I may not be a topper, but I cracked JEE Advanced after failing badly once. I hope this helps you. LONG POST AHEAD !

My Background (Read this first)

Didn’t even know what JEE was in class 11. Started prepping midway through 12th. Just watched lectures, made notes — zero revision, zero PYQs.

Scored 25 marks, 60 percentile, didn’t even qualify Advanced.

Took a drop. Changed everything.

Focused only on revision, PYQs, and mock analysis. Covered just 40–45% syllabus, but did it deeply.

Final result: 174 marks in Mains (97.4%ile)

Cracked Advanced with 5855 rank. Here’s exactly what you should do if you have less than 6 months left for exam:

1. If you are in 12^th + coaching :

Agar tum abhi 12th mein ho aur kisi coaching institute me ho , chaahe online ya offline — sabse pehla kaam yeh karo:

Jo coaching mein padha rahe hain, usi ke pace ke saath chalo.
Peechhe reh gaye to backlog banjaega— and its very difficult to get rid of backlog if you have any.

Bhot log kehte hain, “pehle purana cover karte hain, fir naye lectures dekhenge.”
Lekin hota kya hai — purana kabhi khatam hi nahi hota. That’s a trap.

Start taking some holidays from school. Talk to your teachers about it.
Parents se calmly baat karo, unhe situation samjhao. Yeh time ab wapas nahi aayega.

Ab main point pe aate hain: Revision
12th mein time utna zyada nahi hota. Tum school bhi manage kar rahe ho, coaching bhi.
Toh main yeh strongly suggest karta hoon:

Apne formula sheets mat banao.
Ready-made formula book lo, aur bas usi se revise karo.

Maine khud yeh galti ki thi. Maine apni formula sheets drop year me banai thi. Just making the sheets took me 3 months of effort.

Kya karna hai exactly:

→ Formula Book/Sheets → Mains PYQs → Advanced PYQs
Yeh cycle har chapter ke liye follow karo — ideally 3–4 baar.

Har Sunday ko ek mock test fix karo.
I personally used pw mock test series for jee mains.
Zyada test lene ka pressure mat lo — ek achha test + proper analysis kaafi hota hai.

2. Agar tum drop year mein ho (Like I Was)

Drop year mein sabse pehla rule yeh hai:
Naye topics se shuruaat mat karo.

Agar tumhara syllabus khatam nahi hua, toh bhi roz 4–5 ghante se zyada lectures mat dekho. Only do revision in your remaining time. Aur jab main kehta hoon revision — iska matlab hai:

Na naye notes,
Na lectures,
Sirf: Formula Sheets → Mains PYQ → Advanced PYQ

Book ka kya?
Agar tum already kisi book se padh rahe ho, toh usi ko complete karo.
Lekin agar abhi tak koi particular book nahi hai — toh honestly, zarurat hi nahi hai.

I personally bought 15+ books when I was in 12^th. Costed me around 15-20k ruppes. But I never even opened a singe book.
Score? 60 percentile.

That’s when I changed everything in my drop year. I still didn’t open a single book, but I did lots and lots and lots of pyqs. By lots I mean 1980 -current years tak saare pyqs 3-4 baar.
Same questions. Same concepts. Maine itni baar pyqs kiye the ki I would’ve know what the question was just by reading 5-6 initial words.

Drop Year Test Routine:

This was my fixed schedule. Kuch ho ya ho, yeh zrur hota tha:

• Wednesday: Jee advanced previous years paper as a mock

• Sunday: Mains mock test- I personally did Pw test series. Its good.

But only MOCKS wont do a shit. You need to analyze them immediately after:

• Concepts that gave you -ve marks

• Things you almost recalled but didn’t

• Things you were sure about, but ended up getting -1

• Silly mistakes

• These all things are gold .

Write down all this in a rough sheet. Hardly kuch 15-20 mins lagenge.

Now take a rest for 1 hour. After that , only revise the topics that are there in the sheet. Nothing else. This is what I would advice you to do. This is what I did. Once you’ve revised everything that’s there in the sheet- you are free to go for the day . Naacho , ghumo firo, movie dekho, phone chalo- jo karna hai karo, but only after you’ve revised everything from the sheet.

Most Important:

Mujhe jitna fayda kisi cheez se hua na — woh tha yeh simple loop:

Formula Sheet → Mains PYQs → Advanced PYQs

Na koi naye material. Na koi extra source.
Sirf wahi purana content — baar baar revise karo, revise karo, revise karo.

3. Real Talk: JEE Isn’t About Being a Genius – It’s About Not Giving Up When You Feel Worthless

Jab maine drop liya, I genuinely felt worthless.
Parents had lost hope, results weren’t showing up — even though I had fixed my study method, structured my days… marks stuck at 70–80 for months.

Ek time aaya jab ghar waale bolne lage — “Beta stream change karlo… commerce le lo… koi aur field dekh lo.” Main chup raha. Kuch nahi bola. Because ek cheez pe 100% vishwas tha — Mujhe pata tha jo main kar raha hoon, woh sahi hai.
I kept going. Quietly.
Dheere dheere scores badhne lage — 150…180… 190… 200… 230… highest 250 in mocks. Sab kuch badal gaya.
JEE kabhi bhi genius hone ka game nahi tha. Ye game hai: “Can you keep moving even when the world thinks you’re done?” That’s where rankers are born.

4. Small gift for you
Jo strategy maine khud follow kari thi, during my drop year, I tried my very best to note down everything that I can remember. Here is it : Strategy
Aur agar tumhe meri formula sheets chaiye, to they are here: Handwritten Formula Sheets That Could’ve Saved You 300+ Study Hours

Agar koi galti ho gayi post likhte likhte to please maaf kar dena.
I genuinely want to help and see you all succeed, because jab log hume failure ki trah dekhte hai na – to wo bhot chubta hai. I wish all of you guys succeed and do wonders in life!

5. If you still have doubts…
I tried my very best to explain everything. Agar fir bhi koi doubts ho to puch lena – comments me. I’ll try my very best to reply and help each one of you.