Preparation for IIT JEE Chemistry paper: Tips and Tricks

Consistent with the pattern of the two more difficult subjects of IIT JEE, i.e. Mathematics and Physics, the Chemistry paperalso evaluates the conceptual soundness of the aspirants. It is a general tendency among students to take Chemistry very frivolously compared to the Maths and Physics, but this tendency must be refrained from, because despite being considered the simplest of the three, its IIT JEE syllabus is very vast.

Before starting the preparation for Chemistry, check the IIT JEE 2012 and AIEEE 2012 syllabi from a reliable source, say IIT JEE website. If IIT JEE 2011 and AIEEE 2011 question paper pattern is considered, it can be observed that the difficulty level is towards the easy to moderate side in Chemistry. In IIT JEE 2011, the paper 2 was more challenging compared to Paper 1.

• Divide your time properly between the IIT JEE syllabus of three branches of Chemistry, i.e. Physical, Organic and Inorganic depending on your strengths and weaknesses.

• The chemical equations of Inorganic Chemistry are sometimes very confusing for students and thus must be practiced regularly to get a proper hold on them.

• According to trends the major portion of the Part 1 Chemistry question paper is set from Class XII syllabus compared to that of Class XI, though the difference is not much. Make sure to be thorough with the Class XI syllabus as well, because some amount of priority is unconsciously given to that portion of IIT JEE syllabus which is common with board examinations.

• Paper 1 consisted of mostly easy to moderately difficult questions in last year’s IIT JEE.

• Paper 2 however consisted of majorly moderate and difficult questions followed by easy ones. So the Paper 2 is comparatively more difficult in case of Chemistry. This trend continued in the IIT JEE 2011, as discussed earlier. In IIT JEE 2011 Organic Chemistry was complex in Paper 2.

• Practice Organic Chemistry regularly because it is difficult to retain without regular revision. It is definitely one of the most important topics from the point of view of both IIT JEE syllabus 2012 and AIEEE 2012.

• Generally the majority of the questions in Part 1 are from Physical Chemistryfollowed by Organic and then Inorganic. This pattern was followed in IIT JEE 2011 and AIEEE 2011 as well. However each branch must be given equal importance as there is not much difference between the numbers of questions appearing from each.

• In AIEEE 2011 none of the questions were extremely difficult. Thus people aspiring to get into an NIT also must not worry and make Chemistry their winning edge.

•‘Cyclic compounds’ is an important chapter in Organic Chemistry and many questions generally appear in the JEE question paper from this topic.

• Don’t try to spend too much time on a question if it is taking more than the stipulated time to solve. You can always come back to the question at the end of the exam.

The subject with the most scoring IIT JEE syllabus according to professional lecturers andIIT JEE top rankers of previous years is Chemistry as the majority of problems are easy. Thus one needs to concentrate on solving those easy and moderate questions first to score and build confidence, and then proceed to the difficult ones to gain a winning edge over their counterparts. So it is not a bad idea to devote 2-3 minutes of time initially to carefully analyze the paper to locate the easy and moderate questions. If one proceeds in a structured manner then time would never be a constraint in the JEE.