Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Preparation for IITJEE - Track for pattern- By Utkarsh Rustogi


(By: Utkarsh Rustogi, JEE AIR- 874, Ex-ICADian,Grad. Student IIT Kharagpur)


Indian Institute of Technology – Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) is considered to be the top notch entrance examination for all the undergraduate engineering aspirants in India. It is considered to be one of the toughest examinations not only in India but also abroad considering the number of students getting selected and the number of candidates appearing for the examination. But, in the opinion of author, it does not have much complex questions or difficult to crack questions in it. It is just a different pattern of examination and thus it requires a different approach in understanding the same subjects. The success lies in understanding the basic fundas and practicing well before the examination.

Without mincing words (the examination is in April!!), let us ponder over a few important points to be taken into consideration for preparation for IITJEE.
  • One can succeed in cracking the IIT JEE if one believes that he/she can get into the IIT and most importantly believes that success at IIT is independent of the success at school or internal tests in coaching classes.
  • Prepare a list of all the topics you are strong at and the portions which you are weak at. Plan actions accordingly. Allocation of time for study is to be based on this list. Never fall in trap by giving more time to the subject which you like most and very less time which is not relishing.
  • Never try to learn a new topic in the final days. This would be only a waste of time and might reduce confidence level too.
  • While revising the topics try to make short important notes and list of formulae (if not made them still now). Try to memorize all the formulae. These short notes would be helpful in the final revision of the topics.
  • Be confident, positive and do not panic. After all it is just another exam.
  • Analyze previous years IIT-JEE question papers and track some patterns. Although the questions are never repeated but there is a definite pattern which need to tracked?
  • Practice makes a man perfect. Aptly said. Sufficient practice will help in achieving a proper balance between speed and accuracy. While revising a subject, practice in an environment of examination hall. This would be an actual simulation of the examination itself.
  • Try to solve sample question papers and previous years' papers according to the time schedule i.e. 9:00 am to 12:00 noon and 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm. This will help in many ways i.e. Practice, time management and also keeping active during this period of time. Also avoid sleeping in this time.
  • Don’t waste time watching TV and sitting in front of computer searching for tips, socializing etc. These things can  wait after cracking the IIT JEE.
  • Outdoor games or a walk in the evening would be good. Take care of your health and be confident.
  • Last but not the least STUDY HARD and STUDY HARD.
BEST OF LUCK!!

Exposure at IIT's- By Pradip Gatkine


(By: Pradip Gatkine, JEE AIR (C)- 128, Ex-ICADian, Second Year Undergraduate Mechanical Engineering, IIT Bombay)


IITs! The lubricant of ‘The Chariot’ of India’s technical development! Meant to produce capable “Charioteers” for this chariot!! IITs (Indian Institute of Technology) are India’s finest technical institutes at the frontiers of international technical advances.

·         Establishments & Alumni:
The IITs established in the initial days of our independence have run a long in creating technical excellence in India. Narayan Murthy(co-founder Infosys), Vinod Khosla(co-founder Sun Microsystems), Dr  Mani Lal Bhaumik(co-inventor of LASIK surgery) are a few of the star achievers who find their roots in IIT!!

·         The Study System:
The study structure of IITs gives profound flexibility to the students to pusue their interests in varied fields. One can learn courses of other departments, work on projects of their own choice, work under faculties undertaking research and so on….

Faculties here are the best diamonds picked up from nation’s intelligentsia to shape our future. Additionally, the “Student’s Science Clubs” are so active in IIT that people get introduced to many a practical things in their very first year  through lots of activities which is a very rare scene elsewhere. Again, eminent guests like Nobel Laureates are regularly invited to interact with students which adds a new dimension to study @ IIT.

·         The Extraaaa Curriculars:
IITs play at front foot here too! Here you learn to enjoy heavens in your 10ft x 10ft room!
A galore of events all through the year and you end up searching out time to study!! Cultural & sports bodies are continuously busy with one activity or the other. The cultural fests @  IITs are one of the largest fests in Asia!! Appearance of international  artists, performers flood the festival with infinite joy!! Whatever be your interest, you name it and its right there! All sorts of spors and arts! Such a diversified culture make IITs unique among all the technical institutes.

IITians have proved themselves on every front. They also have their own linguistics (search IITB lingo on web). Well, remember  ‘Five Point Someone’wala  Chetan Bhagat is also an IITian!!

·         Industry Exposure:
IIT is just more than the best destination for all those who want to be “Technopreneurs” .
The active entrepreneurship cell takes care of that! With the business meets and innovations running at full speed, E-cells provide the right platform for rising entrepreneur in you! With the advent of tie-ups, internships and fundings from various industries and research firms, IITs have successfully incubated many a companies of its students.  The “3 idiots”wala quadrotor is a creation of “Idea Forge”, a company of IITians conceived by IIT Bombay!!

