Self Study vs Coaching Institutes for IIT JEE Aspirants

Lakhs of students sit for JEE Advanced every year in hopes of getting an IIT seat. But only a few thousands are able to realize their dreams. With board exam preparation, JEE Main preparation and JEE Advanced preparation to be done together, many students look for extra dose of help. No wonder, coaching institutes have become one of the most profitable businesses these days.

Yet, there are many JEE aspirants who still prefer to study on their own and crack IIT JEE too. According to an IIT Delhi report, 52% candidates to qualify JEE Advanced 2013 had chosen to do self-study while 48% had opted to prepare for exams with the help of coaching institutes.

Here is the region-wise breakup of data for students who chose self study vs those who chose coaching institutes:

Change in the JEE format might be one reason why some students chose to take matters in their own hand but the main reason why some students refrain from coaching institutes is the commercialization of education by them. JEE coaching is quite expensive.

Moreover, coaching institutes do not offer customized solutions to students anymore. To be able to accommodate more students, batch sizes are increased and one-size-fits-all approach is used. Brighter students who learn faster suffer as much as slow learners because study pace is decided according to the performance of mediocre students of these batches.

Guwahati zone has the highest percentage of students opting for self-study – perhaps, because it does not have enough good coaching institutes available. Madras zone and Delhi zone are the only two zones where more JEE aspirants opt for coaching institutes rather than studying at home. Bombay zone is an exception in itself as Mumbai as a huge network of coaching students and still 52% students from there opted for self study.

In this age where online study resources are available so easily, self study is a pretty good choice for JEE aspirants. It has been argued that coaching institutes help students by providing them good study material, offering them tips and tricks to solve questions quickly and accurately, offer them sample papers and mock tests for practice, and provide problem solving sessions to remove their doubts. askIITians also offers self study packages which can be opted for component by component – as per students’ choice and requirements. It means that you can now avail all the above-mentioned facilities right at your home at a lot less than what you would pay a coaching institute for a 2-year of 1-year course.

You may opt for just the study material which contains all the revision notes, formulae sheets and tips and tricks at the end of every chapter or the practice papers or one-to-one doubt solving sessions with askIITians experts. You may also participate in our online JEE Advanced test series  to see where you stand among your peers. A detailed analysis of your performance in the test series can be of immense help in tracking progress of your JEE preparation.