It depends upon your way of studying and whether your basic concepts are clear or not . If your concepts are clear and you are smart enough to understand by reading from books directly, then go ahead, study by yourself. After all coaching teachers are no wizards. They are only there to teach you, to help clear your concepts; if you can grasp the topic yourself then its sufficient.

However if you are one of those who cannot grasp the concept by directly reading from the book, and are dependent upon teachers, then you can join any coaching institute and attend the classes regularly. Don’t hesitate to ask questions and clear your doubts with the teachers. But please never blindly follow what all they say, the teachers can teach you but they cannot guide you on how to excel in exam.

But still, I would suggest that it is better to join some local tutor or online coaching to help you clear your doubts and provide you with basic concepts of the subjects. A little guidance is very essential to prevent you from unnecessarily wasting time reading unimportant facts.

Online coaching has an important advantage you can see the videos from the comfort of your home. You can make notes, skip video fast forward and review the lecture. But you cannot rely on them completely. So anyone who lives in a city which has access to quality coaching centres, can join offline coaching. On the other hand, students belonging to far flung areas, can go for online coaching. Both have their advantages and their disadvantages and their suitability depends on person to person. However, avoid taking both. If you cannot afford to take any coaching program, then follow a standard textbook. There are plenty of free videos on internet. In your leisure time, instead of watching a useless prank video, watch these lectures. Fast forward them as per your convenience. If required, add important takeaways from those videos to your notes. Don’t use the videos for revision. If you ask me, I would recommend my book for revision in case of physics. There is an ample of space after every chapter, left intentionally so that you can add up other important points which you can revise later on.

Do not join any coaching program if your pocket doesn’t allow. Buy few standard books. That would suffice. There is plenty of good material available online in the form of videos and blogs. You may join our telegram group to get curated content to save time. We will be sharing important updates on the group.

If you have joined an offline coaching program then it makes sense to give tests at regular intervals along with other students. But stick to one test series program. Don’t over burden yourself with so much of stuff. If you have not enrolled for a coaching program or you study in a small coaching in the neighbourhood where there aren’t many competitors, then you may join any online test series. Online test series are very beneficial for JEE Mains students because they finally have to give exam on computer.  But make sure that schedule of tests is in accordance with your studying plan. If you are planning to give mock tests as rank simulators, then join an authentic and well known test series program. There are many fake test series available online. So be cautious while choosing one.

Besides, I would also advise you to solve previous years AIPMT or AIIMS question paper (for medical) or IIT prelims (for engineering) papers following their guidelines in the required duration.  Calculate your score and compare them with the cut off of that particular year. Many of these questions are repeated with minor modifications in NEET as well. Hence, they can be used for assessment of your knowledge and even help you memorise previous years questions. Analyse your mistakes and silly errors that you have made in each subject and note that down in a separate notebook. Keep analysing those mistakes and keep rectifying them in upcoming tests. Also note your progress. Give an honest feedback to yourself after every test. See what else can be improved. Also ask your friends to do the same. Learn from their mistakes as well.

Don’t depend on your school teachers for building your concepts as the level of senior secondary education is below par with the level of medical and engineering entrances. If possible, take admission in a school where attendance is not compulsory because more often than not, you end up wasting your entire day at school. Preparing for medical and engineering entrance itself takes care of your school exams. Prefer CBSE board for XI & XII as the JEE/NEET syllabus is in accordance with CBSE and is NCERT based. If your school is affiliated to some other board, then you should not forget to read NCERT books. Do not overburden yourself with hectic schedule of both school and coaching on the same day. Self – study is extremely important. Never ignore it. So a better idea would be school on weekdays and coaching on weekends. Bunking classes is common in schools. Others do it for fun. You do it for self-study. Practice questions in free period. Do daily assignments of coaching in school time. And if you have to sit through the class then better pay attention to the teacher than wasting your time.