·         R&D @ IITs:
Though we are desperately working on cutting edge technologies, still today we are importing even the small things like mobile chargers! This concern has given rise to R&D Cell in IITs. Faculties and students come together to develop indigenous solutions for which we used to rely on foreign companies. The grandeur of R&D in IITs can be cherished looking at the state of the art research facilities and funding to the  projects. The pinnacle of this can be seen in India’s first “Student Satellite Project- Pratham” undertaken by IIT Bombay. This clearly indicates “Role of R&D in IITs is instrumental in realizing Dream 2020 of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam.”

·         Job Opportunities:
Jobs! Not a problem at all for IITians! Top notch companies like Google, Cisco, ONGC, IBM, Adobe, TCS and the list goes on and on…. They come here to tap the best Indian Brains. Nevertheless, IITians are not only job takers but also job makers!!

·         Future scope of studying in IITs:
IITs are ever evolving technical hubs of India. The Indian counterparts of MIT(Massachusetts Institute of Technology in US ) are shining everywhere in the world!! In all possible fields!!!

Getting into IIT is a tough job but that’s the turning point which lifts from ground to heavens!! So I wish all my fellows “All The Best!” for upcoming JEE!! Hope to see you in IIT!!!
Thank You!!

What it takes to be an IITian- By: Alap Kshirsagar


Published in The Hitavada "FUTURE"
(By: Alap Kshirsagar, JEE AIR-289, Ex-ICADian, Second Year Undergraduate Mechanical Engineering, IIT Bombay)



“IIT JEE” when we hear these 2 words, certain thing pop-up into our mind- ‘Extremely difficult examination’, ‘Selection is near impossible’, ‘Only born geniuses can crack it’ etc. etc.

Now, being an IITian I can surely (and safely!!) say that these statements are not entirely correct. It’s true that JEE is one of the toughest entrance exams, with selection rate of around 0.02% (pretty low), all one needs to crack it is sheer determination and flawless efforts.

First of all ask yourself, “Whether I’m ready to sacrifice all the ‘time pass’ activities for atleast 2 years?”. If the answer is ‘Yes’, then you are on the right track. Now ‘when to begin?’ Some students start studying for JEE right from 5th standard or so… Though early start helps, it is not necessary. One can begin preparation even after 10th class.

I personally feel that proper guidance reduces the workload and efforts considerably, though some may opt for self-preparation which gives flexibility. Ultimately what will matter is your understanding of concepts and practice. It is said that ‘One can only bring the horse near the pond, the horse has to drink water itself.’

Success in JEE depends on 2 factors- preparation before exam and performance in actual exam. Both are strongly related and equally important. The preparation part is a ‘Tour-de-France’, which is full of hurdles, obstacles and ‘dangerous situations’… Endurance, confidence and consistent smart work (don’t confuse it with ‘hard work’) is required to successfully complete it. It takes some time to change the mindset from ‘Board pattern’ to ‘JEE pattern’. So don’t give up in the beginning itself. The course is vast but proper planning can ensure complete preparation. Identify your strong and weak topics, and distribute time accordingly. Set small targets for each day, week and month. These small steps will take you up to the zenith. (Sorry but there is no shortcut).

To simplify things, preparation can be divided into 2 parts-learning and practice. Learning involves understanding concepts thoroughly and grasping problem solving techniques. Practice is basically simulation of exam environment. Solving questions accurately and in least amount of time should be the aim while practicing. Solving sample papers or previous years’ papers in exam like schedule will help to tune the body clock.

After the preparation, here comes the ‘JEE- day’ (10th April this year. Did your heartbeats suddenly rise?). Well, take the exam like a T20 match. Enjoy it!! Whatever may be the level of questions don’t fall back. Remember ‘Attack is the best way of defence’ (donno who said that…) because ‘Yeh 360 minutes tumhare… (Courtesy: chak de.)’

In the end, I would like to add a dialogue which is quite popular here @ IIT,
“You enter IIT through JEE for graduation; if it’s not possible, come for masters through GATE; even if that’s not possible, do a Ph. D. here; again if this doesn’t happen become a professor. If fortune forbids this too, ultimately get appointed as the Director from Delhi. But never miss the bus to IIT!!!” 





CELEBRITY IITians- By: Rohan Khot

Published in The Hitavada "FUTURE"
(By: Rohan Khot, JEE AIR-557, Ex-ICADian, Grad. IIT Guwahati, Currently working in Google Inc., California)


The Indian Institutes of Technology ( IITs) are undoubtedly crown jewels in India’s system of higher education. Their contribution to making India largely self-reliant in top-notch manpower needs in diverse areas of engineering in the pre-liberalization era, and to India’s emergence as a powerhouse in the knowledge economy in the era of liberalization and globalization is uncontestable. Even IITians who went abroad in large numbers have served the motherland in their own ways by achieving excellence in their professions and thus enhancing India’s prestige globally.


