Hyderabad is one of the leading coaching hubs for JEE. While the city has a major share in the number of candidates who crack it, the life here is far different from that in Kota. I would say Hyderabad is the ideal place to be, if you are determined to crack the exam and tolerant to hostels. How does the coaching system here work?

The basic difference between the coaching institutes in Andhra Pradesh & Telangana and those in other places is that there are no tie-ups with schools. Coaching institutes in these two states function as independent institutions called ‘Junior colleges’, which are equivalent to higher secondary schools. As both coaching for boards and the JEE are given by the same institute, you don’t have to enroll separately to a school and a coaching institute.

Almost every JEE aspirant in Hyderabad enrolls for the state board and chooses MPC (Math, Physics, Chemistry), English and Sanskrit as subjects. Board exams are conducted in two segments, one each at the end of the two academic years. The top 20 percentile cut-off for the state board is high (over 90%). This indicates that your percentage score will have to be higher in this board than other boards in India. In every academic year, coaching institutes teach only Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics for JEE till mid-January. After then, they teach these subjects along with language subjects till the board exams happen in March.

Most students here live in the hostels of coaching institutes. These hostels function in apartment-like buildings with dining facilities and classrooms on the ground floor and/or the first floor and hostel rooms on the higher floors. Every weekday you are sent to classrooms at 6 A.M. and back to hostels at 10 P.M. but you will be allowed to go to your hostel rooms during the breaks. The weekend schedule is shorter by just 2-4 hours. So, your movement will be confined to that single building or two buildings next to each other. Only once or twice in a month, you will be allowed for an outing. Mobile phones and other electronic gadgets are strictly prohibited. No televisions, newspapers and internet for students.

In a typical coaching institute, every weekday will have 4-6 hours of lectures and weekends will have 6-12 hours of exams. In the rest of the time in the classrooms, you are supposed to do practice problems and analyze your performance in the previous exam under the supervision of junior lecturers. So, all that you can do is study, or pretend to be studying.

The study-only environment and the intense amount of time spent for JEE are responsible for the good results in JEE. Even if the hopes for making it to an IIT or an NIT are lost because of a not-so-good performance in the exam, the high scoring boards will help you get into colleges which consider percentage scores in boards for admission. At the same time, there are risks for your personal life and health. The level of risk depends on your physical and mental fitness. Lack of physical activity for two years is not healthy but the effect of pressure is more dangerous. When students are not able to cope up with the environment and pressure is not released from the parents’ side, some stop studying for JEE and get diverted, some go into depression and the extremes commit suicide.

All the information I have provided is regarding a typical coaching institute in Hyderabad. There might be exceptions that I have not known. I would like to end by repeating my words: “Hyderabad is the ideal place to be, if you are determined to crack the exam and tolerant to the hostel environment.”

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