Contents

Dedication
Foreword
Introduction
Where do I come from?
Should I Take Commerce?
Engineers Engineers Everywhere
Lowest Batch
My Exceptional Co-Sufferers
School: The Slaughterhouse of Dreams
Toxic Peers
Twelfth-Class Fresh Beginning
Study Conditions At My Home
Unrestrained Pursuits
Conversations With My Father
The Great Comeback
My Time Table
The Permanent End of my JEE preparation
The Physics Practical Exam
The Farewell Controversy
CBSE Board Exams
The Ultimate JEE Mains Attempt
A Talk To My-Hurt-Self After JEE Mains
Self Sabotage Post JEE Mains
Dusting Myself Off for JEE Advanced
Cheating in JEE-Advanced
The Ultimate JEE Advanced Attempt
Everyone's Reaction at JEE Advanced Result
The Final Taste of The Victory
All The Life Lessons Gained From JEE
Afterword
Acknowledgements
Follow Your Author On
 Dedication

I dedicate this book to Lord Ram and my

venerable parents.
 Foreword
This is not meant to be skipped.

Grant me this boon, O Lord, that I may never shirk away from
performing auspicious actions.

Guru Gobind Singh

◆◆◆

The question is:

"Why someone else's struggle and success story should be read?"

I lost one and a half years of my two-year-preparation due to absence of

proper guidance. Although in that time, through the hardships confronted, I
made myself furnished with a plethora of ideas. One day, I took a few tough
decisions and made many steadfast resolutions which totally overturned the
situation. I worked incredibly hard thenceforward for four months and
bagged AIR 247 in JEE Advanced. That experience added with the wisdom I
have acquired in my four years at IIT Delhi is what I have written here,
keeping in mind the requirements of JEE aspirants.

This book is devoted to all the JEE aspirants who have a deep desire for
achieving their great goals, and that they don't commit the same terrible
mistakes which I did which you are going to read as you advance through the
book.

Often, even a little setback in our journey makes us feel insecure and
numbs our brain. In such a situation, if we could realise that even the most
successful people who have engaged the same pursuit as us have confronted
such pitfalls and hardships, we do not lose hope and keep on working hard.

I have seen many toppers all across the internet, displaying themselves as
flawless. They say that they studied for not more than a couple of hours to get
selected, they spent plenty of time on their hobbies, their social life and so
much more. I, being on the other side of the river, can detect their lies. I am
bursting this myth here and now, loud and clear, that these people are as
imperfect as you. A JEE aspirant, a young boy or a girl, who is susceptible to
believe them gullibly, gets misguided. From my standpoint, lying in front of
the public, merely for the sake of popularity, is a morally declined act. They
are indeed fake gurus.

The duration of the preparation of these toppers generally has been 4-6 years.
They have had all the best facilities of the top batches of leading coaching
institutes. Most of them have been spoonfed by their teachers and coaching
institutes. Truth be told, they wouldn't have perhaps reached IITs without the
tireless support of their coaching institutes. With such an excessive amount of
time for JEE preparation and the facilities of the top batch, JEE is not hard.
On the other hand, the remaining students are made deprived of such
facilities, despite paying equal fees. These privileges make JEE preparation
further easy for the toppers and further difficult for average students.

Does an ordinary student of a low batch who was uninformed about most of
the things about JEE till eleventh class have this in common with these
toppers?

Then how are these aspirants supposed to seek inspiration from them?

I might not be the highest JEE ranker. But just like any other pedestrian
JEE aspirant, I have never cracked any olympiad. I committed numerous
blunders in my JEE preparation due to misguidance and un-guidance. Five
years before the day I am writing this book, I was exactly where you are
today. Despite all this, I cracked JEE with AIR 247 with my strength and
persistence. I survived through many hardships which every student is bound
to face sooner or later. I also got demotivated, hopeless, directionless, but I
kept on working hard. I was also a 16-year-old child, these adversities could
have demoralised me, but I had stubbornness that I had to win no matter
what.

I am not ashamed to talk about my flaws and the shortcomings in my

preparation. I hold this fact firm that all men are created equal. Human beings
are inherently imperfect, and so am I. Everyone should be allowed to take
their own decisions and make mistakes.

Everyone makes mistakes nevertheless, but their success depends on how

they learn from them and become better with each passing day. I have seen
people becoming utterly hopeless after making even a single mistake. Just by
knowing the fact that everyone makes mistakes is not going to suffice.
Otherwise, that realisation would fade away soon just like usual motivation.
We, in fact, direly need to see an entire journey of an aspirant who went
through a journey as difficult as an ordinary student, not as easy as a
privileged topper who became successful ultimately. When you read and
witness those aspects of preparation in this book through my Herculean
journey, there is no point of losing motivation throughout the preparation.
This book will go down in history as the Gospel of JEE.

I here want to give you the direction which I was deprived of in my

preparation.
 Introduction

This two-hour-read book contains the most relevant parts of my story,

divided into small chapters for your ease. "What problems did I face?",
"What did I do to overcome them?", "How did I get AIR 247 in 4 months?",
the book has it all.

I have tried to provide remarks wherever required as to what we can learn

from the instances.

In the afterword are the common mistakes made by JEE aspirants. I have
also written the life-transforming learnings I had obtained from JEE.

Happy reading!
 Where do I come from?
Educational Background Before JEE
Everyone is gifted but some people never open their package.

Wolfgang Riebe

I was born in a lower-middle-class family in Delhi, to my parents not

much educated yet very wise, to my parents not much rich yet big-hearted. I
am the eldest among their four children.

In school, never had I been a consistent student, let alone topper. Since
childhood, I had been infamous in the school for my disobedience. I never
maintained my notebooks of any subject despite continual warnings from the
teachers. Never did I pay any attention to the classes. Only when something
fascinating used to be going on, I was attentive. Every day, I was punished to
stand outside the classroom. I never used to do the homework. Sometimes, I
would get good marks by chance, but in total, I was a mischievous, clumsy,
disobedient, indisciplined student. Perhaps, the only neat thing about me was
that I wore tidy clothes since my mom used to dress me well.

One day, we were given a career presentation, in class VII at our school,
and we were asked about what we wanted to become. A classmate responded
that he wanted to become an IITian, and I said I wanted to become an
entrepreneur. My teacher's reply to me, in a loud, assertive tone, was

"Look at your friend, he wants to become an IITian. You foolish, you

want to become a businessman?"

I stayed silent at this. The irony, however, is that that classmate didn't
become an IITian whereas I ultimately did.

In class IX(CBSE), I scored merely 7.8 CGPA. Everyone considered me

an average student. In the tenth class, I got 9.6 CGPA and stood 2nd in my
class. I knew that there were innumerable students across the country who got
10 CGPA. I knew it was no big deal to get this score; nonetheless, it was an
unprecedented achievement for my family and me.
 Should I Take Commerce?
How arbitrarily we take the crucial decisions of our lives
sometimes!
“A goal is not always meant to be reached;
it often serves simply as something to aim at.”

Bruce lee

◆◆◆

Shortly after passing tenth class in 2014, I was awaiting the results and
was enjoying the vacations. I hadn't yet decided which stream I would take in
eleventh class. I used to do well in Mathematics; therefore, I was thinking
about choosing commerce. To be frank, I had no idea whatsoever about
which stream should I choose.

One day, an elder cousin of mine visited my home; he was a scientist. He,
as well as my parents, counselled me to choose science stream. Resisting
their advice, if at all, was pointless since I was myself utterly clueless. I
eventually took science thinking,

"Ye log mera bhala hi chahenge"

(these people would only want good for me).

My previous school was only up to tenth class, and I hadn't enrolled in

eleventh class in any school thus far. I was still awaiting my CBSE tenth
results. So, before joining a new school, I enrolled in a JEE coaching
institute. I had hardly any awareness about IITs. My teachers, parents, and
some relatives earlier used to tell me that IITs are the most prestigious
institutes of the nation and the entrance exam involves cutthroat competition.
Many of my cousins had taken JEE (AIEEE and IIT at their time), but no one
had ever made it to any esteemed college. Therefore, I thought of taking on
JEE as a challenge.
 Engineers Engineers Everywhere

The Street Engineers

There is plenty to be learned even from a bad teacher: what not to
do, how not to be.

JK Rowling

◆◆◆

Following some advertisements, I joined a JEE coaching institute in June

2014, in Delhi. From the beginning itself, I did not have any capable mentor.
In our country, on every crossroad, every street you can easily find dozens of
jobless people providing free advice. I call this as Muft Ki Salah. You can
find innumerable unemployed engineers on streets, YouTube and many more
places who will give you myriad free suggestions for your preparation; I call
them street-engineers.

During my preparation, there wasn't much prevalence of YouTube, Quora

etc. for JEE preparations. All we had were street-engineers providing muft ki
salah. As it was free, I took their guidance being unaware that they are
pitiable losers themselves. They were filled with toxicity and negativity, how
could they ever provide me positivity and show me the roadmap to success
even if they had wished?

They could never envision I could reach IIT; therefore, they

subconsciously wanted me to agree to this notion that IIT is unreachable.
They gave me plenty of superficial and baseless suggestions which were most
of the times damaging rather than being helpful. Instead of filling me with
positivity, they weakened me with their negative and perverted beliefs. It was
not that they were deliberately demotivating me, but that they were
themselves incapable, unspirited and loser-minded that they could not
emanate positivity even if they wished.

Throughout their lives, they were saturated with jealousy, disdain,

despair, cynicism, deception, falsehood, dishonesty, acquisitiveness, ego, and
myopia, all the vices of losers.

How could they ever teach me the values of collaboration, kindness, faith,
trust, candour, truth, integrity, generosity, modesty, and far-sightedness, the
virtues of a winner?

At last, it was not their fault but rather my stupidity that I resorted to their
guidance; nonetheless, this is also undeniable that I didn't have anyone else to
solicit help. Due to paying heed to their corrupted advice, I had to meet with
numerous undue hardships.