Some IIT products have become celebrities. They have conquered not only the technical world, but also fields like business, politics, literature, finance... almost everything one can imagine. The following examples will illustrate just how deeply IITians have influenced the post imperial world. Mr Duvvuri Subbarao (IIT Kharagpur) is the Governor of Reserve Bank of India, the apex bank in India's banking system. Mr. N.R. Narayana Murthy (IIT Kanpur) is the Co-founder and Chairman of Infosys. He needs no further introduction. Mr. Srikumar Banerjee(IIT Kharagpur) is Director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), a premier multi-disciplinary Nuclear Research Centre of India. Mr. Manohar Parrikar (IIT Bombay) has served as Chief Minister, Goa and proved the worth of IITians in politics as well.

Talking about the slightly younger generation of IIT graduates, Mr. Chetan Bhagat (IIT Delhi) took everybody by surprise with his award winning bestsellers like "Five Point Someone",  "One Night @ The Call Centre",  "The 3 Mistakes Of My Life" and recently released "2 States". Mr.Vinod Khosla (IIT Delhi) is the Co-founder Sun Microsystems, a multinational vendor of computers, computer components, computer software, and information technology services. IITian’s are known to be renowned academicians as is proven by Mr. Mriganka Sur (IIT Kanpur),  Professor of Neuroscience at MIT.

"IIT is a world treasure, thank you, bless you." -- Bill Gates (in his speech at IIT Bombay)
The potential of IITs was correctly recognized and appreciated by Bill Gates. He has worked with many IITians in the field of computer science and employed them at high posts in his company Microsoft. He is convinced that IIT’s will continue to produce the finest engineers in the industry and the best academicians in the world.
With India beginning to offer better opportunities than before for the flowering of their talent, many IITians are either returning home or supporting technology-driven ventures here, thus transforming “brain drain” into “brain gain”. True, IITs have many shortcomings. But none can deny their potential to address unmet expectations and to make India more proud. Which is why, there is a clamor for more of them to be set up. And the UPA government deserves kudos for its decision to establish nine new IITs, adding to the earlier bouquet of seven. 

LIFE AT IIT-BY Ajinkya Latkar

Published in The Hitavada "FUTURE"
(By- Ajinkya Latkar, JEE AIR-894, Ex-ICADian, Third Year Undergraduate, Department of Mechanical Engineering IIT Bombay)


In May 2008, I turned 18, and two months later, I landed up at Indian Institute of
Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai. Shifting from Nagpur to Mumbai, I had expected a huge cultural shock. But that was exactly what did not happen. Things seemed parallel, if not similar. Nagpur is definitely “modernizing” fast, if “modernized” is what the public considers cities like Mumbai as. Not letting my mind wander any more, I will straight away come to the point: Life at IITs.


At the outset, the following is worth mentioning, as quoted on Wikipedia, “The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are a group of fifteen autonomous engineering and technology-oriented institutes of higher education established and declared as Institutes of National Importance by the Parliament of India. The IITs were created to train scientists and engineers, with the aim of developing a skilled workforce to support the economic and social development of India after independence in 1947.”

The following short and sweet write up is based primarily on life at IIT Bombay, but it is more or less the same in every other IIT. The campus of IIT Bombay is splendid. It is a small township in itself. Consciously developed, the campus has retained and increased its green cover, rich in natural flora and fauna. The other campuses are beautiful too, with each having its own different charm, yet having a shade of similarity to each other.

An important aspect of life, once you have made it to one of these institutes, is hostel life. The hostels are a hub of activity, and living here is very different than living at home. Students are allotted rooms, which are not greater in volume than cell blocks for prisoners. Initially you have a roommate, later you can have your own cell. Not to get disheartened, living in a hostel is worth living in these confined spaces. Mess food, popular as bad and tasteless, is not that bad and tasteless. Yes, one cannot compare it with the food at home, but still, it is edible and satisfactory, and not an issue at all. Also, every IIT has its very own well equipped hospital.

Academics are important, well that is what you go there for, but they are not the only thing. There exists a rich and diverse culture of extra-curricular activities on campus. In addition, there are excellent sports facilities and a multitude of cultural activities going on throughout the year. Singing, dancing, dramatics, debating, music, quizzing, you name it, and IITs have facilities for it. There are also facilities for almost every sport. There are facilities for cricket, football, hockey, table tennis, basketball, badminton, lawn tennis and many more sports. An Inter IIT Sports Meet is held every December, in one of the IITs, where students from every IIT participate and compete for supremacy. Every IIT has its own cultural and technological festivals. IIT Powai’s cultural festival is called
Mood Indigo, and technological festival is called Techfest. These are two of the largest college fests of Asia. These festivals offer opportunities to display various types of skills, in a variety of fields. In short, one can “Live One’s Passion” here.
Well, this is all about it. I hope I have conveyed the message; IITs are heavenly places to be in.

