My journey through struggles to NIT

So, I started preparing for JEE in 2019, just after my Class 10th. I went to the coaching hub, Kota, in April 2019. It all started well—I was admitted to a well-known coaching institute and received a 25% scholarship. I began my preparation in mid-April 2019. I was a very hard-working student and studied diligently during the first 4-5 months, eventually getting into a better batch after the batch shuffling test.

However, after 4-5 months, things took a turn for the worse. I got a bit depressed and couldn’t maintain my study flow. I tried to overcome this and got back on track. I remember going home in February 2020, and after that, I never returned to Kota. As you all know, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I had to continue my preparation at home. I felt very depressed because everything was online, and I struggled to understand the material that way. I watched videos multiple times, but it just didn’t click.

During the initial months of my online course, I faced many doubts while solving DPPs and sheets, but there was no one physically present to help. The period from 2019 to 2021 was the most depressing time of my life. I went through hard times, and my family was putting a lot of pressure on me. I tried to push through despite the challenges, especially in 2020, close to the JEE Mains date. I was unable to focus on my studies for three months, and before I knew it, December arrived.

I pulled myself together and studied hard for two months, as the exam was in February 2021. It was the worst phase of my life—I was broken, not eating, and even hospitalized. In the February JEE Mains attempt, I scored 96.002 percentile. While I wasn’t thrilled with the result, I was okay with it.

The JEE Mains exam consists of 300 marks, divided into three sections: Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics. Each section has 25 questions, with a marking scheme of +4 for a correct answer, -1 for a wrong answer, and 0 for unanswered questions.

The JEE exam opened my eyes and showed me that I am strong and capable of achieving many things in life. Despite my struggles, I couldn’t regain the pace I had during the initial months of preparation. In every attempt, I scored around the 96th percentile. Although I cleared JEE Advanced, I wasn’t getting much out of it. I refused to take a drop because I hated the phase of my JEE preparation.

In the end, I got into a decent NIT with a decent branch. This was my experience with JEE Mains.