You have so many competing demands on your time: School, coaching, homework, assignments, reading etc. There seems to be a perennial shortage of time. How can you come to grips with all of it?

Time really can’t be managed. You can’t slow it down or speed it up or manufacture it. It just is. Time management is MANAGING YOURSELF when following some basic time management principles

First thing is to determine how you are spending your time now. Capture the last entire week on a piece of paper and see the timetable you followed. Count the total number of hours spent in self study during the entire week.

Once you have completed such an analysis you can begin to change the way you manage yourself in relation to time.

Some time saving tips

1. Identify “Best Time” for Studying: Everyone has high and low periods of attention and concentration. Are you a “morning person” or a “night person”. Use your power times to study; use the down times for routines such as laundry and shopping.

2. Study difficult topics First: When you are fresh, you can process information more quickly and save time as a result.

3. Use Distributed Learning and Practice: Study in shorter time blocks with short breaks between. This keeps you from getting fatigued and “wasting time.” This type of studying is efficient because while you are taking a break, the brain is still processing the information.

4. Make Sure the Surroundings are Conducive to Studying: This will allow you to reduce distractions that can “waste time.” If there are times in your hostel or apartment when you know there will be noise and commotion, use that time for mindless tasks.

5. Combine Activities: Use the “Two for one” concept. While sitting in school, finish readings of the textbooks whenever you get time. If you are spending time at the barber’s shop, bring some numerical to solve. If you are traveling to or from the institute in a public transport, bring your notes to study and memorize.

Goal Setting

Ask any successful person, the secret behind his success, and very likely the answer will be “goals”. Goal Setting is extremely important to success.

The personal goal chart is a strategy for setting realistic goals for studying and carefully evaluating the ways by which those goals will be achieved. It takes into account one’s motivations for fulfilling particular goals. It is said that “desire to learn” gives “success” and “success” gives “desire to learn”… so it sounds circular!! But once you get into this circle nothing can stop you from achieving what you want. You might have heard that “nothing succeeds like success”. What that means that it is important for one to get some success to achieve more of it.

Long term plan (Annual) should be made with a view of exams, holidays and school. It creates a overall structure under which smaller milestones are set. In absence of a long term plan,  you suddenly find shortage of time when your exams and tests are close by and you have no alternative.

Deciding on a short-term plan calls for daily and weekly planning. These plans are the most effective because they are more realizable as compared to long-term plans.

You can also make achievable short plans like:

“Completing 25 questions on determinants this Tuesday evening”,

“Revising volumetric chemistry on Monday”, etc.

Related Topics:

1. Tips for IIT JEE Success #1 – Motivation
2. Tips for IIT JEE Success #3 – Develop a System- The Ultimate Weapon
3. Tips for IIT JEE Success #2 – Study Hard & Smart

* “Which is a better course material – FIITJEE, VMC, BT or Bansal Kota?”
* “How should I choose the best correspondence / postal course?”

It is not fair to endorse one brand over the other, particularly when I know that most of the above stated brands were rendered completely useless, less than 3 years ago, when the IIT JEE pattern was changed. The changes were made completely with the objective of reducing the impact of coaching.

The old IIT JEE coaching brands have no experience in Objective type problem solving techniques.

In this context one can understand that emerging brands in IIT JEE coaching, have better material than most old ones. In fact, buying course material from old brands is a recipe for disaster.

How does one choose the course material?

We have listed down some of the critical parameters that should be seen by the students and parents while choosing the course material

* Authors?
Ideally, it should be written by IIT graduates (who have successfully appeared in IITJEE), who are involved in IITJEE coaching. IITians understand the psychology behind successful preparation for IITJEE. By coaching students an IITian is likely to become aware of the problems faced by students.

* Based on the ‘New IITJEE Pattern’
Established teachers in old brands are well aware of the ‘Old IITJEE Pattern. They have no clue of the nuances of the new pattern. Just changing the problems from descriptive to objective type is not enough. A good course must be good on the following parameters:

* Is it time managed?
The biggest problem faced by students is managing time. The course should have a time plan to itself. Having a course material with a lot of problems is of no use unless we know the time to be spent on it. Some course materials try to give a lot of material making it impossible to complete. The total course material should be balanced in such a manner that a student can complete it within the time available.

* Strategies on solving objective type problems
Since, most of the traditional instructors did not face any objective type problems, they dont know the methods of attempting objective type problems. A lot of problems can be solved by elimination of wrong alternatives, intelligent guessing, modulating the speed, speed reading etc. The course should have special focus on the above.

* Synchronization with the school syllabus
Since most students now have to prepare along with Class XI – XII, the problem of managing IIT JEE preparation along with school studies has become more acute. The course should be such that it benefits students in synchronized study.

Other key parameters to assess the course material are:
* Online testing
BITSAT has become online. CAT has become online. It is very likely that IIT JEE also become online by 2011. Online testing also gives a good comparative assessment immediately. Students dont need to join all India test series on paper.

* Preferably in workbook format
Students should get used to solving problems in lesser space. A course material in workbook format limits the space available, forcing students to get used to the format.

Quest course for IITJEE that fits all the above requirements and more.

Related Topics:

1. Download Free Study Material and Test Papers for IIT JEE
2. Tips for IIT JEE Success #3 – Develop a System- The Ultimate Weapon
3. New IIT JEE pattern and its impact

This is complicated even more by the fact that every chapter requires different amount of time. Even different subjects require different amounts of time in theory and problems.

