The phase of Preparation from Mid - December to End of January is the most crucial phase of preparation for JAM MS exam. And it is important that serious aspirants get through this phase in the right way. So I have decided to share my experience and of other successful aspirants who got into IIT Kanpur. I hope you find it useful and can take the right inference from our experiences.
My Experience (Rank 16, Marks 66)
The last phase of my preparation started right after my 5th Semester exams ended around 15th/16th December,2019. I had been revising some topics for JAM during semester exams also so that I don't have to spend too much time on revising or gaining momentum once the exams got finished. So I had planned to completely review all topics once in 1 week after exams ended and then start attempting the previous year papers within time limit.
I had practiced these papers earlier too but not very thoroughly and I had attempted them topic wise without any time limit. So, I started attempting previous year papers right from 2005 till 2018 while keeping track of time for the next few days. On some days ,I used to practice 2 papers in a day.
For old papers , from 2005-2014, there were subjective questions also along with objective questions so however I tried to attempt all the questions. Also I used to keep track of time while solving these papers but didn't keep a time limit to solve so as to get an idea of my speed. By the time I reached 2015 paper, I had an idea of my speed but again I didn't keep a time limit per se but noted somewhere the time taken to solve 2015-2018 papers.
By noting down the time needed to solve each paper, I could analyse my performance, speed and make adjustments to my strategy for attempting the paper. I also used to do a critical post paper analysis and note down types of mistakes I made so that I could identify my weak points and work on them.
Also for 2015-2019 Papers, I used the online mock test links available on JAM website so that I could get used to the online format of the exams( Links are available at the end, found them by sheer luck and common sense xD )
So after solving 2005-2018 papers , I had an idea about my speed, my weak points and optimum strategy for attempting the questions in JAM exam. By the time I had attempted 2018 paper, it was 27/28 December and I had already decided in August or September that I wouldn't look or touch 2019 paper and use it as an ideal mock test since no good mock test series were available in the market.
Hence after attempting all the previous year papers and analysing my weaknesses, I felt that it was right time to attempt 2019 paper and decided to attempt in way that simulated real life exam conditions. So I attempted the 2019 paper online on the mock test link available on JAM website on 29 December sharp at 9 AM in the morning. I was not able to attempt all the questions but I had managed to score around 69 marks in that paper and since AIR 2 got around 69 marks in JAM 2019, I had a good idea of where I stood in the 'race'. Again, I analysed my performance and noted down where I made mistakes and why I made them.
After this, I took a break till New Year and went through my mistakes made in all the previous year papers or the type of questions I couldn't solve and carefully analysed these questions. I found that
1)I was making a lot of silly calculation mistakes which led to wrong answers many times
2) A lot of time, similar calculations were being repeated in various questions
3) I was facing problems in questions on sequence and series and differential calculus.
Since 1 month was still left in JAM preparation, I decided to plan my strategy for next month by taking the above mentioned points into account and making sure that I deal with these weaknesses.
I had also decided to attempt all previous year papers again 2-3 times or until I get really bored with these papers. Along with these papers, I had download papers of ISI and CSIR NET and had planned to practice them once I got bored with previous year papers of JAM.
So in January, I practiced previous year papers again and again until I got bored which was by 3rd week of the month and then practiced MCQ some question from ISI papers or CSIR NET papers. I also focused on my weak topics like Sequence and Series and tried my best to attempt as many questions available.
And during all of this, I made sure to go through my formula sheets everyday and remember them. I don't think I had to open notes at all for revision after December since I used to go through formulas everyday and was practicing questions regularly.
By last week of January, I got really bored with preparation and didn't feel like studying anymore since I had already practiced papers alot of time and the answers got memorised. So last 2 weeks before exam were basically spent by doing nothing but going through formulas again and again and practicing few questions everyday to keep the momentum going on. I think I started a little early and that's why I finished early or felt burnt out before the exam.
I had also planned a strategy to attempt the exam during these times.
1)Attempt 20 out of 30 questions in Section 1 in first 60 minutes ( Leaving 10 because they maybe tough and I didn't want to waste time on them. I only attempted those which I thought I could solve in one go)
2) Attempt 14 out of 20 questions in Section 3 (NAT) in next 40 minutes. I planned to leave 3 questions from Q41-50 and 3 from Q51-60.
3) Attempt 5 out of 10 questions in Section 2(MSQ) in next 20 minutes.