A few examples of their venomous pieces of advice are:

1. Join a regular school.

2. Solve Lakhmir Singh for JEE.

3. First solve books like Pradeep, Dinesh, Naresh, Suresh, and so on.

4. NCERTs are sufficient for IIT.

5. HCV, OP Tondon, and RD Sharma are the greatest books for JEE.

Remarks

Failed people are everywhere. The prevalent notions and instructions are
the most ineffective rather detrimental because if they were true, everyone
would have been successful. These notions are created by failures to cultivate
more failures. Before choosing a mentor, first check whether his teachings
have successfully worked on himself or not. Otherwise, ignore him!
 Lowest Batch

The Ugly Truth of JEE Coaching Institutes

In a society where privileges are reserved for the privileged and

merit takes a back seat, inclusive growth and development becomes just
another dream.

Nyanbemo lotha naga

◆◆◆

Day 1 at coaching institute

It was a hot summer day in the year 2014. I enthusiastically took a seat on
the front-bench, and then our teacher entered the classroom. He asked us to
introduce ourselves. One-by-one everyone did so, and so did I. To my
amazement, the other students seemed very scholarly and intelligent by the
way they spoke.

The teacher asked a girl about which chapter was being taught in her
school; she replied with style "Dimensional Analysis, sir." As it was my first
class of XI and I hadn't yet joined the school, I hadn't heard that chapter-name
thus far. Honestly, that sounded like the name of a very complicated chapter:
"An ANALYSIS of DIMENSIONS!"

Now I laugh at how naïve I was! Dimensional Analysis, as we all know,

is a child's play. Slowly, I settled in the coaching classes and made some new
friends. Everyone seemed to do so well in the beginning. However, as months
passed by, my classmates started losing interest in their studies. People fell
apart, got distracted, and indulged in unrestrained pursuits. Some well-
performing students left our batch for a better batch in the very beginning,
upon seeing the substandard level of their peers as well as the education
imparted.

As I had joined 11th class a bit late, I did not get the best of the teachers
in the JEE coaching institute. They did not cover the theory at the real JEE-
level. I was able to solve all the questions they gave us in the classroom and
was illusioned that my preparation was going without flaw.

Sadly, the truth was that I did not know that my preparation was
counterfeit. The problems which I solved were not of a respectable level. I
could remain in the euphoria of getting rank-1 among 18 students for two
years, but when I would have taken the-real-JEE at last, I would have been
utterly incapable of even surpassing the cut-off. In Hindi, we call it being

"Andhon me kaana raaja!"

(The one-eyed is the king among the blind.)

During those days, I didn't get much time to devote to my JEE-

preparation because most of my time got ruined in the mandatory school
hours. The worst part of it was that I didn't know that my preparation level
was so pathetic, everything seemed to flow effortlessly, and I was quite
complacent.

Eventually, as I observed past-papers and some other books, I realised

that my preparation was not even close to what was required for JEE. Though
my Physics was thankfully up to JEE Mains level, I used to study it from HC
Verma at that time. But I had barely completed it till the Centre of Mass
chapter near about the end of my 11th class, whereas the progress in the rest
of the subjects was almost negligible.

Consequently, that 16-year-old teenager, Nishant, started feeling

depressed. I started wasting my time. A behemoth backlog of the syllabus
kept on accumulating on my head. I also plummeted from the first rank in the
batch. I couldn't bear the sight of that leaderboard, and I stopped taking
weekly mock tests. Those were the most melancholic days of my life thus far.
 To add insult to injury, if at all I went to ask the coaching worker only for
the question papers of the top batch, he would refuse to give saying that I do
not belong to the top batch. There were derogatory terms for low-batch
students like "chooran batch" (low graded batch). Once I thought of seeking
guidance from a top batch student, but he was very reluctant to divulge his
sources of study. I was disappointed to see his narrow-mindedness.

Time kept flying, and I kept squandering it. I used to watch videos I
shouldn't have watched, used to chatter with my old friends on my landline
phone for hours. One day, I woke up amidst the night and thought of
resolving the matter. I thought of letting go of the previous chapters and
simply progress with the ongoing ones. At that time, perhaps Coordinate
Geometry, Simple Harmonic Motion, and Hydrocarbons were being taught in
the coaching institute. I was unaware about the real JEE level books thus far.
I chose irrelevant books like RD Sharma objective, HC Verma and Solomons
& Frhyle. Yet all such little efforts always proved to be futile. I could never
recover completely. The biggest reason was that my vicious school siphoned
off most of my JEE-preparation time to waste it in attending the school.

I was downright hopeless about the future. I worried, how would I be able
to complete the syllabus of JEE? My parents had expectations from me. They
had spent a considerable amount of their hard-earned money on me. Then
came our annual exams of eleventh class in the school. I somehow managed
to get average marks therein.

Remarks: Here, I would further add that in our batch, there was a grave
problem of syllabus lag between weekly tests and ongoing chapters in the
classroom. That caused us students to spend our time studying the topics
which were taught two weeks ago. For that reason, we left ongoing topics
incomplete or shallowly complete. Then two weeks thenceforward, the
ongoing topics of the present day seem like a backlog to us, and we
compromise the then in-progress syllabus. We get trapped in this vicious
cycle. The solution is realising that you are not preparing for weekly tests, but
the ultimate JEE. Focus only on the current topics and let go of backlogs. If
you leave current topics for backlogs, do you increase backlogs or decrease
backlogs? In this manner, for two weeks, you will struggle to get marks, but
thereafter you will be liberated from this trap.
 My Exceptional Co-Sufferers
True Friends in JEE Preparation
Cooperation and collaboration will beat competition every time.

Gail lynne goodwin

◆◆◆

Dakshay Singla

I had a healthy rivalry with Dakshay, who always displayed razor-sharp

aptitude in the class. We used to compete in weekly tests; sometimes he
topped, sometimes I did. We were envied in our batch. He and I would vie
for getting the fastest answer to the problems given to us in the class. To be
honest, he won more than me. When we would finish up our solution, one of
us would help another learn the concept properly in the remaining time. He
had a fair idea of a few topics, and so did I; therefore, we used to clear doubts
of each other in free time and breaks. This was all in the carefree beginning
of eleventh class.
He and I would roam on our scooties in Punjabi Bagh and nearby
whereabouts. One day we went on a long one-hour journey on his Activa to
the bustling streets of Chandni Chowk. We used to talk endlessly about
science and its practical applications. I remember us discussing the use of
mechanics in automobiles, the then ongoing topic in our coaching. Those
were the blissful days I still remember, and five years later, Dakshay is my
business partner now.

One day, during a break, he and I were roaming in the Central Market
area, Punjabi Bagh. We saw a leaderboard displaying past year results of a
coaching institute. It had a few ranks in the top hundred, and we were
imagining how glorious would it be to have our name on such board. I told
him that my name would be on the top, his below me. He chuckled at my
fantasies, and then we headed towards our classes. But this was only for a
few months of the beginning.

As the best students had already left this poor batch,Dakshay and I, were
both toppers of that batch of 18 students. However, we were unaware of the-
real-level of JEE. And as the time kept passing and the teaching level of our
coaching further deteriorated, our resentment towards our coaching institute
also increased. Not only I, but Dakshay too was despaired about his
preparation as the end of eleventh class approached.

Whenever we tried solving previous year questions, we were unable to

solve more than 10% of the problems of the chapters we thought we had
completed. If at all, we confronted the questions asked in JEE Advanced
2013 or 14, we would get petrified. Let alone solving, we did not even want
to see those questions because they demoralised us. The fact of not even
being able to face the problems of past year papers shouted to us loud and
clear that our preparation was deficient; that was a frightening thought.

Our level was so low, and the hope was so scarce that Dakshay had to
take a tough decision, he left JEE preparation altogether, despite being the
topper. He knew that staying topper in that lowest-batch, that too of 18
students was of no meaning. He was my rival, but a friend first. He used to
compete with me but always helped me the most. I repeatedly tried to
persuade him back to the preparation, but he didn't relent. I was left all alone.
Such was the condition of our preparation!

Dhruv Sehgal

Dhruv Sehgal was another close friend of mine. Adhering to his father's
advice, and following others, he decided to prepare for JEE. In the beginning,
he had no clue about JEE preparation. He says he considered himself a failure
and was hopeless about IIT. He was of the mind that even getting admission
in a private college is a great deal. He didn't even know the basics of science,
and therefore, awfully struggled with the concepts. He had great trouble in
coping up with the abrupt transition from 10th class to 11th class. There is a
massive difference between the syllabus of both.

When Dakshay had dropped his JEE preparation in 11th class, he was the
only person with me. He used to ask me doubts on phone. Sometimes our call
durations went for more than an hour. And mind it, in those days, we hadn't
had such a revolution of internet and communication as today. The internet
was scarce, and calling was expensive. I remember the rebuke I had got from
my father for getting a hefty landline bill due to my long phone calls.

When I stopped going to school, Dhruv too did so. When I started
studying passionately and diligently after September, he also got influenced. I
was not among students who conceal their study resources or how much they
studied. Whenever Dhruv or anyone asked me about how much I studied, I
used to reply with the truth "Sixteen hours!" Some classmates didn't believe
so. I didn't mean to boast about my long study hours, but it was they who
asked first.

That, however, gave me an insight:

"If these people think that studying for 16 hours a day is impossible, and
they are the same people who also consider IIT is impossible. Now that I
indeed have been able to successfully do one impossible task, why can't I do
another impossible task also?"

Dhruv, on the other hand, thoroughly knew that I was not lying. Seeing
me, he got inspired to study for as long as I did. "If Nishant can study for 16
hours, why cannot I do it for at least 12 hours?" sprang to his mind. I used to
motivate him through my ideas of life and spirituality. He was admittedly a
keen listener. I used to push him beyond his limits. He only wanted to stick to
SL Arora, Pradeep etc. I detested such low-level books. They could have
been suitable for students solely preparing for boards, but total time-waste for
any wannabe IITian. I insisted on solving JEE Advanced books alone.

