Books- To use or not to use?

              This article is about Which books to study from for IIT-JEE.
When I started off I searched for a lot of books suggestions..online offline..and here is the list that you might find, in general (besides NCERT):
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed about these books are personal and do not intend to defame any book, author or publication. The sole purpose of this post is to help the students find what they need. for IIT JEE preparations. There a thousands of really good books to chose from. At the same time students are also mislead into buying expensive books. It is a matter of their future. Books are important.

Clicking on the name of the book will take you to a website where you can see and buy the books.

Chemistry

• PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY:

1. R.C. mukherjee: This book is good for numerical. It has a short summary of each chapter in the beginning and covers all important aspects of a chapter. It has a lot of solved examples. The unsolved subjective questions are more or less similar to the solved examples. So you really do not need to do the unsolved ones. Objective type questions are good. This book is good but personally i think the next one (P. Bahadur) is better. However, if you are short of time, and need a crux of the chapter in little time you can use this instead of P. Bahadur. P. Bahadur is extensive and in great detail.
2. P. Bahadur: This is the best book for physical chemistry. It has a short summary of each chapter in the beginning and A LOT of solved examples, which i think, cover any and all possible concepts chapter wise. Even if you missed your teachers lectures on a particular topic, you can still understand the topic if you do the solved examples of this book. The unsolved examples are also VERY good. The only thing is that the book is huge. You can only do the topics completely if you have enough time. Plus its expensive, so do not waste your money if you cant give so much time. RC mukherjee is better in this context.
                  

• INORGANIC CHEMISTRY:

1. NCERT: A lot of people actually suggest that NCERT is good enough for inorganic chemistry in the competitive exams. However, in my opinion it is not sufficient at all. The problem with inorganic is that its extensive and weird questions can be asked from anywhere. In the end you can either Know or NOT know the answer to an inorganic question. There is no mental ability involved in it except memorization. In my opinion, the best way to study inorganic and not leave out majority of the stuff is through the syllabus that various exams provide. Go through even the minutest topic listed very carefully. Search it up if you dont know about it. Make a compilation of your own inorganic notes this way.
2. Nootan Chemistry class 12:   ( and 11 also) I know how much ISC students DREAD this book. It has too much material, which is definitely not required for your boards. However, there is a perk of this book for us JEE students. The inorganic portion of this book is awesome. I think it comprehensively covers all topics in great detail. It has two different sections- first it deals with the physical properties of each group in the periodic table, then chemical properties and finally it deals with specific compounds. The only fault with this book is that certain topics which are not in ISC syllabus are not there-like hydrogen. Also, it does not have qualitative analysis. I will not suggest a non-ISC student to buy this expensive book just for inorganic but those of you who are in ISC-do not let the big book go waste.
3. J D Lee:  I have seen a lot of people recommend this book. Do not waste your time by buying this book. It is a great book no doubt but it is not meant for +2 level. Its for higher studies. Plus, it has A LOT of stuff on inorganic. You cant know what to study and what not to.I bought this book and it was of no use whatsoever.

• ORGANIC CHEMISTRY

1. Solomons Organic Chemistry international student version  Or Solomans organic chemistry JEE version :  I did not know about this for a long time that there were two types of Solomons-and one of them was specifically for IIT JEE. The solomon that I had was not particularly for JEE but the international one. In my opinion the book was good but not at all meant for those who were trying for JEE. It was because I found that it did not have a lot of important reactions in it that we had even in our school books. The explanations for some of the stuff were good but never adequate. There were exercises at the end but without solutions. And i never found the solutions online either. Hence, in the end this books was of no use to me. I could never get a hold of the JEE version of this book, so i cant say that that book is the same. It could be better but from what i have heard it is the same story there too. Solomon is expensive, and it was of no use to me and a waste of money. The shocking thing is a lot of people recommend this book.  I don't know why!
2. Borrison and Moyd:  If you have to chose between solomon and this, go for solomon. This book is meant for university level. No use for us. If you take it for the exercises at the back-warning: they dont have solutions.
3. Arihant organic Chemistry: Well frankly after buying an expensive Solomon, i couldn't buy another expensive book, so i have never used this book but i am pretty sure its good.  My organic chemistry was good because i watched a lot of online videos and my coaching material was also really good.

PHYSICS:

1. H.C. Verma Volume 1 and 2:  I think H.C.V. is an absolute must if you are preparing for IIT. It helps develop concepts and is actually good. When I used to do HCV I thought that it was simply too easy, and JEE was tougher than the level of questions here. But i was wrong because i think this book actually helps develop concepts. The only drawback of this book it that it has subjective questions only. No questions based on JEE pattern. Thus this books is definitely a must, but at the same time not sufficient.
2. I.E. Irodov: I think this book is very very very good for physics lovers and those who like a challenge. But if you are into JEE and IIT? Please do not waste your time.  I will not say that this books is not worth doing. It is. But the level of questions in certainly very high. A lot higher than your JEE. For normal students, doing this book can scare them from physics too.
   You can try this book, once your core concepts in physics reach wonders. But if you are someone weak in physics-then stick to the basic books.
3. Resnick and Halliday: This book has a lot of theoretical content, which is good. Again the problem is that the exercises don't have solutions. Neither can be found online. As for me, i never used this book because i found the theory in my normal school book the same as resnick and halliday. Plus, i used a lot of material from my coaching. But if you are someone without means to study physics and are looking for a good book- this is it.
4. DC pandey: So this link does not take you to the DC pandey i had. I guess they have upgraded it, and now DC pandey's are coming out in parts, one for every topic. The one i had had all topics in one book. I think this book has good questions on JEE pattern. The books that i have mentioned above do not deal with JEE pattern and have only subjective questions. I think you could try this, or in other case i recommend you look for books that are on JEE pattern.