Counting the number of hours is not important. What counts is your hard work, dedication and consistency which are essential for selection. Instead of counting the number of hours you can count the number of pages that you study everyday .You should try to get the maximum output from your input. Don’t day dream; focus your senses on what you are studying. Having said that you should be giving at least 2 hours for self study on weekdays and 8-10 hours on holidays during your preparation period. This will go upto 12-14 hours per day with few months before exams. But that doesn’t mean you keep sitting on chair for 8 hours straight and nothing gets absorbed by your brain.

It is usually seen that some students are not able to clear the exam even after taking many attempts and studying rigorously while some crack entrances in their first attempt and that too without much effort.

The reason is very clear. While the former lack guidance and by hit and trial method , they study from whichever book they come to know of, the latter restrict themselves to few but authentic books and with proper guidance and smart & selective study, they come out with flying colours without unnecessary effort.

Hence, be smart. Manage your time well. Make a proper strategy. Studying hard without knowing what to study is useless. Study smartly. Hard work has to be done in right direction to get desired results. You don’t need to study more number of books. But make sure that you retain whatever you are studying. For NEET, you have to memorise facts and revise them multiple times. For JEE, core understanding is very important and regular practice is the key. Analyse your previous mistakes and work upon them. Take the help of your teachers. Regularly revise topics. Solve questions from previous year papers. Make your own assessment after every test. As previous;y explained, make a note of your mistakes and work upon them so that you can improve with time. Be consistent with studies. Don’t get anxious or depressed. If you do, you will not succeed. Be confident and keep working hard in the right direction. Results will be good.

Firstly do not get disheartened by your test scores. Always keep in mind that there are lakhs of students who are dreaming to get into medicine or engineering, but all do not get it. Only the one who’s determined, working hard and putting in a lot of effort and practice, achieves it. Besides, you should also get this very clear that the coaching ranks can do not necessarily gauge your overall preparation and determine where you stand amongst the competitors. First, because the tests held are topic-wise covering only a few topics of the vast syllabus. There may be students who don’t study according to the tests, they may be studying some other topic but appear in the tests anyway. These students might be better prepared but they would fare poorer than those who had studied exclusively for the test itself. Also, you should not underestimate those below you in the rankings, as they may be the ones who had not studied for the particular test and when in the final exam, they will come prepared, they might beat you. The full course tests are a better means of analysis of your overall standing. If you are able to reach the cut-off marks while solving any of the previous year papers then you need not worry about your coaching ranks. If not, then start working accordingly. Don’t take them lightly. When I am saying don’t worry, it doesn’t mean I am telling you not to work hard. Coaching assessments are likely indicator of your future performance if you don’t keep yourself up to the mark. Hence, it’s good that you have assessed yourself. Your concern is genuine and you have realized it at the right time. There are thousands other students along with you who are not performing well but they are unaware of this fact. From now on, plan your strategy according to your current level of preparation. Try spending a few hours extra with your books. Analyse your mistakes and work upon them. Take the help of your teachers. Regularly revise topics. Solve questions from previous year papers. Try to stay away from distraction at home or at coaching institute. Moreover, do not get depressed and waste your time crying over spilt milk. The coaching tests should only be a means of practice; you should experiment with your methods. Learn to manage time while taking coaching tests. Don’t let the ranks bother you. Consistently keep working hard. Surely you’ll see a change in your performance.

First of all just be very clear that you are not making it up. Your anxiety issues should not be an excuse for your poor performance. You might be just daydreaming and not serious enough for your studies. So be truthful to yourself. Give your 100% in class. Be attentive if you really want to crack entrances. Don’t make this as an excuse.