I was obsessed with JEE Advanced exam, to the extent that once, when
JEE Mains and Boards were approaching within a couple of months, Dhruv
called me and said in a jovial tone
 "Bhai Mains naam ka bhi exam hota hai, uske liye kab padhega?"

(Brother, there is an exam called Mains, when are you going to study for
that?)

At one point, I used to pick him up on my way to coaching classes; I rode

8 KMs extra for that. One day, we were getting late for our classes. It was the
first lecture of organic chemistry. I asked Dhruv:
"We have only two options, take a shortcut from the stinking slums
(where people excreted in open) or reach late."

He chose the former option. It was, unfortunately, a nauseating feeling to

pass through that ghetto.

Finally, he too had a similar journey as me; he also got his time wasted
due to school. He was dismayed at obtaining 1,80,231 rank in JEE mains.
The night before JEE Advanced exam, he was reluctant to take the exam. I
urged him to take the exam and cited

"You have always been taking weekly mock-tests, the test tomorrow is
going to be no different. You have paid Rs 2,000 as exam fees, why not get
your money's worth by writing the exam? In case you decide to drop in
future, this attempt would broaden your experience."

He took that exam finally and scored AIR 7448. Surprisingly, it was the
second-highest rank after me in our batch.

Remarks: Have an honest friendship with your friends. I have seen my

peers having malice and envy for their competitors, but I was thankfully
devoid of such vices. For example, if I had received benefit from any book
(including this very book), I would have shared it with Dakshay and Dhruv.
Keep on working hard in the right guidance, you will surely achieve.
 School: The Slaughterhouse of Dreams

School: The Killer of Education

"The bad teacher imposes his ideas and his methods on his pupils,
and such originality as they may have is lost in the second-rate art of
imitation."

- Stephen Neil

◆◆◆

I was brainwashed by some street engineers to join a regular-attending

school. They cited the following reasons for this:

1. Without school, I wouldn't be able to understand the advanced concepts

taught in the coaching institute.
2. I can get my JEE doubts cleared by my school teachers.
3. Without regular school, it is impossible to score in boards.

Now, I can claim that their suggestion to join the school as well as the
reasons cited are utterly ludicrous and baseless.

In that school, out of 35 students from my class, only three had joined a
JEE coaching. No one ever became an IITian from my school. The teaching
quality was pathetically cheap; though I didn't realise it in the beginning. The
teachers knew nothing beyond NCERTs. Even from NCERTs, they only
knew how to write bookish answers in examinations, how to derive formulas,
how to get marks in boards. There was no effort whatsoever to teach a
student the real meaning of concepts. This low-standard education is not
particular to that school alone, but surprisingly, of most of the schools
nationwide.
 Just to give you another picture of that school: I finally had attained the
highest JEE rank in my school: 247.

Can you guess what could be the second-highest rank?

500?

2000?

8000?

No friends! It is way more than 20,000. (Yes, way more than twenty
thousand!)

Some teachers at the school disliked the students who actively prepared
for JEE. They wanted us to be unquestioningly obedient, maintain subject
notebooks, practical files, keep 100% attendance and behave like their slaves;
though, they won't teach you anything about science. The lectures in the
school were monotonous and repetitive; the standard of education provided
was deplorable.
The teachers used to ask me questions in the class. If I couldn't answer,
they used to taunt me that my IIT preparation was meaningless if I couldn't
even answer school questions. The only reason for which I couldn't answer
was that I hadn't covered those chapters at all. For the few chapters I had
learnt somewhat, I could respond with incredible immediateness. But then,
the teachers would rebuke me for boasting my knowledge. Either way, they
found reasons to humiliate me before the class.

But still, you were threatened to waste thousands and thousands of hours
in school for the namesake of honouring your teachers and also the fear that
they would refuse to give you marks in practicals towards the end of your
twelfth class. They have 30 marks of practicals in their hands of our Physics
and Chemistry subjects; but they threatened as if they have our throats in
their hands, which they could anytime choke/cut if we didn't obey them. I
thought I would attend the school to respect my teachers and solve JEE
problems, quietly sitting at the last bench, but teachers threatened me for
doing even that.
Are these people teachers or hooligans?

My conscience doesn't allow me to insult the word teacher by using it for

these corrupted souls. As school ruined all my time and also exhausted all the
energy I had, I could never devote sufficient time to learn the concepts from
any source apart from my lower-batch lectures in the coaching institute.
Morning and afternoon ruined in school, evening wasted in coaching
institute, every day ended in this manner.

The only reason to attend school was to secure attendance. I used to study
till 2–3 AM in the night; therefore, I sometimes reached the school 5–10
minutes late. The school had draconian rules for latecomers. They used to
make us stand outside the school main-gate for 2–3 hours and sent us back
home thereafter. One day I had a loud and bitter quarrel with the school
management for their misconduct.

After getting exasperated with all this pretence of giving undue respect to
the so-called teachers, sometimes you would think of taking a holiday to
decrease the burden of your backlogs. But, if you dared to take a leave, the
school would give you a severe reprimand and threaten you to the extent that
you wouldn't commit this 'heinous mistake' again.

The so-called teachers would never spare a change to discourage me as

much as they could. Like:

One teacher threw my JEE book out of the window; another threw my
book into the dustbin; another said: "Jindal, leave JEE preparation altogether,
IIT is next to impossible, and you better prepare for CBSE."
The 'teachers' used to tantalise me every now and then because I didn't
satisfy their ego by displaying bootlicking obedience. They used to give me
examples of the school's alumni as of then, how many marks they scored,
how esteemed they were in school etc. etc. I knew that in truth, these so-
called exemplary students struggled to get admissions into even the low-tier-
engineering colleges.

I can write many other countless instances of continual harassment and

mortification of a young boy only because he was passionate about JEE.
These emotional onslaughts caused long-lasting mental-illness to me. A
school is supposed to support a student in achieving his goals, encourage him
morally, endow him with resources as much as you can. Instead of that, how
immoral, cruel, and wicked was it to torture such a young student — who
was already going through unwithstandable stress — only for the sake of
your ego?

Many times I tried to recover in my preparation, but my school never let

me do it. I am again repeating that my school was no exception; you can find
this to be the story of almost every other school all over the country. I do not
specifically criticise my school, but I hate the entire evil education system.

Remarks

Nowadays, school system is such that you have to buy everything i.e.
books, stationery, uniform, etc. whereas for the education you are supposed
to join tuitions. Do not try to fill into their definition of a disciplined, sincere
student. We do not want good-boy or good-girl points, we want success.
Detect your teachers' such demoralising remarks and stop listening to their
toxicity.
 Toxic Peers
Stay as much away as you can from them
Like your company, like you.

◆◆◆

There were a few classmates who always used to demotivate me through

their thoughts. A guy always told that it is impossible to surpass the score
300+/360 in JEE Mains come what may; that was reserved for only the top-
notch batch students who have been preparing for six years. The same guy
also used to say that after the JEE Mains exam, even the toppers generally
waste a few days. Another guy told me that I didn't have any inherent
capabilities, and therefore, I would never be able to crack IIT. There were
people who always tried to pull my confidence down anyhow. A guy told me
that I should target IP university's average colleges, because not even in my
dreams I could ever reach IIT.

Whenever I asked a silly doubt in the class, everyone used to burst out to
laughter. I knew deep down that those people were envious of me, that they
didn't want my doubts to get cleared. It is true, though, that no one wants you
to be successful except yourself, your family and your mentor. Regardless, I
didn't stop asking doubts because I believed:

"If you ask a stupid question on the spot, you seem stupid for a moment;
but it you dont ask it, you remain stupid for life."

Remarks: In every voyage so long and so uncertain, people will try their
best to bring your moral down through their actions. Identify such people as
soon as possible and stay aloof from them.
 Twelfth-Class Fresh Beginning
A New Beginning
The beginning is always today.

Mary Shelley

◆◆◆

Our twelfth class session in the coaching institute began in the March 2015
end. I thought of not letting my twelfth class go astray like eleventh class. In
the twelfth class, we fortunately got knowledgable teachers in the coaching
institute; their teaching precisely equalled the JEE advanced level. I humbly
inquired them about the prerequisite chapters to study 12th class well. The
beginning chapters of XII in the coaching classes were Organic Chemistry,
Electrodynamics, and Calculus. The latter two did not require much
prerequisite knowledge of XI class chapters. I chose DC Pandey, Solomons
and Frhyle and Amit M Agarwal respectively for these chapters. I
enthusiastically studied Physics and Maths But organic chemistry needed a
lot of prerequisite knowledge. Organic Chemistry required the understanding
of 11th class chapters like GOC, Optical Isomerism etc. I tried to cover these
chapters along with my 12th class studies as much as I could. However, it
was tedious to understand these chapters myself. Nonetheless, I kept listening
attentively to my new teachers and put my best foot forward. Seemingly,
things started to gain smoothness.

Still, this was not the end of my obstacles. I had the monstrous XI
syllabus as backlog. How to find time for that? I decided not to attend the
school for a medical pretext. I did not attend school for two weeks. One day,
a schoolmate noticed me on my Activa on my way to coaching classes and
informed my class-teacher. I asked him why did he do this, but he never
admitted that he did. I thoroughly got to know that day that most people hated
me for my peculiarity, matchless calibre and work ethic.
 Thereupon, the school warned me that if I didn't attend the school, they
would strike off my name from the rolls. Shivers ran up my spine! I
helplessly began attending school regularly. I awaited the summer vacations
so that I could lessen off the burden of my backlogs. All my plans got ruined
when the school announced that they would take our extra classes in the
vacations for 15 days. This time I could not take leave due to their fear. I also
tried searching for any dummy school which could register my name at that
time, but it was too late. I turned hopeless. I ultimately had to attend the
classes, and in the remaining summer-holidays, I covered significant organic
chemistry.

