It is a little psychological piece of reading and I really hope it would help.

So, back there in my IIT JEE preparation times, I used to think a lot about having a perfect mindset to solve damn any problem that comes after my eyes. I thought to have an intelligent eye using my perfect attitude towards my IIT JEE preparation. I came with few concepts of a perfect attitude and to have an attitude, you need to define the traits that comes in with them. Traits people associate with their way of thinking, their behavior, their mental preparation , their style and whatever causes our brain to react to a particular stimulus. I used to call it – THE COVER OF MY MIND… So, I read few great stories to have an inspiration about something- to get that feeling so that I can engrave that in my soul and stick with it forever which would give me the best mindset to achieve any goal I want to. It is a real story, I am telling you and I know that you would not believe it.

During the first year of my preparation, I was so damn confused what to read, what problems to do and how many books, how many study sample papers, which book is the best., looking for book stores for the best releases, magazines talking about people, their courses, success stories and I was all rounded up. Had no way to go and was just going through completion of my course—through my tutors and not by myself. Then some how I managed to read it all through and got few concepts cleared- especially lacking in Physics a lot during XIth. So, I decided in XIIth – not to waste time anymore. Do all the books, all the material, toughest problems and do it FASTER….Faster , faster and faster here I go and there was my Mental Cover – A cover of a very sharp guy with a speedy thinking towards all problems, a build in high computation machine of mind to solve the problem in target of 60 seconds—focusing on the mental exercise part which is direct calculations and use of the stored database—the stuff I have been reading a lot. But sooner down the way although I was completing my targets of books , study material etc. But , was indeed lacking in a very important thing- Conceptual clarity..Then , I took a pause .Thought about it a lot and took a mental cover of a real thinker who would go deep in every concept, build his own judgment and then proceed. And there I was- I real thinker, probably a would be Newton( Yes I like Newton and not Einstein ) and still far away from my target..Got a little lazy bone- I certainly did. But then I thought- everything is at a price. There I was again with a cover of some other guy who would steer my thoughts in right direction to be areal scientific and logical guy. IIT date started approaching..Yea, JEE Screening was already cleared and screened through by me. No tough target. A real simple one which I got through casually of course. As Mains approached , a new cover would clad my mind everyday and day after day , it was tough. Nervous, petrified and I did had no idea what would work.

But in all these due courses of time, One thing I never noticed. I was constantly preparing for IIT JEE and boy, I did took it really seriously. I mean it was really important to me and as I now realize, it turned me from a student to a thinker. So the day approached, I swear God I was nervous and had a Mental Cover of a real Intelligent thinker who would gain pace by slow thinking , who could react to even few lines which had deeper meanings, I would get through and even though I didn’t worked as hard as I was expected for. I did worked intelligently. On the night before examination, it was reall tough for me. I could not sleep at all. And the bare idea of no sleep gave me no sleep after wards. It really made me tense . But the best part about nervousness and tension is – You can not avoid them and really they cause no harm to you. Seriously , I mean you may think that you are tense and you may screw up. But in reality it is not tension which screws up- It is lack of confidence, hard work and lesser concern for the case that screws up. Same happened to me. I remember playing basketball at 4 am till 5 am in the morning and then getting ready for IIT JEE. I was real cool although I had no sleep and had caused myself a real fatigue but boy, I had this mental cover that would protect me.

So, the first exam- Physics IIT JEE and that was a thinker. Some of you may scan Physics IIT JEE paper of 2002 and you would say it was a strange thinker. I did managed few questions, I made mistakes and I know still this to my heart. It wasn’t my tension, my fatigue and my less sleep that caused me problem with the question. It was indeed lack of confidence and inadequate preparation of that style. However, I played my game really in a safe way. Admitted a lot of mistakes but got few right to have me back on the charts. And then in subsequent papers of chemistry and maths , I played the right way as I had learnings from the first one not to waste time in tougher ones and have your target of minimum score required for getting through ( Don’t worry , I would talk about later too). So , in summary, I got through with real great attempts in maths, just checked out cutoffs in chemistry and maths. And finally I got into IIT, although with a lesser rank of 1700s but boy, I did it and I was real happy. Real happy of not that I am going to be the super star ahead in my life in my eyes, but real happy because my mental covers worked for me. Although, how much I did , how much I didn’t . I had learnings and I had my attitudes that would work for me for different occasions and still as of today, I cherish those beautiful days of IIT JEE preparation.

Anand is from