Crack the IIT JEE

Crack the IIT JEE

    IT is a known fact that to get into the IITs, students have to qualify at the IIT JEE (now JEE
    Main and Advanced). But few are aware that the road to the IITs almost always goes through the highly competitive national level Science and Maths Olympiads. Every year, the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education conducts national level tests at about 1,000 centres across India to select the brightest students, who then represent India in the International Science and Maths Olympiads. Usually students appear for the Olympiads in class XI but brilliant students can appear for the stage-I exam even in lower classes.
    There is a striking correlation between the performance of students at the Olympiads and the IIT JEE. Over the years, it is observed that all students who qualify at the Olympiads invariably secure a high rank at the IIT JEE. In fact, getting selected at the Olympiads at the national level is a strong indicator of securing a good rank at the IIT JEE. Therefore students aiming for a selection at the IIT JEE must prepare for the Olympiads.
    The question then is, can students study for both these exams simultaneously? Although, the syllabus of the Olympiads (Physics and Chemistry) is similar to the JEE (Physics and Chemistry) syllabus, the level of questions is higher. We have developed a very robust programme that trains students for IIT JEE, the Olympiads and KVPY. This year 17 students of ours reached the second round of Olympiads (ie National Standard Exam in Physics/Chemistry/ Astronomy) conducted by the HBCSE. Three of these students are top rankers at KVPY (AIR 15, 25, 35), have achieved the rare feat of qualifying in all three Olympiads viz. Physics/Chemistry/ Astronomy. As far as Maths Olympiad is concerned, 32 students have been selected from all over India for the Indian National Maths Olympiad, out of which only two students are from Mumbai.
    Ravindra Nadkarni,
    dean Academics, Vidyalankar