Then I visited a career counsellor, and she advised me to talk to the

school principal for exemption from attendance. She also said, "If it is
difficult to reach IITs, why don't you solely target NSIT? My son also studies
there."

After that session, my father told me that we refuse to settle for NSIT or
anything less than IIT.

Following her counsell, we went to the principal many times, but she
rejected our request stating that she could not violate the school rules and
CBSE guidelines. Nonetheless, after begging her many times, she relented
but upon one condition that I must get above 90% in half-yearly exams. I got
far more than 90% in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics. I went to her to
show that, but she did not even let me and my father enter her room, it was
around September 2015 end.

(Later, one of my juniors at the school also faced a similar situation when
he reached class twelfth. The school authorities told him that he should obey
them, that he didn't know how much they made me and my father cry.)

I got extremely annoyed and decided to take as many leaves as I could. I

barely went for four days in October, two days in November, 5–6 days in
December and five days in January. They warned me over and over again
that they will strike my name off their rolls. But I didn't give in to their
threats because I thought my life was already miserable and it wouldn't make
a difference if they really did rusticate me from the school.
 Study Conditions At My Home
Other additions to my hardships
In improvisation, there are no mistakes.

-Miles Davis

◆◆◆

My home is situated in a very crowded locality of Central Delhi. There is

a lot of noise from all around:

1. You can hear honks of trains all day long.

2. There is a government school opposite to my place. When any period

gets over, recess occurs, or the school ends; the students shout at the top of
their voice. The worst part is that school has two shifts, evening and morning,
so this noise also persists the whole day.

3. There is a blacksmith directly in front of my house who steadily forges

and cuts metal objects using his hammer and automated cutter, making a
raucous and loud noise.

4. The nearby mosque does Azaan on loudspeaker multiple times a day.

On Friday, their speeches go on throughout the day.

5. The market wherein my home is situated, has overwhelming crowd and

traffic; they all collectively create deafening hubbub.

6. At that time, there were five uproarious kids at my home of age under
7; they all romped around with full gusto. Although they have all grown up
now.

Initially, I tolerated all this as much as I could. I was getting more and
more stressed, and that time came when I couldn't withstand these noises any
more. I requested my parents to shift me to a hostel, to which they
straightaway refused. This noise pollution was getting on my nerves. I went
on a strike. I told my parents that if they are not going to send me to the
hostel, I am not going to study at all.

Four days got wasted without studying even a single word, in exhibiting
my mutiny to my parents. My father attempted many times to reason me into
not disrupt the flow of my studies all of a sudden, but I was headstrong about
abandoning my noisy home. Finally, my family relented and helped me shift.
But now, I found another new problem. It wasn't easy to settle in a new place
so quickly. Not to mention, the new location too wasn't wholly noiseless.

After being there for a couple of days, I shifted back to my home. I was
more familiar with the home ambience, and it didn't make much sense to
switch it during such a critical time. In total, seven days got wasted. I thought
a bit about finding some jugaad. I turned to night study schedule as then there
is pin-drop silence. Besides, during the day, I turned on nature's sounds on
my phone and heard it by putting on a pair of headphones. Initially, that
sound was itself distracting. But at after a point, I became acquainted with
this, and it significantly cancelled the noise. Thereafter, I gained back my
flow of study eventually and carried it on.

Remarks: The journey of JEE is a high-stake journey. We sometimes

become overwhelmingly sentimental. Let us not get overpowered by the
emotions. Let us learn to stay rational in the face of stress. The stress
provides us no benefit. We should rather open our books and make the best of
what we have in our hands. Remind ourselves over and over that this high
stake situation can only be successfully handled if we handle our emotions
well.
 Unrestrained Pursuits
Sense gratification is momentarily pleasurable, yet
detrimental in the long run.
He who can withdraw his senses completely from the sense objects
like a tortoise withdraws its limbs , his mastery is established.

Lord Krishna

◆◆◆

My coaching institute was in a JEE coaching hub in West Delhi.

Numerous other institutes surrounded it. Sometimes when I reached the
coaching early, I liked to spend time sitting at nearby McDonald's. One day,
on the adjacent table, there were two girls, apparently from a different
coaching quarrelling over a minor concept. One had put on school dress; the
other was in jeans-top. I, unsolicited, walked onto them and clarified their
queries. Their quarrel stopped, and I went back to my bench. I then started
visiting that place more often and often found those two girls there. Many
times they would come up to my table and ask doubts. Eventually, we
introduced ourselves to each other.

To my surprise, Kritika (name changed) walked over to me and asked for

my number. I knew that she is only asking for it for taking my help in studies,
but I hadn't learnt yet how to say no to a girl. Kritika texted me, and I too
saved her number. We started talking, and we never knew how we came so
close to each other. I was apprehensive about whether it was legitimate for a
sincere JEE aspirant or not. I started roaming with her on my scooty and
visited many places: malls, movies, restaurants and so many more. We talked
for long durations of time. We both had forgotten about our studies, and this
went on for two-three weeks. I was enjoying our togetherness, but deep
down, I was worried about my JEE.
 Fortunately or unfortunately, she left Delhi for Sangrur, Punjab (city
name changed) due to some family problem. Back in the day, roaming was
not free, so she changed her number. She wasn't on Facebook, and the rest of
the platforms were not as much prevalent. In short, there was no means of
communication left between us. I was momentarily sad but in the depth of
my heart, I was relieved that nothing was there now that could distract me, I
was not at all sad.

Remarks

Today, I consider it as a stupidity done by a 16-year-old boy, nothing

more. Had I known before, I would never have indulged in such pursuits
which distract me away from the goal.

Students so young, engaged in challenges so tough, should refrain from

moving into romantic relationships. If you are not in a relationship, do not
chase anyone, chase your purpose. If you are in a relationship, politely ask
for the partner that you need time for your great goals and therefore you
cannot give enough time to them. If he/she understands, then try to manage.
Otherwise, no matter how tough it seems, terminate it. After terminating,
dedicate yourself to your goal alone. This advice is only for those who want
to keep their goals above everything else.
 Conversations With My Father
The Always Unnoticed Contributor To Our Lives
Even after having empty pockets, he never says no; I have never seen
a man richer than my father.

A thought of Year-Drop
Seeing the inadequate level of preparation in the middle of my twelfth class, I
asked my father about the option of dropping a year. I told him that I do not
have sufficient time to complete the remaining 85% syllabus and dropping a
year will solve the problem. He replied in a furious tone that it was the worst
idea, and I was not fighting hard enough in this attempt, and therefore, these
debilitating thoughts were flashing to my mind. Hence it also became entirely
evident to me that this was the only attempt I had. I will put my heart and
soul into this attempt come what may. Regardless of the time remaining, I
must not give up. I cannot give up.

The change of heart from within

It is near August 2015. Our Aldehydes & Ketones lecture was going on. All
of a sudden, a man enters a room and calls a few names. My name was on
that list. The list was of the students who hadn't paid some part of the fees
yet. I was forced to leave the lecture, and I told this to my father. My father
had been suffering from Arthritis for five years then. He used to feel
excruciating pain in his body parts. It is challenging to sustain your home in
that condition, but my father always had managed it indeed well.

The next day, my father visited the coaching institute, his face was red due to
fever. He had come to make payment of all the money.
I told him, " Father, the classes are nonetheless not beneficial for me. They
will at max expel me if we fail to fill the remaining one hundred thousand
rupees. They don't deserve this money. We have already paid them huge
sums of money for this poor training provided thus far, I think we should not
waste money any further."

My father replied thereupon, "Look, I will arrange the money anyhow, but I
want to see you succeed. Later, I don't want to listen that you couldn't crack
IIT because your father couldn't afford the coaching. I can invest even more
money if needed, but you should succeed ultimately."

This statement overwhelmed me, and I had an extreme change of heart. I

realised that it was not only my dream, but equally my father's dream also.
My father couldn't get the education he deserved, but he never left any stone
unturned in order for I should get the best education. He made more
sacrifices for me than myself. He deserved to see me in IIT, and this made
my reason to fight even bigger.
 The Great Comeback
Every setback is a setup for comeback
If I had eight hours to cut down a tree, I'd spend six sharpening the
axe.

Abraham Lincoln

◆◆◆

What motivated me to come back?

1. My Passion for JEE: In 10th class, I had no passion for JEE; my

parents chose it for me. However, JEE had become the highest priority in my
life at this point. I had dedicated 1.5 priceless youthful years of my life to it.
Every moment went thinking about JEE syllabus, concepts, questions,
formulas, the tests, the results etc. When you play hockey or any other sport
for the first time, it seems like an unusual and senseless game initially. But
slowly, when you become accustomed to it, your passion gets ignited.

2. My Parents’ Sacrifices: Our parents work hard to earn money; still,

they always cut their own expenses to give us the best they can. It was not
only my dream but the dream of my parents also. They wanted to see their
son as an IITian, then why not get them the result, the IIT tag?

3. To become an exemplar for my younger brothers and sisters: If I

fail, I am no different than my other cousins. But if I win, I become an
example. If I become an IITian, such exams or any such endeavours won’t
seem impossible to my younger brothers and sisters.

The Comeback
 One day (around the end of September 2015), contemplated a lot about the
solution to this problem for the whole day. Thereby, I devised a few amazing
techniques to save time, segregated topics and organised them in a definite
sequence so that the efficiency could be maximised. Most of my techniques
were rooted in childhood-learnings I had obtained from Ramayana and
Mahabharata. I thought about how could I employ those learnings of love,
war, and Dharma for the battle of JEE. In addition, I used the experienced I
had gained in 1.5 wasted preparation thus far. I thoroughly knew what not to
do.

I firmly resolved on that day:

1. that I would not attend the school from that point on.

