Sarvesh Mehtani from Chandigarh bagged an All India Rank (AIR) 1 in JEE Advanced 2017.
A student of Bhavan Vidyalaya School, this topper secured 339 marks in JEE Advanced 2017 and bagged an AIR 55 in JEE Main 2017. According to him, Aamir Khan’s 3 idiots and the dream to study engineering from one of the top engineering institutes of India motivated him to pursue engineering.
Question: So, how do you feel being the JEE Advanced 2017 topper with an AIR 1? Did you expect it?
Answer-I was very happy but my parents were pretty speechless. After the exams, when JEE Advanced 2017 answer keys got released, I was quite sure that I would end up in the Top 5 list of JEE Advanced toppers. But, when the results got declared, my happiness knew no boundaries.
Question: Which board have you studied under and which school are you from?
Answer-I am from CBSE board and have completed my schooling from Bhawan Vidyalaya, Panchluka.
Question: What is your subject wise and overall score in Class XII Boards and JEE Advanced 2017?
Answer-Class XII Boards Marks: Physics – 95; Maths – 95; Chemistry – 97; English – 92; Physical Education – 98. My percentage was 95.4%.
JEE Advanced 2017 subject wise score: Maths: 120/122; Physics – 104/122; Chemistry: 115/122.
Question: How long have you been preparing? And what was your study plan like for JEE Advanced 2017? What is the minimum time frame needed to prepare for JEE Main?
Answer-I had been preparing for the exam for almost two to three years. For one year, I went to school and then went ahead and joined a Coaching Institute which focuses on providing individual attention unlike the mass training models. Once, I joined the institute, I studied for 5 to 6 hours a day with appropriate breaks till the completion of the syllabus.
Once the revision started, we had to begin studying at nights too – from 8 pm to 11 pm. This included long breaks and sleep too. So, this amounted to 10 – 12 hours of study a day effectively including revisions.
I don’t think there is a minimum time frame to prepare for JEE. But, I guess two years are enough.
Question: What according to you is the difference between the preparation of JEE Advanced and JEE Main?
Answer-The preparation for both exams is different in 2 – 3 ways:
1. The paper pattern of both the exams is different.
2. The level of difficulty is higher in JEE Advanced as compared to JEE Main.
3. There are some questions which are not given importance in JEE Main but are given weightage in JEE Advanced and vice-versa.
Question: Did you take JEE Main 2017 examination in online or offline mode? What was your rank and score?
Answer-I took the exam in offline mode and got a rank of 55. My marks was 325 out of 360.
Question: What did you do to improve your weak areas?
Ans-For my weak areas, I used to go to my teachers for study materials to be solved. I used to revise the topic again for my notes. Revision is a very important part of revision.
Question: Have you taken any other exam besides JEE Main and Advanced?
Answer-I appeared for BITSAT and got a score of 430 out of 486.
Question: Do you think coaching is required to crack JEE?
Answer-Well, the level of JEE is higher than NCERT books. So, I think coaching is definitely required especially for JEE Advanced. But, there are students who crack the exam without coaching and succeed too.
Question: Did you take up mock tests and sample papers? Do you think to practicing from previous year question papers help and how?
Answer-I did take up mock tests and sample papers extensively. Actually, your coaching institute would give an extensive amount of sample papers as tests to you. This helps you in practicing enough. Mock tests and sample papers are important as they give you an idea about the different kind of test patterns.
Yes, I did solve a lot of previous year question papers and they helped me a lot. These papers help you determine what kinds of questions are asked and what ideas are more important.
Generally, what happens is that when we are preparing, we are unaware what IITs want. We prepare till a basic level. But IITs want us to think to a tough level rather than learn to a tough level.
Question: Any important books you would like to suggest for future aspirants?
Ans-I will suggest what I followed. For Physical Chemistry they should go through books by N Awasthi, for Organic Chemistry – books by Himanshu Pandey and for Inorganic Chemistry – books by K Kumar.
For Mathematics, they should refer to a series of books by Vinay Kumar.
Question: Which IIT are you aiming at and which stream do you wish to pursue?
Ans-I want to get into IIT Bombay for Computer Science Engineering(CSE).
Question: Any tips for aspirants who would be taking the exam next year?
Ans-Work hard and do what you like. Don’t do anything that you don’t feel like doing. Follow your teachers blindly as they are your real guides. They will help you in achieving your success. Be organized in whatever you do.
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