class X only shows hardwork and sincerity and class XI only shows potential. Now i shall point out the difference between class XI level of school and the class XI level of what comes in IITJEE.

The following are some of the questions from class XI school level

and the following is a question that came in IITJEE 2006 (based on class XI).

This one single question in IITJEE requires a mixed understanding of the all the three questions (school level) that I listed. So if the student has the capability to solve the 3 school questions, he might not necessarily have the approach or strategy in his head to mix the three things to solve this single problem. I have seen this ability in very few students. But, I am not saying that these few students were born with this ability. Definitely not. If that was the case, it would have been sheer discrimination and an incorrect way to select students (like the movie ‘gattica’, only the perfect people survive).

This skill of approach and strategy, can be BUILT in the students mind. There are strategies for that which will be listed in my other blogs.

The bottomline is… IITJEE is not a mystery.