2. that I would study every day for the maximum human limit, and I will
define that limit myself.

3. that I will not hesitate a bit in spending money on books.

4. that the topmost priority of my life is JEE. Topmost means, I can

sacrifice anything less-important for JEE.

5. I will not worry if I have too little time to have hopes of success, I
believe in fighting till the last drop of blood and I will adhere to this belief.

Following was my mindset in summary throughout those four months (I

am also thinking about creating a detailed and comprehensive book on all
such transforming techniques for all the competitive exams of our nation. If
readers ask for it, I will write that.)

1. My attempt will be to make theory assimilated into myself fully. I will read
the theory multiple times. I will, in fact, make it a ritual to review my notes
before solving problems every time. When we know that we are going to
study 4–5 subsequent times; we tend to not study it thoroughly, even for the
first time itself, as we know that we are going to repeat it. Whenever I learn
something, I will do it as if I'm doing that topic for the last time. By and by, it
will create its permanent inscriptions in my mind.

2. Despite the limited time to prepare for the exam, instead of trying to
complete all the topics quickly without getting thorough understanding, I will
explore the scoring parts of the exam, and thenceforward do those few
selected topics only, but completely and patiently.

3. The result is going to be the effect which I cannot do much about, but I
can do a lot about the cause. My dedicated hard work is going to cause my
success. Therefore, whenever I tend to be anxious about my result, I will turn
my focus back to the preparation. (Bhagavadgita's famous learning on
Karma; focus on the karma, not on the result.)

4. Notes: My notes are going to be as concise as possible and for any

person on the planet but me, they will be useless. For the whole chapter,
electrostatics, I should make notes not more than one side filled of an A4
sheet. If I write everything in my notes, I will write very less in my brain. I
am going to make notes only having keywords — no long or complete
sentences, trivial statements, or mainstream formulas — which triggered the
reminder of content I had stored in my brain, every time I viewed them. If my
notes are going to be bulky, I would be less motivated to open them for
revision; moreover, the irrelevant content is going to distract me from the
content worthy of focus.

5. When I get exhausted reading one subject, I will switch to another

subject because I am not exhausted with studies but perhaps that particular
subject.

6. Which so ever subject I learn, I have to take enjoyment in it. If I try to

learn it without enjoying, it causes burnout. Further, if I somehow complete
my syllabus despite disliking it, it never results in success. Therefore, finding
a passion for the very subject is indispensable.

7. I will revise everything cumulatively on a weekly basis because it is

easy to keep the theory alive in my mind than reviving it after letting it die.
 8. I will change my lifestyle according to whatsoever is required by my
preparation.

9. Come what may, I will take mock tests, one of Mains and one of
Advanced every week even when I would not have completed the syllabus.
Thereafter, I will carry out detailed analysis. The mock tests are not an
evaluation of the preparation, but a part of preparation.

10. I will put myself into self-created tough situations that could be there
in the exam; for example, timed paper solving, recalling concepts out of
nowhere on a blank sheet of paper.

11. I will not let myself settle for easy JEE books, I will instead do the
best books from the beginning.

12. I will always confront my mistakes from it and not deliberately turn a
blind eye towards them.
13. With each completing chapter, I will upgrade myself. Often when we
want to complete the syllabus as soon as possible, we do not focus on our
self-improvement. For example, we do not look for multiple methods of a
question, we do not give extra time for visualisation because we are in a
hurry et al. This must stop! If my mindset had been of self-enhancement, I
would pause at various instances to look for improvements; to see where I
lacked, where I slowed down, to see where I could have done it better. Even
if a chapter takes 7 days, I will spend 10 instead, but with a promise that the
extra-invested-time would upgrade me so much so that one day I can
complete a similar chapter in 3 days.

14. I will prioritise quality over quantity because if I didn't even touch a
chapter, I wouldn't attempt its problems in the exam. On the other hand, if I
did it incomplete, I would be tempted to attempt its question. Now in the
former case, I would get 0 marks; in the latter, I would get minus 1 marks
because I would often attempt it wrong. Former or latter, which situation is
better? Thus, I should either complete a chapter thoroughly or not touch it
altogether.

I had always been a fighter spirit and even when I was misguided and
employed wrong books, I would study them with dedication on any holiday I
got from school. I carried out extensive research on Amazon on JEE books
and ordered a plethora of books which seemed useful. When those books
arrived at my home, they looked so elegant, hardbound, glimmering, bubble-
wrap packed. When I opened these books, I found profound and elaborate
explanations of complex topics. These new scintillating books were
spellbinding. I had shelled out my parents' thousands and thousands of rupees
into them. These reasons were sufficiently compelling for me to study those
new adorable books.

Taking the decision of not attending the school, despite all the threats
given by them was like swallowing a bitter pill. I would never advise anyone
to do so; nonetheless, I swallowed that pill and was firm on not wasting my
time by going to school, come what may. Then I had all the time in the world.
The wicked school, the negligent coaching, perverted street-engineers, and
my distractions — could be blamed for my failed past. But then that these
hurdles were not there, and if I yet didn't study, then I would be blameworthy.

I had been earnest with my effort, always. I just needed time which I had
finally arranged for myself. I have made a whole another book for the
practical and resourceful techniques which is on its way to publish. Back to
the story, there was no going back and no hurdle present. I just utilised that
time to the maximum.

If you notice carefully, you will find that this is not the only comeback I
have tried to make in my preparation. This was, however, the successful one.
If I hadn't initiated those previous failed comebacks, I wouldn't have been
able to figure out the plan that indeed works. From here, you and I should
learn resilience; the ability to rise after falling. A resilient person is destined
to finish nowhere but his destination. Despite failing so many times, I came
up with something new, with a new mindset, a new avatar every time; and in
the end, it worked out.
 My Time Table
Organise What You Do
Organising is what you do before you do something, so that when
you do it, it is not all mixed up.

AA Milne

It is necessary to organise what you do to get the maximum benefit out of

your day. But beware! Don't mimic my timetable. It is tailor-made for
Nishant Jindal, not for you! For you, it is rather to take increased inspiration
and accurate direction from it and make your own thereafter. It is a common
misconception that once your timetable is created, you certainly start working
according to that. That superficial motivation does not last long. Time table
won't make you study; it will just organise things for you. Inspiration comes
for reasons more profound.

Furthermore, it is not only impossible but also inefficient to stringently

follow a time table. I believe in flexibility. Let us say that you are enjoying
doing Maths at the moment. When you are enjoying the subject, you have
invincible productivity. But if at that moment your time table tells you to
switch to another topic, you might think about letting go of the productivity
to continue being a slave of the timetable. I would most of the times choose
productivity over organisation. However, it can result in us doing only those
subjects which we like and neglect other subjects. It is, therefore, an excellent
idea to maintain an optimum balance between productivity and timetable.
Thus, we must have flexibility.

1. Divide your time (not necessarily equally) between Physics, Chemistry

and Maths so that you can study each of them daily.
 2. Wake up daily at 7 AM. Just brush your teeth and wash your face and
have breakfast. Don't take a bath in the morning.

3. Always start your day with Maths. At the beginning of the day, you are
very efficient, and mathematics is the one subject which needs the whole of
your brain. I used to start with 5–6 hours maths daily.

4. After doing maths, the clock strikes around 2. Now you will feel
exhausted. At this time you may take your bath and have your food. Due to
the bath, you will regain the freshness of the morning. And now you may
start with Physics or Physical Chemistry topics. These topics require
relatively lesser cognitive abilities. Study them for as long as you can and
then switch to Inorganic and Organic Chemistry.

5. When it is around 7 in the evening, you can switch to the organic and
inorganic chemistry because these subjects majorly involve theory.

6. When you are near the end of your day ( I ended at around 1 or 2), just
plan what and how will you do the next day.

7. Solve questions in the morning and theory in the evening.

8. Solve problems on whatever theory was studied by you overnight.

Note: These are more like rules and not a time table. These acted as directive
principles of organising a day for me. The precise time table needs to be
created daily for the requirement of that time. For that, I kept a diary. The
diary also helps in keeping a record of how much of our goal we are
reaching. At the end of the day, we can also find out where we are losing our
time; and based on that, make changes in our lifestyle. Most of the times, I
couldn't achieve more than 70% of what I had planned for the day. Yet, I
never let it demotivate me. I kept hustling regardless.
 The Permanent End of my JEE
preparation
The Beginning of The Drama Again.
Bureaucracy is the death of any achievement.

Albert Einstein

◆◆◆

After it had been an unusually long time since I had seen the disgusting
face of my school, on one wintry day of January, in New Delhi, I put on my
coat and went to the school. To my astonishment, my classroom was utterly
vacant. I rushed through the corridor to our school's science lab. What I came
to know then was totally unexpected, I was told that it was our mock practical
that day. I realised how I had been so much out of touch of school for so
long.

I was mulling over how to prepare for that mock practical exam.
Meanwhile, my classmates began arriving one-by-one, and it didn't take me
much time to realise that it was high time to abandon my JEE preparation
again for the board exams and the board practicals. I had to drain my highly
valued time in preparing the practical files, which meant merely replicating
words and diagrams from another friend's practical file. Whether I understood
the concepts or not, was of no importance. In addition to this, I had to make
preparations for the viva voce, and learn to perform all the experiments
mentioned in our syllabus within a few days.

On the one hand, I was solving such high-level problems from eminent
books. On the other hand, I was supposed to do such a laborious work at that
point, which would bring no benefits at last to my intellectual capacity
whatsoever. I got disheartened but finally accepted the truth. After all, I also
had to pass the board exams with a good percentage for the board cut-off
requirement of JEE. Furthermore, the board percentage was going to get
counted for giving JEE Mains ranking.
 The Physics Practical Exam
Clinch The Victory On Every Battleground
Strength is life, weakness is death.

