IIT JEE is one of the complex competitive exams in the world and indeed needs a great dedication and hard work right from the beginning. Start from your choice of subject which you like the most or which you think you have prepared very well. Foremost of the students, that subject is Chemistry. Because in JEE Mains, Chemistry questions are asked in mostly easy to moderate category.

Then move to the subject that is the second in priority. It is not at all mandatory to solve all the questions at a single stretch. Try solving as many questions as possible with perseverance.

Without wasting much time, just go to the least preferred subject by you, because it also contains marks equal to your favourite subject. Try solving the questions in that subject. One of the best and effective ways to get a good hold over the nature if questions and time management is to solve as many JEE Mock test as you can. Do not get stressed if you are not able to solve the questions. Try to attempt the questions in first two subjects that were not completed in the first attempt.

If you score about 90 in your favourite subject, 60-70 in second one and 40-50 in least preferred then also your overall score will be about 190-200 which is a very good score. Try attempting the questions in different rounds. For instance, 1 round of easy questions, 2nd round of moderate ones and 3rd round for difficult ones. You will be able to manage your time judiciously this way.

Alternatively, you can try answering the JEE Main question Paper in 3 Phases that are:

    1. In the First Phase, attempt the easy questions. Those questions that you know can solve easily and confident of which will not take more than 1.5 min strictly. Skip the Hard & time-consuming questions. At the end of first phase, if you had a strong or even decent preparation, then the number of questions you have answered gives you the average score.

    2. In the Second Phase, do all those questions which you could not answer in the first phase. The questions might seem time consuming (3 min) to you. It might be a tricky word problem which you could not crack in the first phase. For all those questions, you have the second phase (Medium level questions). Try to solve questions with the methods like Elimination of Options by methods like substitution. Do not always opt for the conventional solving method there is always an easy way.

    3. In the Third Phase, collect very complex and time-consuming questions as it is the third phase after all. Right answer to all of those answers will improve your rank exponentially. Questions that you have never solved and don’t have any clue since you have either forgotten the formulas or do not know the concept should be dealt in this phase. Risk factor comes into the picture here. Making a smart guess of the relevant option if you feel it is necessary is advised otherwise there is no harm leaving them and start checking the previously answered questions.

Segregating the Phases and final Scenario

First Phase: 1 hour - 1 hour 15 minutes (Attempted all easy ones of 3 subjects)

Second Phase: 30 min - 45 min (Answered Intermediate ones as well)

Third Phase: Time limit should be up to 30 min (Cracking Hard ones – Boost your rank)

In JEE Mains, as already mentioned earlier, you will find the Chemistry section to be a bit easy and less time consuming than the Maths and Physics section. So, attempt it first within 30 minutes. Silly mistakes should be avoided strictly, as this section alone can fetch you around 100 marks, provided you have a good comprehension of Chemistry.

Now, you will be remaining with 2.5 hours, you can easily pick Maths. Try to solve it in around 1.5 hours and then devote the remaining 1 hour to Physics section. Try not to skip the questions that you think you can solve. Once the question is thoroughly read by you, try to solve it in the first go itself. It will surely help you save a lot of time. You can adjust the order of answering questions of all the subjects according to your preference.

All the best and do your best!