Lacs of students give the IIT-JEE exam every year, for only around 35000 seats in IITs, NITs, & IIITs. When it comes to an exam as competitive as this, right preparation and right guidance is all that you need to crack it.

Now there are several coaching centres and tutors who prepare students for this exam. Not only this, many students also self study and ace this exam. Whichever category you fall in – whether you go to a tutor or study on your own – you need to have the right study material in order to perform well. Even in terms of reference material, there are several books and material available – both online and offline – not just for a subject, but for a single topic as well.

• So how to choose what to study from which book? Should you study multiple books for a topic?
• How much studying is enough? Should you solve 100 questions or 1000 questions?

These are some questions that we will try to answer in this article!

• First of all, how to choose from a large group of study material available? How many books to study from?

We would first like to tell our students to do not refer all the books out there for a topic. Your tutor will ask you to refer and study from a particular book, your friends will tell you other books that they are referring to while a bookstore owner might suggest completely different book which according to him is the best seller and so on. It is just impossible to study all the topics from all the books available, and it is not wise to do so either as it will just confuse you. Remember that every book has a different approach. If you study from all the books at the same time, you yourself will get confused and will not be able to create a strategy or approach of your own.

First and foremost – read your NCERT thoroughly. Afterwards, if you are going to an institute, your teacher must have prescribed you a book. Stick with it. One book for theory and one for problem solving should be enough. If you are a self-learner, don’t worry – we are going to now give you a list of best books for IIT-JEE.

• Physics –

• Physics NCERT Class 11 and 12
• Concepts of Physics Part 1 and 2 – HC Verma (for theory + problems)
• Physics by Halliday Resnick Krane – (theory)

• Chemistry –

• Chemistry NCERT Class 11 and 12
• Modern Approach to Chemical Calculations by RC Mukherjee (for Physical Chemistry)
• Concept of Physical Chemistry for JEE (Main & Advanced) by P Bahadur (for Physical Chemistry)
• Organic Chemistry by Morrison Boyd
• Wiley’s Solomons, Fryhle & Snyder Organic Chemistry for JEE (Main & Advanced)
• Concise Inorganic Chemistry by J D Lee (for Inorganic Chemistry)

• Maths –

• Maths NCERT Class 11 and 12
• Trigonometry by S L Loney
• Coordinate Geometry by S L Loney
• Higher Algebra by Hall and Knight
• Problems in Calculus by I A Maron
• General – TMH
• JEE Advanced – Comprehensive Mathematics for JEE Advanced by TMH (Tata McGraw Hill)

Remember that whichever book you pick, read it thoroughly and whole heartedly. Solve different types of questions from that book.

• How much to study? How many hours of study per day guarantees a seat in IIT or NIT?

Let us tell you that there is no formula with which you can get a seat in IIT by studying for x hours. It doesn’t matter how much you study – what matters is, how well you study.

It is necessary to finish the entire syllabus for JEE in a fixed span of time, and different  students take different amount of time to do that. Some students can finish a chapter in a day, some take 2 or more days. So what you should ideally do is – fix a target for yourself. Based on how much time you have, decide how much needs to be finished in a day. And doesn’t matter how many hours it takes – finish your target.