Swami Vivekananda

To be honest, I had obtained the required physics project from Janakpuri

Market, New Delhi, for three hundred rupees. I neither had any interest nor
had the time to make the project myself at that high time. The project was
based on concepts of semiconductors of which I had no idea thus far. In the
viva voce, the external examiner, upon seeing my project based on diodes,
asked me questions regarding that. I honestly confessed to her that I had no
idea about semiconductors at all. When she inquired of the reason, I
responded in all honesty and humility, "Madam this chapter is not in JEE-
Advanced syllabus." She asked further about my preparation. I answered with
the truth every time. Upon that, she asked me a few difficult questions from
"Current Electricity" chapter. From the depth of her questions, she seemed
very knowledgable.

I too was not an average student anymore. Keep in mind that my

preparation had been over, I was overflowing with knowledge which I had
obtained with relentless hard work in the last four months. To each of her
questions, I gave to the point answers like a genuine scholar of science.
Whenever she cross-questioned or asked for elaborations, I just gave her
what she was looking for. She awarded me with full thirty marks in Physics
practical. Perhaps she was impressed by my honest display of my flaws as
well as strengths.
 The Farewell Controversy

Envy vs Courage

Have You Ever Met A Hater Doing Better Than You?

Me Neither!

◆◆◆

I was vacillating about whether I should go to the farewell or not. It was

held towards the end of February when the boards were approaching. The
board preparation was effortless. It had become extremely easy for me after
going through that four-month JEE-Advanced preparation. I finally decided
to go to the farewell.

It was indeed a rejoiceful party happened, and our juniors also displayed a
few delightful performances. In the end, we were handed out our framed
photographs with a paragraph written about us on them. When my turn came,
I was named as the Einstein of the school. The principal was reading out the
written message on the photograph. She read about me that I aimed to go to
Delhi Engineering College.

All of a sudden, I remembered that our class teacher had previously asked
us individually about our goals where I had explicitly specified that I only
aimed IIT Delhi, nothing else. I surmised that a few envious classmates might
have mischievously altered that message. I went to the stage, took the mic
from the principal, and declared loud and clear "If there is any institute I want
to go, it would be IIT Delhi. Besides, no such college as Delhi Engineering
College exists on the Earth." The principle lauded me for my courage and
said: " That's what I was surprised about, how can Nishant Jindal have such a
small goal!"
 CBSE Board Exams
CBSE Boards From The Standpoint Of A JEE Aspirant
Happiness is.....

......the end of exams

I was not sure whether I could get above 90% in the board exams as I
began my preparation only ten days prior to the commencement of the
exams; nonetheless, I was confident about scoring above 80% marks come
what may. It was not surprising to find out later that board exams were not at
all as difficult as they are hyped to be.

The boards finally commenced; the first paper was of English. I was not
much worried earlier, but in the exam centre, there was an uncomfortable
environment. A new venue, new invigilator, and the hype of these exams
made my writing hand shiver at first. Slowly, I settled there and wrote my
paper thoroughly. Likewise, I wrote other papers too.

Before my chemistry exam, I had my sister's wedding. She is my first

cousin who lived in the same house as me. I am sure you know what it means
to have a wedding in an Indian household. It was a marriage season in my
home while my boards were going on. I had two choices:

1. To become a part of marriage celebrations and assist my family in

making the arrangements.

2. To be detached from everything and focus on studies.

I relish such gatherings. Yet, I chose the second option. I only went to her
marriage for one night. Two days got spent in total, including travelling to
another state. Those days I had been fully bald so that I wouldn't have to
comb my hair. I went to the wedding bald-headed. It was of no importance to
me how I looked, or what people thought of me. My only concern was
making earnest efforts towards JEE and Boards.

I had a peculiar relationship with computer science subject. That subject

was imposed on me against my will, for it was a compulsory subject for non-
medical students in our school. However, by requesting our school a bit, I
also got physical education subject in twelfth class. I had six subjects in total.
An astounding fact is that I didn't even touch that subject. That's why I had
taken physical education too. I tried to study a few chapters of CS which
were not related to programming like networking. Finally, when I went on to
write the exam, I attempted only 24 marks paper out of 70.

I was sure that it could fetch not more than 16 marks for me, which was
insufficient to pass the exam. To my surprise later, I got 23 marks, exactly
what was needed for passing the exam. In total, I got 51 marks out of 100 in
computer science. Although, I compensated for those low marks by getting
95 in Physical Education. So ultimately, my percentage was 94.8.

My date-sheet was as under:

March 01, 2016: English

March 05, 2016: Physics
March 09, 2016: Chemistry
March 14, 2016: Mathematics
March 26, 2016: Computer Science
March 28, 2016: Physical Education

April 03, 2016: JEE Mains

May 19, 2016: BITSAT
May 22, 2016: JEE Advanced

In the time between Maths paper and CS paper, I had almost ten days. I
struggled to concentrate back on JEE for a couple of days. I took many mock
tests rigorously, sometimes even twice a day. That made me feel I am back to
the game after passing through such a gruesome phase of learning shallow-
concepts and doing rote learning for boards. I revised all the notes and
formula books thoroughly. My superior techniques helped me do it
efficiently. I studied for the PE exam for only a two days and only one day
for CS My board exams went reasonably well. In the beginning, I was not
confident about scoring above 90% in Boards. But after the exams, I was sure
to surpass 90.

Ultimately, my final score was 94.8%. However, if we consider CS marks

instead of PE, my percentage would be 86.

Remarks: What I got to know from seeing such an easy level of so-hyped
board exams is that these hypes are created by average performers. The
average performers are in large numbers, so they talk as if board exams or
any exam of such high paramountcy in a student's life, is difficult. It is indeed
difficult for them, but not for those who work hard. As children, who take
these exams for the first time, we tend to get anxious due to these people's
opinions. In similar fashion, IIT also is not difficult for those who pass
through this voyage devoting their heart and soul to it. Which power is bigger
than faith and devotion? Which souls are higher than the devoted souls?
When you demonstrate your devotion well, even IITs would love to honour
their campus by having many devoted students therein.

The question shouldn't be "How should I crack IIT?", but should be how
should I become a person, eligible to be in IIT.
 The Ultimate JEE Mains Attempt
Do your best, forget the rest!
You want it? You take it! You pay the price.

-Bruce Springsteen

◆◆◆

I had a reasonably good practice of JEE Mains tests. I always used to start
with Mathematics, then Chemistry and Physics in the end. (Doesn't mean that
you should mimic it). Unlike today, we used to have only one attempt of JEE
Mains. As usual, I attempted Mathematics first, which went quite well. I was
able to solve through it. I nonetheless got stuck at a few questions, although I
stopped solving such questions in the middle and moved to the next question.
I completed my Maths paper in 50 minutes. All of a sudden, I discovered that
I had left a complete row of questions on a page. I went back and solved all
4-5 of them, and it finally took almost 60 minutes in total.

Then I moved forward to Chemistry. It didn't take me 20-30 minutes to

solve the subject; however, a wrong question from organic qualitative
analysis wasted more than 5-8 minutes without fetching me the answer.
Later, everyone got bonus marks for that. I wish I had left the question in the
very beginning.
Physics was very puzzling. It was not high-level, not also that I was weak
at physics, but still, the paper appeared very confusing. The reasons for that
could be:

1. I hadn't touched Physics for a long time due to boards and practicals.
2. I had a poor command on JEE Mains exclusive topics like
Semiconductors, Diffraction etc. which comprise a large portion of Physics.

Physics paper awfully disturbed my calmness. I tried to solve questions,

yet I wasn't getting the answer. I had to solve the questions twice or thrice to
arrive at the answer.
Moreover, the invigilator was chattering with another companion of hers;
that noise had been distracting since the beginning. Today I possess the
courage, but back in the day, I was afraid to confront the invigilator lest I
would offend her.
Since I was feeling unable to solve the Physics paper, I was getting the
horrible reminders of my school teachers taunts, their threats, and so much
more. That hadn't happened before but in the final exam that occurred
unexpectedly. For every mistake I made in the physics paper, it reminded me
of the atrocities inflicted by all those wicked people. Those thoughts were
deeply distracting and depressing. I was broken and didn't want to solve
further. I kept on going ahead anyhow. Those horrible thoughts were
persistently reverberating in my head, but I solved the paper as much as I
could. I was very optimistic in the first one and a half hour of the paper; I had
completed two full subjects in it. But physics, despite giving one and a half
hour to it, was not attempted well. I had plenty of time; therefore, I somehow
managed to attempt more than 86-87 questions out of 90. After fully
attempting the paper, I forgot about those horrible thoughts completely. In
fact, I was happy about attempting such a large portion of the paper. I was
thanking my speed in Maths and Chemistry that despite all the panic, I was
able to complete even Physics thoroughly.

Furthermore, towards the end of the paper, I was running short of rough-
work space for the physics section. I needed space to solve the question, I
knew how to solve the question, but I didn't have paper. I exhausted all the
pages I had, including my admit card yet I was short of paper. I had a big
handwriting which was a problem.
After finishing the paper anyhow, on my way out of the examination
centre, I met an acquaintance who happened to ask me how my paper went. I
replied that I was expecting somewhere between 320-340. I told my father,
who was waiting for me outside the exam hall that the exam went remarkably
well. However, when I tallied my answers with the unofficial answer keys
that evening, I was aghast. I realised that I had lost more than 80 marks in
silly mistakes. EIGHTY MARKS OUT OF 360!

My predicted score was 255, according to the answer key. I remembered

that classmate words, who told me that surpassing 300 in JEE was
impossible. I rested my head on my hand in disappointment and didn't know
how to confess that to my father. It was shocking for me; it would surely be
more shocking to him.

Our brain stops functioning in the face of danger. Therefore, should learn
throughout our journey to deal with our anxiety. It is a long process, but if we
are determined enough, this too can be overpowered. The emotional aspects
of JEE or even life are generally neglected. But emotions do play a
significant role in your success.
 A Talk To My-Hurt-Self After JEE
Mains

"It takes ten times as long to put yourself back together as it does to
fall apart."