The different questions that come to the mind of the student are:

• How much time should be spent in reading from the textbook?
• Are the notes from tuition/coaching enough? Can I manage without reading the textbook?
• Is there anything to read from the textbook in Mathematics?
• How much time should I spend in solved examples given in the IITJEE course material>
• How much time should be allocated to a certain topic?
• How much time should be spent on a problem that is not getting solved before looking at the solution or asking for help?
• How much time should I spend in testing at home?
• How should I calculate the total time required?

We have tried to answer these questions by giving an indicative time plan.

List of chapters (with recommended time slotted)

This is just a recommendation. Students can make changes to the study plan based on their proficiency in the subjects. The actual time spent by the student can vary by 10% – 15% depending on the student’s personal style of study. Please consider that the time given here is the minimum that a student needs to spend. The total time spent in studying for IITJEE across 2 years should not be less than 10% of the given.

Related Topics:

1. IIT JEE Study Planner: Annual
2. IIT JEE study Planner: Daily timetable
3. IIT JEE study Planner: Weekly timetable

It is an essential tool is setting up a daily routine.

However, most of us have stopped using this powerful tool.

The biggest reason that students state for stopping the use of timetables is that its ineffective.

“It does not work”

“We cant follow the timetable. It makes us feel bad”

“I do better without a timetable”

“It creates pressure”

These are all valid reasons.

However, we face these problems because of the manner in which we use the timetable.

We have a habit of focusing on the failures. If we have been able to follow the timetable 80% of the time, we look at the 20% when we could not follow and declare it a failure.

In reality the 80% time that was effectively utilized made it a success. It is never possible to follow the timetable 100%. Timetable is just a tool to guide us in utilizing our time. It reminds us to start work when we want to. If the timetable is unsuitable, we should change it to suit our schedule.

However, this tool can only work if we look at its success in stead of the failure.

We feel bad only when we look at the failures.

It is the nature of the human psyche to expand whatever it focuses on. If we focus too much on the failure then we will only find failure.

In reality, failure does not exist. It is just another attempt to success. The attempt transforms into failure when we stop attempting.

In reality, we work on some kind of a timetable even without writing it. This timetable is etched in our heads. Since it is not written, there is no measurement possible.

When we write down the timetable, it will allow us exact measurement of the utilization of our time. You can hope to increase your performance only if you have a way to measure it. Without measurement, any change is performance is a mere perception. I tmay or may not reflect reality.

Please utilize the format below to plan your days.

Fill up the timetable with activities. A sample of these activities is

Wake up / Off to sleep – These times should be closest to our biological clock for maximum efficiency. The human body is designed to operate efficiently in the day time. Try to sleep by 12 midnight (latest).

School, Tuition/Coaching, Travel time

Brush, bath, toilet, Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Spend at least 7 hours in sleep every day

Take out a minimum of 45 minutes in physical activities like Sports, yoga, exercise everyday. You can club this activity with friends. SMS, talking with friends on cellphone etc shoul dbe limited to 30 minutes per day.

Do not spend more than 45 minutes in TV, internet, video games etc.

Daily Timetable*:

* Make changes to the timetable, as and when necessary

Related Topics:

1. IIT JEE study Planner: Weekly timetable
2. IIT JEE Study Planner: Minimum recommended time for self study
3. IIT JEE Study Planner: Annual

It is advisable to put together a weekly timetable.

This will give us a good view of the time available  in a week.

There are some weekdays when students have to attend both school and IIT JEE coaching / Tuition. This leaves very little time for self study.

There are days when we have the entire afternoon, after school, available for self study.

The weekdays are of particular importance. This is the only time, when students get a lot of time to cover all the pending work.

Unlike Class X, when students take it easy on weekends, IIT JEE preparation calls for extra studies on weekends.

Weekly planner

After filling in the time table, calculate the number of hours of self study, available per week. This should not be less than 30 hours. If you can study 30 hours per week regularly for 2 years, it is good.

Related Topics:

1. IIT JEE study Planner: Daily timetable
2. IIT JEE Study Planner: Annual
3. IIT JEE Study Planner: Minimum recommended time for self study

Note down important dates: School Exams, Board Exams,  IIT JEE ((2^nd Sunday of April), AIEEE (4^th Sunday of April) & other competitive exams like BIT-SAT and State level entrances

Year Planner

In an year, students have about 75 days of holidays (including summer vacations, winter vacations and other holidays). This excludes the preparatory leave given before the annual exams.

On average, a student has to spend about 7-8 hours in school including travel time(35 weeks).

6 day school – 35 Sundays off and 210 days in school

5 day school – 70 days (Sat/ Sun) off and 175 days in school.

Students spend 175 to 210 days in school. this leaves 110 to 145 full days available for self study.

Mostly, ‘5 day’ schools spend an hour extra everyday as compared to ‘6 day’ schools, eventually balancing it out.

As you can see, there is enough time available at home to study for IIT JEE.

However, students tend to take the 1st 4 months, after Class X, very easy. They lose out on the time available in Summer vacation of Class XI.

The schools also take it easy. They start picking up momentum after 15 July, which is too late. By this time, the half yearly exams are just around the corner. The results are bad and the panic sets in. This is the time where most students lose confidence.

If a student is serious about cracking IITJEE, it is important that he prepares an annual plan right in the beginning of Class XI in April. This will give him a headstart over everyone else.

Almost 50% of the available free time is lost if we dont utilize the summer vacations for coverage of course.

Related Topics:

1. IIT JEE Study Planner: Minimum recommended time for self study
2. IIT JEE study Planner: Weekly timetable
3. IIT JEE study Planner: Daily timetable