Mathematics:

1. Arihant: This book has a LOT of questions. Good questions on JEE pattern but A LOT. No human can possibly complete this book. But its worth it. This book does not have theory. Only questions. But you can find almost any type of questions here.
2. R.D. Sharma:  I never had this book. But from what i hear Arihant has better coverage. R D sharma is actually a good book for boards. Like ML Agarwal. Its not up to the JEE level as such.
3. M L Khanna: This book is like Arihant. You can buy either. Again, i never had this book so i cant say much. But it is good.
4. Note: So about maths, i am sorry i can not be of much help in the books sections because i used the my coaching material mostly. I did not buy separate books for calculus or integerations or such. Fortunately my teacher was good, so he gave us a lot of question and all.

Few More Books that could come handy:

• Past year paper: Past years papers are a must. (for both JEE advance and AIEEE papers for mains) Although, you really don't need to do them as papers, not all of them. Till the year 2005, you must attempt the past year papers properly. However, beyond 2005 (like 2004, 2003 etc) the pattern is different, there are subjective questions also. Thus you can do them as an exercise. Not necessarily as a paper. It happened so that in my coaching they gave us a book, which had topic wise questions from all past year papers. That is how i solved them, but it is wrong. If i had solved the entire paper, not just topic wise i think my preparation would be better.
• Model Test papers you do not necessarily have to buy these, but any set of model papers from a reliable source will help you.
•  Books for other exams like BITSAT etc. In my opinion if you have prepared properly from the above, you won't need extra help, yet here is a link that has suggestions of books for BITSAT:
  BITSAT books

Now a short note from me: Now if you come across books that are not in my list. There are two type of books-one that have questions, questions and only questions. The other one with theory and questions. Depends on what you are looking for: You want practice or you want to learn a topic. Chose a books accordingly. And chose books that have questions on JEE pattern.

Why am i writing this blog?

      When I started writing this blog, truthfully it was because I was bored. What's more I though no one will read it, or in the rare case-a complete stranger. It’s not like I did not like to share my problems with my friends and family and I also tried to explain my situation to them. But they could not understand. They tried but it as not their fault because unless you have been through something like this you can not utterly realize the wretchedness.  

           But eventually this blog became less of a medium to voice out my frustration. I did expel the entire nuisance that was troubling my brain but at the same time I wanted it to be a guide for others. I did not want THIS to happen to anyone else. I wanted to help the diligent students out there, who are perhaps as LOST as I am. Although, what are my chances of finding a serious student reading blogs? Nada. Even I never got into these activities during the two previous years. Yeah, only towards the end.

                    Nonetheless, its just an effort and I hope that I end up helping atleast one LOST out there. ;)

I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free. - Nikos Kazantzakis

               Under a completely different pretext from intended, the above quote truly describes my disposition right now. Let me bring you to light. Today is the morning of the 4th of June, 2013-two days after my JEE advance was over. For good and forevermore!

               I can’t even begin to describe the agony, the tension, the pain, the exhaustion, the hopelessness that I have been through for two years because of this exam-and for no good reason either. (Oh wait-i have been doing that for quite some time.... on my blog.)

            But this post is not about the sadness. This post is about the half filled glass, not about the half empty one. The past two years have changed me and my life in an unconceivable way.

          Two days before JEE advance unfortunately and stupidly I ate some food due to which I fell ill.

Although I had no hopes from the exam from the beginning but the illness just made me surer. Somehow, on the morning of 2nd June I dragged my ass in the exam hall with no wish whatsoever to attempt even one question. Instead of doing something so half-heartedly I thought I would rather not give the exam at all. But I gave it nonetheless. And it was not because I thought that perhaps luck could befall me and I’d know the answer to all the questions in the paper-slum dog millionaire style. It was because I wanted to finish what I started. Otherwise I would not get to enjoy the peace of mind that I had been craving for. As it sounds by my comments my JEE advance did not go well at all and I have no expectations from it at all. I did not even bother to check the solutions-i was so far pissed.

          Yeah, yeah-comming to the non-depressing part. However, I am not sad or dissatisfied or bitter at all-at myself or anyone else. Surprisingly I am really happy. I know it my first post I wrote I have no clue where my choices would take me. But now I am glad that I took Science with PCM and decided to pursue engineering.

           Over the past two years even if I could not learn enough of PCM, I have learnt a lot about well-life! The two years were like a revolutionary stimulus, molding me, preparing me for what lies ahead-both good and bad. I thought that if I could go back in time and change my choice I defiantly would. But now that I am here, so far ahead, I don’t really want to change any of it. It’s perfect as it is.

Earlier to me engineering was only a boring desk-time job. But now, suddenly, computer engineering seems really interesting. Now I do not want to do anything but that. I want to do it now.

           Plus, even though I failed Advance miserably, I think if I had not become a zombie or if I had not worked as hard as I did or if I had not joined my ruthless coaching I would not have archived what I have. And in my opinion-i have achieved a lot. Not just medals or percentage or the prospectus of a good college (since I have qualified all other exams with good ranks besides IIT) but because I feel evolved. I feel surer of what I want from life. And it is not cruel success. In fact, the only think I want from life is to follow my dreams, to live, to enjoy. This is a very important lesson I learnt from trying to do something I was not much into. But it turned out into a boon anyway. And I will never let go of it.