- Finnick Odair.

◆◆◆

After screwing up the JEE Mains, I had a turbulent stream of thoughts. I

was thinking that:

"I know that I deserved far beyond 300. But that torturous flood of
thoughts debilitated me during the exam. I have always been courageously
facing whatever destiny threw at me, no matter how dreadful. But this was
the final JEE Mains exam. If it happened with me in JEE Mains, what is the
guarantee it won't happen in JEE Advanced? Will I even be able to make it to
IIT? I wish that there hadn't been so many vile and inhibiting people in my
life. If only I had refined guidance throughout my JEE preparation.

I was perhaps wrong to think that I could do it all through self-study. I

could not do this. I surely don't even deserve to be in IIT. There have been
numerous people in the best batches of the best coachings of the country;
only they deserve to be there. People have been preparing for it since their
sixth class, how could I even imagine to crack JEE with just four months of
raw, unguided preparation?

And what about the relentless hard work I did, the sacrifices I made? I
haven't even smiled much for a long time.
What was it worth?
Look at your face, swollen due to excessive fat since you didn't pay
attention to your health only to prepare for JEE. Have you gained 15 KGs
weight only to get nothing in the end? I thought I had an opportunity to uplift
my life through JEE, but it is most likely I was just daydreaming.

Everyone has betrayed me. The coaching institute snatched my money yet
didn't provide me with the training. The school siphoned off all my time, yet
didn't provide me with education or even freedom of self-study. I trusted
street engineers, yet they gave me deleterious advice. I always helped
everyone selflessly, yet they were jealous of me. Now even JEE, to which I
had devoted my heart and soul, also betrayed me. Now, would it be any
beneficial at all, to struggle further for JEE advanced?"

After all this, I became very resentful towards everything and lost faith in
hard work. I started wasting as much time as I could.

Remarks: After any defeat, small or big, our brain tends to become
hopeless. Even if we want to work towards our goal, the thoughts paralyse us.
After five years now, I have figured out its solution. Look within yourself and
repeatedly ask, "Is the situation altogether hopeless? Can nothing be done no
matter what? Is this indeed the worst that can happen to me?" Doubt your
brain's understanding of the situation, your brain biologically tends to
exaggerate the situation. It, in fact, significantly shuts down its logical and
cognitive functioning in the face of threat or defeat. When you try to look at
the things as they indeed are, neither exaggerating nor underrating it, just
looking at them as they are for real; our anxiety drops, and we can work
thereafter. Sometimes, the anxiety kicks in again, do the same remedy again
until this behaviour gets embedded in your character.
 Self Sabotage Post JEE Mains
Auto-mutilation
There are seeds of self-destruction in all of us that will bear only
unhappiness if allowed to grow.

-Dorothea Brande

A toxic classmate (I don't want to take his name) told me that students
generally put aside their preparation for a while post-JEE Mains. I used to
think all such comments by toxic people don't affect me at all. But if someone
demotivates you persistently for a long time, it can deeply affect anyone. In
addition to this, I had messed up with my JEE Mains final exam. I was
devastated and had lost faith in hard work.

I stopped studying for JEE further. I would get horrendous reminiscences

of the onslaughts inflicted by my school teachers on me and negligence of my
coaching towards my calibre. I cursed myself and my destiny for being so
much directionless, taking so many wrong decisions, and unknowingly
throwing myself into hardships over and over throughout my JEE
preparation. Moreover, I had no one to count upon, who could understand
my problem. I was shattered from within. I started mutilating myself, and
perhaps all my good habits.

My daily schedule would be waking up at 9 AM, without much vigour.

Then I would reluctantly do some light study. I had given myself into that
unwithstandable stress. I was watching things happening to me, watching
myself ruining my own hard work and doing nothing about it. I watched
pornography for a couple of hours or sometimes even more. I used to practise
onanism after that. Thereafter, I would call my friend Darpan home, and we
would go to play cricket every day. I played there until it was dusk. After
that, I would come back home, totally sopping with sweat. I would take a
bath in the evening and then collapse into the bed, depleted of even a trace of
energy. Then, I used to watch TV until my eyes were open and sleep in
oblivion for 9-10 hours a day.
Such declined I had become! I had lost all self-respect!

Remarks: There are instances when we tend to sabotage all our hard work
and ourselves just before we are about to reach our goals. We let these
disabling thoughts creep in. These thoughts take away our ability to think in
the direction of solution.

Confronted with obstacles and setbacks, a person sometimes becomes

pathetically hopeless, sometimes even without reason. He is rendered in self-
doubt.

When encountered with self-doubt, doubt yourself again like this,

"If I am truly incapable, I must be this much incapable that I cannot judge
myself correctly whether I am capable or not."

Speaking frankly, everyone is wrong! We must recognise that just like us,
everyone else is wrong and clueless. Some people just fake their perfection
well. We should admit that being wrong to an extent is completely
appropriate, with each passing day, we should strive to become less wrong.
 Dusting Myself Off for JEE Advanced
The Finishing Touch
If you learn from defeat, you haven't really lost.

-Zig Ziglar

That declined schedule went on for thirty days—almost all of April 2016
got ruined. Now in the month of May, I realised that my JEE Advanced
exam was approaching. Thereupon, I corrected myself back to reality. I
admitted to myself:

"I have had an excellent preparation in those four months. Staying out of
touch with syllabus due to boards and the past wasted month have made me
forget many things. I still possess that knowledge which is sufficient enough
to get me a remarkable rank even if I perform my worst in the final exam. All
I have to do is revising everything so that I can readily use my concepts
again."
I made another plan for the next 20 days. I picked up my scooty and got
myself the book of Previous Years Papers (not previous year questions).
Alternatively, I solved a paper form that book starting from 2015, then 2014,
2013 and so on.

Then again, I started studying for more than 12-13 hours a day. The
moment I started taking interest back in studies, I started feeling good about
myself, I regained my self-respect. For the last 30 days, I had been living in
guilt; but now, I was doing the best I could do at the moment.

One mistake I made, however, was staying in AC for almost all of the day
in the scorching month of May. I revised all my syllabus according to the
plan and finally went to attempt the final examination.

Remarks: You remember how hopeless I had become in the previous

chapter? I was not preparing rather doing the opposite of what I was
supposed to. I didn't even want to prepare for the exam due to my hurt. But
did this mean that my exam wouldn't happen on 22nd May 2016? Would I
not go to the exam centre to take the exam?

In the end, I had to come back to my preparation. But my deceived and

overwhelmed mind was blind to see this in the previous thirty days.
Ultimately, I had to come back to preparation. Although, I had regret for
wasting those 30 precious days, but I didn't let the regret paralyse me any
further.
 Cheating in JEE-Advanced

We were summoned to the examination centre at 7 AM even when the

exam was at 9 AM. We indeed had to sit idle. A thought sprung to my mind,
"Can someone if at all, copy someone else's paper in JEE Advanced?"

The next moment I realised that the selection ratio of JEE Mains to JEE
Advanced is 20:1. I thought "That means, from the 20 students in this hall,
only one will get selected. That one definitely has to be myself! How can I
top from this room if I copy someone else's paper?"

Hence I concluded, cheating is not at all a good idea in JEE Advanced.

Remarks: No matter however unfair it seems, but most people fail. If you
will try to copy the herd you are destined to fail no matter what.
 The Ultimate JEE Advanced Attempt
The Day of Judgement
Expect the best, prepare for the worst. Capitalise on what comes.

Zig Ziglar

Finally, it was May 22 2016, the day of JEE Advanced, the exam I had
been preparing for with all my might. I had regained back my faith that even
though I would perform my worst today, I would be far above the cut-off.
Now I had fulfilled all that was needed for excelling in this exam. What was
left? Nothing!

It was, however, not that simple. It was the scorching month of May, in
Delhi. As I wrote earlier, I had spent the last 20 days in 24/7 in the air
conditioner. But at the venue, there was no air conditioner. I shouldn't have
made myself accustomed to the AC, but I had thought it would be beneficial
for my productivity; nonetheless, I didn't have much problem in the first
hour.

I saw on the paper that there was something called as partial marking,
which was a totally new format for me. Somehow due to panic, I didn't pay
attention to that marking policy. Anyways, I began with Physics as usual.
Finding some solvable questions of Physics, I was trying to set my feet up in
the exam. I went forward and solved only the simplest problems one-by-one.

The morning was mild, but as it approached 10 AM, It became

unbearable. I got drenched in sweat. When I asked for water, they gave me
ice-chilled water which was further worsening to the situation. I was getting
distracted. Again those horrible memories started turbulently flooding in my
mind, this time even severer than JEE Mains: the same teachers' assaults,
classmates' demotivating remarks, the misguidance of street-engineers, and
so much more. These thoughts were bitter; I was feeling like crying in the
hall and leave the exam. I would start solving any question, read it, and then
my mind would go blank all of a sudden. Then I would have to read it again,
and sometimes I would forget again what was in the question.

The more I was screwing up the paper, the more such thoughts I got. It
created such a vicious cycle of panic. Despite all this, I did possess
knowledge and skill. So, I didn't stop solving the problems. I thoroughly
knew that every question I solve, is adding four marks to my result.

But I knew I couldn't escape. This was the one and only chance of
cracking JEE. I kept persisting regardless of how torturous it was.
Somewhere near 10:45, I got a nosebleed. For once, I thought of letting the
blood flow because I didn't have time. I wiped the blood off with my
handkerchief but ultimately I had to rush towards the washroom. I washed the
sweat and blood off my face. That coolness of water provided a momentary
relief. At once, I didn't feel like returning to the examination room.

Nonetheless, I slowly walked towards the room. I was dreadfully worried

about the time wasted so far in the exam. To this, I again started thinking of
reasons. Again and again, the wicked faces of all those peoples flashed to my
mind. I persisted till the end of the paper one and finished up whatever I
could do.