This write up might not help you to crack JEE, but, inspiration seekers, I hope this read was a treat for you people.

IITians: The 7 Secrets Behind IITians' Global Success

(By- Dr. Dilip Vaidya, Published in The Hitavada "FUTURE"
Author is a top-notcher with CPI 10 on a 10 point scale at M.Tech (structures) from IIT Kanpur, a Gold Medalist of Nagpur University, and a Ph.D from VNIT. He had been invited to deliver expert lectures in conferences at IIT Kanpur. He was invited and had presented research paper at ‘World Conference on Engineering Education for Advancing Technology’ held at Sydney, Australia. He is also recipient of ‘Best Research Paper Award’ for another paper at National Convention of Indian Society for Technical Education. His research work has been incorporated in Text-Book written by Dean (R &D) of IIT Kanpur. He also has been reviewer of text books for prestigious publishers. He was team member of structural engineering group for Kakrapar Atomic Power Plant and has designed campus of two engineering colleges and many community structures. He has vast experience of conceptualizing, prototyping, maintaining and updating a system for mentoring young minds to take challenges of JEE, apart from their direct training. The Author is Alumni IIT Kanpur. He is Hon. Dean (Academics) at ICAD-SL, premier training institute for IIT-JEE aspirants)





Rajat Gupta: Former Managing Director of McKinsey & Co
Arun Sarin: Chief Executive of Vodafone Group PLC
Victor Menezes: Senior Vice Chairman of Citigroup Inc.
Kanwal Rekhi: Venture Capitalist and Founder of Excelan Inc.
Rono Dutta: Chief Executive of Air Sahara
Rakesh Gangwal: Former Chief Executive of US Airways
Vinod Khosla: Partner in Kleiner Perkins Caulfield


Guess what do these stalwarts have in common? They are all products of the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology which is gradually becoming a synonym for skill, talent, knowledge and expertise. The IITs are churning out top-notch engineers with a regularity that thrills corporations around the world.


These government-sponsored institutes are considered the best in India, and their alumni can be found in the top executive positions in companies across the globe.


According to the recent estimates, 25,000 IIT graduates are currently employed in the US, out of which, some of them have also turned entrepreneurs, who have seen their net worth grow almost overnight to mind boggling millions or even billions of dollars.


Such is the success record of the IITians worldwide. Each year the six IITs have more names making to the who's who list in the US business community than any other Indian institution, and most American universities as well. Ashutosh Roy, Gunjan Sinha, Suhas S Patil, Arjun Malhotra, Vinod Gupta are some of the IITians who have hit it big as entrepreneurs abroad. However, many more can be added to the unending list.

Global Acceptance
"Brand IIT is, by now, so well established that in the future too, the IIT graduates will continue to be successful," says Nandan Nilekani, CEO, Infosys , while speaking to The Wall Street Journal. Nilekani graduated from IIT Bombay in 1978.


Cisco Systems Inc. , in San Jose, Calif., says it has already hired more than 1,000 IITians over the years and it plans to increase the number as per convenience. According to the director of a major US research firm, the IITs are one of its most important sources of research talent, both in the US and Asia.

What makes them what they are
"IITians", the name itself evokes some prototypes. They have the required skill, experience, imagination and enthusiasm to make it to the top. "Being from an IIT background has contributed to a great extent", says Rahul Pandey, an IIT Roorkee product, who is currently employed with HPCL.

The training at IIT is very vigorous, and so is the selection process. "The JEE is the toughest undergraduate entrance exam of its kind in the world, and it acts as a guillotine at the IITs' entrance," says Sandipan Deb, author of "The IITians" while speaking to The Wall Street Journal . Finally, the experience of staying on campus is also crucial in building interpersonal skills and in providing students with leadership qualities.

IIT degree is a ticket to being a part of the high profile tech brigade which has already made a mark on the world tech map.

R. Gopalakrishnan, executive director of Tata Sons, a diversified group of companies in India, and an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur, who has studied the "IIT brand," told the Wall Street Journal that, even engineers from other Indian universities now do their master's degrees at the IITs. The result: more IIT-trained engineers.

Educational Standards
Most IITs are consistently ranked above other engineering colleges in India in engineering education surveys, with regard to quality of faculty, teaching standards, research facilities and campus placements. In international surveys, the IITs fail to achieve top rankings. The Times Higher Education Supplement (2006) ranked the IITs the 57th best overall universities in their World University Rankings and gave IITs the 33rd position globally for science. The IITs were ranked third-best worldwide for technology, after MIT and University of California, Berkeley