How To Prepare Engineering In India 

For Engineering students who are looking to do an MSc in physics in India, the IIT JAM (Joint Admission for MSc) exam is the main route to gain admission into IITs and several other institutes for an MSc admission in physics.

I was also a mechanical engineering undergrad at Delhi Technological University and gave my JAM exam in my final year. I was able to secure AIR 3 and got admission into the MSc physics program at IIT Bombay. So this is a post on how to crack the IIT JAM after engineering or during B.Tech. I would discuss how I prepared and what are some good strategies to prepare for the JAM exam for engineers.

Eligibility Criteria

Generally, all engineering programs have two math courses in two semesters, so this is not usually a problem. The issue is physics courses. Now as a mechanical engineer, I had two physics courses in the first two semesters and then mechanical engineering courses. But I still gave the JAM thinking that some of my mech courses like Fluid Mechanics and Heat and Mass Transfer could be considered physics courses.

Well, I got a top rank and was offered admission to IIT Bombay. The eligibility criteria are verified later in the institute and it was a mere formality. Engineers have got admission in IIT Bombay MSc physics in both my senior as well as junior batches. The general idea is that IIT Bombay and IIT Kanpur allow engineers, so if you get a top rank in JAM, you would get admission. The other IITs and NITs may not offer admission so it is better to apply to all possible institutes.

But nevertheless, the eligibility criteria is a bit vague and branch dependent and it is hard to predict what would happen. So the best possible way is to just take the exam with full preparation, try to do your best while keeping back up options. If you get a top rank, IITB and IITK are definitely there to take you.

NOTE: IIT Indore accepts mechanical, Computer science and electrical engineers in their MSc Astronomy program

Now let’s go to the preparation part.

 

Syllabus and Background

The JAM exam mainly tests undergraduate physics knowledge based on multiple choice type objective questions. For typical engineering students like me, some of the topics are known but there are other topics which we have never studied.

 

In my case, during my third year, I used to spend time teaching myself physics via books and video lectures at an undergraduate level at least because I was interested in physics and wanted to make myself comparable in knowledge to any physics undergrad student, even though I was an engineering undergrad. My college had no provisions of taking courses of my choice and a bad physics department and thus self-study was the only option. But this background building made the JAM exam extremely easy for me.

 

If you already know that you want to do physics, I suggest you to start studying physics, not for the exam, but just for the love of it. It would give you an idea whether you indeed like physics or not since real physics involves more than just popular science shows and it needs a mathematical understanding of advanced physics topics. And it would also make any entrance exam like IIT JAM extremely easy to crack. If your college like the IITs has an option of taking physics courses, start taking them.

 

Books & Sources: joshi institute is very good option to study IIT Jam | NEET | JEE

Cracking the IIT JAM Exam | NEET Classes In Nashik

Cracking any exam requires extensive knowledge of what the exam tests and what the student is required to do. Assuming the physics background and syllabus is taken care of, here is what I did and what I suggest. The best way to practice for an exam is by taking it and the way to do it is via previous year question papers. In the last month leading to the exam, I bought joshi institute notes previous year IIT JAM papers book. Now this book may have mistakes in some of the answers’ explanations, but it is invaluable since it provides previous year papers and model test papers. 

Practice a few previous year papers, preferably the recent ones. Give timed mock tests and determine your weakness areas. Brush up on the weak topics and keep giving the timed mock tests using the book. Exam practice is the best practice and soon you would get a hang of what to do on the exam day.

 

Once your physics background is there and you practice using previous year tests honestly, it is not difficult to get an extremely good rank in the IIT JAM exam. I did these two things and was able to do well in the exam.

 

Conclusion

As an engineering student, if you want to do MSc physics in India, IIT JAM is an exam that should definitely be given a shot. Do not worry about the eligibility criteria and keep other options for back up which are mentioned in another post in the blog. Determine if you really like physics by studying physics on your own and balancing it with engineering coursework. Keep the JAM syllabus in mind and prepare all the mentioned topics. About a month before the exam, practice timed previous year papers and mock tests to get to know about the exam.

If you do all this, there is no reason why you wouldn’t get a great rank in the IIT JAM exam even if you are an engineer.

Good Luck!

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