Now, if you are really having anxiety and your attention span is low, then you need to change your strategy a bit. Rely more on self study. Get a personal tutor if you can afford or better go for online video lecture series. You can pause and rewind the video as per your convenience.  Don’t freak out if you cannot answer a question. Forgetting things is very common. Make sure that your concepts are clear. Just mugging up things will not help. I am not telling you to change yourself because I have been having such issues myself and I know it’s not easy to change yourself. But you can adjust partly and also train your mind to adjust partly according to your needs. Develop an approach towards any topic you are preparing. Use mind maps or mnemonics. This will help in long term memory. Practice questions and see the approach to the derivation of a formula, in case you are not able to memorise formula directly. Keep giving revision at regular intervals and give more and more tests. Analyse your performance with each test, as I have already described previously. Don’t waste your time in irrelevant activities. Utilise your time preciously. If you want to take a break and talk to your friends, discuss any topic. Let them ask you any questions. Do not get disheartened if you do not recollect things. Sometimes we get anxious in tests and we have difficulty in recollecting it. But that doesn’t mean we do not know it. We just need to train our mind accordingly. We have to prepare itself for stressful conditions. Gradually everything will start getting saved automatically in your long term memory and all these things will help you in your exam. Just keep consistency in your studies and surely you’ll do well. Also don’t hesitate to take help from a counsellor if needed. 

Firstly, take a deep breath and relax. This is not the end of your life, so never let such thoughts haunt your mind. Perhaps you did not chose stream without proper thought or may be you had no idea what you were getting into. But it’s never late. Sit down and relax. Please ask your inner self as to what you want to do and become in life rather than cursing for things.
It’s not the matter of easy or tough, it’s the matter of interest and desire. If you wish to become a doctor or an engineer or any other thing, you will surely become one if you show interest in it and strive hard towards it.
So I suggest you to wake up, plan and start working towards your goal right from this minute.

Unnecessary whining is not going to help. First see what exactly is your problem! Science or your performance? In case you are really working hard and still unable to perform. If you feel science is really not for you. If you feel like doing something else and you have a proper plan for it. If you feel you are being pressurised by your parents into taking science. If you feel you never want to be an engineer or a doctor – then please QUIT science and opt for arts straight away. But before doing that make sure that you have a proper plan. You know what you want to do in life. Don’t waste these precious years into anything you just found attractive but don’t have passion or talent to pursue it for life, especially if you are from a typical Indian middle class family. Don’t befool yourself and your parents. Be practical. These two years are career defining in case you are opting for medicine or engineering. So be sure that you don’t want to do it. And be sure that you want to do something else. And before you quit, give few days into proper research of your alternate career option. Don’t just jump into it without much thought. And also, prepare your parents for your plans. Don’t give them a sudden shock. Share with them your issues. Tell them you can do better in life without studying mechanics or calculus. Show them that scene from the film Tamasha where Ranbir Kapoor tells a story to his father. Or show them Udaan. Promise them that you will study extremely hard and get atleast 95% in boards so as to secure a good college in arts stream. And after you switch stream, prove yourself by working hard.

In case you are unable to switch, don’t lose heart. Prepare for entrances. Get a good rank. Join a good college. Engineering these days is like an ‘ichhadhaari naagin’.  You can be whatever you want in life. From entrepreneur to stand up comedian, from chef to a writer, director, actor…even chief ministers these days are engineers! Just consider it as your compulsory graduation degree that would fetch you a good pay package in case your alternative plan fails.

The gist of my advice is that don’t waste these two years. You would want to be a writer/model/actor/director..anything. But right now, for these two years, concentrate on your studies. Either entrances or boards should be your priority. More so, if you are not born with a silver spoon!

Well, it depends on a lot of things. If you are doing all this just for the sake of a good pay package, then don’t do it. Engineering from a good college can still fetch you good package after completing your graduation, but this is not the case with medical field.  If you are aspiring to be a doctor, then you will have to work hard for next 10 years at least. On top of that you will settle later in life and might feel like lagging behind. If you are already on the verge of completing your Bsc , then you can also move ahead in that field. Or you might consider giving CAT or UGC NET or UPSC. There are plenty of options open for you. Why exactly you still want to go back and pursue medicine/engineering?

Besides, your preparation needs to be good to enter a good government college (given your family conditions). So it will also depend on how you scored in your 12^th examinations. All droppers should assess themselves properly before taking a drop for entrances. Don’t do it if you are really not into it. Don’t do it if you cannot give your 100%. You need to understand the purpose behind your preparation. If you really want to pursue medicine/engineering and you are really passionate about it – then get ready to work hard and just start preparing. It’s never too late once it comes to your dreams (given that you have to fall under age eligibility criteria prescribed by NTA).