With only four months left to the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE), aspirants are busy preparing for class 12 board, and other exams. Engineering aspirants mostly aspire to secure admission at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), the National Institutes of Technology (NITs), or the Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs), for which they must secure a good rank in JEE Main and Advanced. Since the competition is high (approximately 13 lakh students registered for JEE Main 2016), students spend a lot of time preparing for JEE, mostly it is a couple of years. In the preparation phase, students leave no stone unturned, as they try to solve as many practice problems as possible, take ‘n’ number of tests, and some of them even give up their social life to concentrate on JEE. But not all JEE aspirants are alike.

Some students will try to finish the JEE syllabus in a couple of months, while some spend a couple of years. The last phase of JEE preparation for both categories of students is a crash course, where the whole syllabus is covered in 30 to 60 days, with regular tests. However, not all students can take a crash course as a revision method. PaGaLGuY spoke to experts, and students to know if crash courses are helpful.

Crash courses are provided by various coaching institutes around the country. A JEE faculty from Allen Classes, Kota, said, “It is not easy for students to take a crash course. If they think a crash course can help them clear JEE, they are wrong.” He continued, “It is good for students who have gone through the whole syllabus, and are clear with the concepts. Only then is the crash course beneficial.”

Another thing about JEE crash course is, a student cannot just enroll for it. They must take an entrance exam for securing a seat for crash courses. Praveen Tyagi, Managing Director, IITians Pace, Mumbai, said, “For our in-house students, we have a different screening process, and for outsiders there is an entrance test for our crash course.” Tyagi continued, “If any of our student is capable of coming in the top 100 in JEE, then with our crash course we can bring that to top 30 or top 20. We arrange a special crash course with the best faculty for our top students.”

Sarthak Jain who took JEE this year, enrolled for a crash course three months before the exam. He said, “Because I did not take any separate coaching for JEE during class 11 and 12, I enrolled for a crash course.”

Jain continued, “I used to feel lost while taking the crash course. Teachers would just go on teaching for hours at a stretch. The quick recap of the whole syllabus was distressing, but what I found beneficial were the regular tests. It helped me track my performance topic-wise.” They complete topics in a day what would have been covered in a week during regular coaching.

Though JEE crash courses help students in the final lap of preparation, they are a little heavy on the pocket. Snehil Prashar, another candidate who took JEE this year, said, “It was my second attempt, and I chose to do self-study during the last couple of months. My parents had already spent a huge amount of money for my three-year coaching in Kota, and I did not feel like enrolling for another expensive course.”

Taking a crash course does not guarantee cracking JEE or getting admissions into IITs, NITs, IIITs, etc. But they are helpful when candidates are thorough with the syllabus, and not just starting from basics.