If I can’t clear the IIT entrance in one attempt, is it advisable to drop a year for the preparation?

basically it depends on students.

Some students drop a year just because everyone else is doing so. This is not an advisable decision. Come to terms with the level of your determination for clearing the IIT entrance. If you are passionate about scoring well in the IIT entrance and are willing to do the hard-work, then go ahead drop a year. Don’t do it just for the sake of your peers or your parents. The amount of work one is willing to put into the preparation would depend on their personal passion for it. Nobody can make this decision for you.

If one feels that the rank obtained in the IIT entrance compared to the level of preparation in the first attempt is satisfactory, and that another try with better preparation might do the work, one might go ahead and drop a year if IIT is what he/she has pinned his/her hopes on.

If a student secures an admission in a decent enough college (for instance, an NIT or BITS), then he/she should go ahead and take an admission there if one has not zeroed his/her choice completely on an IIT admission.

Another option is to take admission in a college while preparing for next year’s IIT exam simultaneously. It would require triple the amount of hard-work, but in case you still can not secure a seat in IIT next year, at least you would have saved one year.