Then came our break from 12 PM to 2 PM. I mistakenly again sat in that
air-conditioned car which my father had arranged. Furthermore, I had chhole
bhature as a snack in the break, which was sleep-inducing. Even though the
break was supposed to be for two hours, we were summoned an hour earlier
only for the comfort of management. I went back to take paper two, a similar
story.

In total:

1. The heat dreadfully bothered me.

2. The assaults of the past had a severe effect on my performance
3. Due to panic, I couldn't even figure out how to use partial marking
effectively. I didn't mark even one option in which I had doubts. If it had
been 2015, you would have got -2 marks for that whereas partial marking
could get you one mark for every right answer.
4. The habit of AC was miserable.
5. The paper was most difficult of all the papers of JEE advanced till date.

I finally exited the exam hall after that literally blood and sweat battle. It
was all finished, the official end of my JEE preparation. I could feel that
freedom. I was, in any case, sure that I would be in IIT. No matter how it
went, it was the end I was expecting a rank near 2000-3000. I calculated my
marks again though unofficial answer key after returning home as 223/372.
On a side note, my final marks came out to be 224/372. Hereupon, one
teacher predicted my rank to be under 1000. A few days later, another teacher
claimed that it would be under 700. Then a website showed it to be 450, and
another site showed 300. I got such a high rank despite only sixty per cent
marks because paper indeed was hardest than ever before.

After the JEE preparation was officially over, and I was sure I would get
a respectable rank in any case, I was carefree and merry. There was nothing
to be worried about; I had sorted it all. I started watching Mahabharata on
Hotstar entire day; it was my favourite.

Remarks: Due to lack of authentic mentorship and abundant misguidance,

I remained undeveloped in many aspects. I didn't get enough time to master
everything, especially the emotional strength. Don't let it happen to you. I
couldn't get the best out of my capabilities. Had there been genuine guidance,
these problems wouldn't have arisen in the first place.
 Everyone's Reaction at JEE Advanced
Result
Work hard in silence, let your success make the noise.
The harder the battle, the sweeter the victory.

-Les Brown

◆◆◆

I was on my way back home from Himachal Pradesh after a rejuvenating

pilgrimage to Jwala Devi Temple with my whole family (of 23 members).
The internet connection was annoyingly poor, and so was the JEE Advanced
website.

I asked Dhruv to check me my rank. He, after reloading many times,

finally found that I'd got AIR 247. I was not much surprised because I was
expecting something under 300 rank as per my exam.

Informing my dad:

Me: Papa aagya! 247 Rank hai! (Dad result has come, the rank is 247!)

Dad: Pakka? Ye final hai? (Are you sure? Is it final?)

Me: Haan ab ye final hai aur change nahi hogi! (Yes it's final, and it will
not change!)

Dad and everyone in the bus: Maata Raani ki kripa ho gayi! (This is the
Goddess' blessing upon us.)
 After the result was out, I got a lot of admiration from all my relatives.
Many of my cousins said, "Bhai naam roshan kar diya!" (Brother, you have
made us proud!)I never boasted my result, but the news went viral in all the
distant parts of my family. When anyone in my neighbourhood asked me
about the result, I just used to say it was fair. At one point, I had become fed
up of all the ceaseless admiration.

A conversation with a neighbour:

A neighbour asked me my JEE rank, to which I replied "Two Forty

Seven."

He then asked my percentage score in that exam. I replied 60%. He

responded in a consoling tone:

"Koi baat nahi bhai, tension mat le. Koi na koi gormint college mil hi
jaega!"

(No big deal brother, don't worry. You would surely get some or the other
government college.)

All in all, the coaching teachers were jaw-dropped, school teachers were
jealous, the peers were burnt to the core. I had always supported everyone
anyhow I could do, yet I couldn't find the reason they were jealous of me.
When I told them that I was taken aback at my JEE Mains result (254/360),
they thought I was showing off. I am yet to see any classmate who was
genuinely merry at my success.

It was proved yet again that people want others to fail.

 The Final Taste of The Victory
When you win, nothing hurts!

-Joe Namath

I filled in my choices on the JoSAA website. In my year (2016), even a

little above 30% marks in JEE Advanced was sufficient to get IIT Delhi for
general category. At 60% marks, I got AIR 247; and I knew I would get
what I wanted. I didn't even fill the counselling forms of JEE Mains or BITS.
In my choices also, I knew I will get the first choice I had filled therein.

I was finally summoned at IIT Delhi campus for acceptance of seat. I was
astounded to see the gigantic and charming campus. There we needed to do a
biometric test, and we had to show our documents too (and I couldn't say hum
kaagaz nahi dikhayenge). They asked for my 12th marksheet, which had six
subjects on it. I was afraid what if they filled in the marks of CS subject, I
didn't want those low marks (51) to be entered. The official inserted the
marks of Physical Education (95) instead of CS. The screen showed the
aggregate as 94.8%. I was relieved.

I proceeded towards the final counter, where I had to sign some papers.
The professor sitting behind the table also signed that and then stood up. He
was looking at me. It didn't take me long to understand that I should also
stand.

The professor shook hands with me and told me:

"Welcome to IIT Delhi!"

 All The Life Lessons Gained From JEE

When this mortal life comes to an end, may I die fighting in the
battlefield with limitless courage.

Guru Gobind Singh

1. It's never too late.

2. Keep your eyes and ears open; the best opportunities can come from
any direction.

3. Keep collaboration above competition.

4. Don't take any incompetent person's advice but value the authentic
mentorship.

5. Don't fear taking risks and making initiatives. There is not much to
lose, but so much to gain.

6. A resilient person ultimately achieves nothing but victory. Repeatedly

make initiatives. Fail, fail and fail again until you gain the capability.

7. Losers always blame their luck. When they don't want to work hard,
they make excuses like "It's impossible.", "I'm deficient.", "I have low IQ.",
"I don't have natural talent", "It's too late." There is absolutely no end to these
paralysing thoughts.

8. Don't only work, with every piece of work completed, become the
upgraded version of yourself.

9. Success can't come to you until you start loving what you do. Staying
depressed and burdened with work will only lead to burnout but never
success.

10. Doing your work with focus, love, and interest makes it easier to do.
Furthermore, there is no other way to do it.

11. A winner doesn't see anything but his goal; he wakes up with a
purpose. His goal is his paramount love; therefore, he forsakes the things he
loves less for the goal. These are not sacrifices. How can abandoning
something for something better be a sacrifice? It is rudimentary reasoning.

12. Some people want to solve the problem, and some want to exhibit to
others how great their problems are.

13. Never ignore your silly mistakes. They may give you unwanted fruits
in the final game.
14. Success isn't secured unless your weakness is cured.

15. Face your fears. Don't run away from your reality. Admit your
deficiencies and also admit that everyone has deficiencies. If you'd ask me,
admitting your shortcomings is the first step towards eliminating them.

16. No one wants to see you successful, except you, your parents and
your mentors. No one else!

17. You are surrounded by toxic people, including your peers, street
engineers and many more venomous snakes. Practice social distancing from
them.

18. Help your friends selflessly and also seek help when required.

19. The more you sweat while practising, the less you bleed in the war.

20. Never do easy things to feel comfortable and get pseudo-satisfaction.

21. Never compromise with your health for anything.

22. Never forget point 21.

 23. Never let the regret of your bad past make your present also bad and
sow seeds for a bad future.

24. Take the responsibility and authority in your hands and take tough
decisions when needed even in the face of uncertainty because there is no
other way.

25. Most people will be unsuccessful, don't follow others.

26. Make the best of what is left; don't cry over spoilt milk.

27. Don't waste time in finding excuses or blaming others for your
incoming failure but dedicate yourself to make your victory a truth.

28. The prevalent beliefs about impossible and difficult things are
propagated by mediocre people to cultivate more mediocre people like
themselves. If you want to succeed, reject these notions.
 Afterword
Every JEE aspirant next door can be seen saying, " I have problems,
therefore, I cannot crack IIT." This book has busted this myth that problems
preclude you from being successful. Hurdles, no matter how big, are a part of
the success journey. I had a thousand reasons to justify if I had failed. But
whom am I going to explain it to? When I have been doing it for myself, then
the justifications have to be given to the court of my conscience. In that court,
do not be your advocate who defends yourself, but be a magistrate who
judges yourself.

At a stage when the collapse is inevitable, I began my preparation.

Therefore, having less time is no more a valid excuse. Yes, you might have
had a regretful past, but to get a glad and grateful past, be responsible in your
present. This present alone will become your past one day, won't it? The bad
karma you did in the past, makes you regret; the good karma, however,
makes you thankful. You still have a tremendous opportunity to rectify
everything.

The problem with success stories, however, is that seeing the protagonist
become successful makes us feel as though we ourselves have tasted that
victory. I want you to not become satisfied with this second-hand taste of my
success rather become successful yourself and taste it first hand.

One last exhortation, if you found this book inspiring, share the word with
your dear friends because collaboration will beat competition every time.
Also, it is not mandatory rather voluntary to put up a review of how you felt
after finishing this book. Write no exaggeration, no understatement; just write
absolute truth just like this book.

All the best!

God bless you!
 Acknowledgements
I cannot express my gratefulness enough to my dear friend Arjan Singh, who
not only always pushed me and challenged me to write this book and take it
to completion but also reviewed it a number of times and suggested me to
refine it.

My heartfelt thanks to my dearest friend, Dakshay Singla, who has

always been present for me through thick and thin. If I ever wrote a book on
an ideal friend, he would be the definition of that adjective.

I also wish to express my gratitude towards my god given friends Ridhi

Malhotra, Kashish Jain, Hardik Agarwal, Dhruv Talwar, Khyati Gureja, and
Nishtha Sethi who contributed to the refinement of this book.

Thanks to the haters also whose envious faces delight me.

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