So in 2 hours, I would have attempted 39/60 questions and in the remaining 1 hour, I could go back to the difficult questions and attempt them.
4) Attempt 5/10 questions left in Section 1 in 20 minutes
5) Attempt 4/6 questions left in Section 3 in next 15 minutes
6) Attempt 2/5 questions left in Section 2 In next 10 minutes.
Now only 15 minutes were left in exam and I would have attempted all the doable questions by now. So I planned to devote last 15 mins to questions that were marked for review , in which I could have made a calculation mistake, or I had a doubt or in which I could made an educated guess.
This was my strategy and since I had used it while practicing previous year papers also, I had mastered it and In JAM 2020, I successfully executed this plan.
I think the reason why it was successful was that I took into account the fact that exam was not about getting all questions right or solving all the difficult questions. It was about getting right the easy and medium difficulty level questions and solve few of the difficult questions.
So in first 2 hours , I attempted all easy and medium questions and in last 1 hour, I tried my hand on difficult questions. My plan also took account of the fact that you don't need to attempt all the questions and it's okay to leave some questions.
One can create his own plan and strategy as per his/her choice and that's totally fine but make sure that it's realistic and you have atleast once tried it while practicing the papers.
After all of this, I attempted 55/60 questions in the exams and secured 66 marks. The only mistake I made was that I didn't deal with my problem of making silly calculation mistakes and it costed me around 10-12 marks which I could have got easily. You really wouldn't believe the scale of calculation mistakes I had made in the exam out of nervousness and anxiety. So if you have a similar problem then find some way to deal with calculation mistakes otherwise it will definitely cost you.
Experience of Sagnik Dey (Rank 32 ,Marks 59.67 )
“First don't solve all the previous year papers of JAM MS. If you are giving exam in 2021 so solve all except last 3-4 previous years and in January give mock tests in these papers as they are the best practice papers you would ever have. Now, there is a mock test available on the JAM site, give exam there to know the exam's interface properly because you need to know yourself in which section you are strong and would attend first,2nd and hence follows. Now regarding time management, decide which section to attend first i.e. NAT,MSQ,MCQ. I am sharing my strategy , I decided that I will first attend NAT for first 1hour ,then MCQ of 2marks for 45mins then MSQs for 30 mins then the first 1 marks MCQ as I found these first 10 are generally on a tougher side than others.
And in the day before the exam having a very good sleep is excessively important .In that day ,relax , listen to music ,do fb,do whatever you want.
So,best of luck lads.See you in Bombay or Kanpur's Campus in a next few years.”
Experience of Souvik Bhattacharya (Rank 46, Marks 55.66)
“ So what I did was that I basically solved previous years papers. And in the last month, I did appear in one or two mock tests (I saved the papers of 2018, 2019 and solved them like a mock test). I did not buy any of the course material of Eduncle or such things but some of my friends did and that's it. I don't remember doing anything else. “
Final Tips and Advice
If you have also saved some of the previous year papers as a mock test like us then attempt them seriously and analyse your performance in them. However, if you didn’t save any papers then no issues, I am sure there must be others too in my batch who weren’t like us and yet they are still at IIT Kanpur. So overall focus on solving previous year questions thoroughly in a timed fashion and try to simulate real life exam situations.
Also to increase speed, remember all the formulas and important results. For example, I found that questions on Confidence Intervals were of usual 4-5 types so I remembered formulas for all such Confidence Intervals and used them directly instead of deriving the result in exam. This is just an example and you’ll find yourself in many such situations while solving previous year papers where same calculation or result is used repeatedly in different questions. In such a case, it is best to memorise them and use directly instead of solving.
Don’t waste time and money on mock test papers by some institutes available on Internet since they are of poor quality and a waste of time. Avoid them at all costs!
Link to JAM Papers
JAM 2020 Paper: https://www.digialm.com//OnlineAssessment/index.html?1048@@M59
JAM 2018 Paper- https://www.digialm.com//OnlineAssessment/index.html?1048@@M35
JAM 2017 Paper- https://www.digialm.com//OnlineAssessment/index.html?1048@@M29
JAM 2016 Paper - https://www.digialm.com//OnlineAssessment/index.html?1048@@M20
JAM 2015 Paper- https://www.digialm.com//OnlineAssessment/index.html?1048@@M15
Graph of Rank vs Marks
For under AIR 70
Till AIR 1367
Credits goes to my batchmate Abir for graph, all of my classmates for agreeing to share their data and me for collecting the data!
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