Help Any JEE/NEET students here?

[PrincessMeow]

(JEE is an engineering entrance exam and NEET is a medical college entrance exam in India)

Fellas, how has it been going for y'all? I'm constantly shifting between the desire to CTB and the pathetic optimism to live another day. I'm just so sick of it all. I can't study anymore. But if I don't study I'll be a failure since I got 63%ile in January despite being a JEE dropper. I don't know if I should proceed with CTB or not. Let me know your experiences too.

 

[Sylveon]

I'm one of those unfortunate people still preparing for this shit (if you can even say that, lol) because I don't have many other options. It all feels so pointless to invest so many hours into something that I'm not even interested in, but that's just me being me...

Though I really wish we had a better system in place.

And as for the preparation itself, I'm really struggling RN. :')

 

[Endisclose]

How old are you guys? Have you tried talking to your parents.. Have you tried finding out where your real passion lies?

 

[PrincessMeow]

How old are you guys? Have you tried talking to your parents.. Have you tried finding out where your real passion lies?

I recently turned 18 this year. Yes I talked to my mother but she instead uses my vulnerabilities against me. Never again I'm doing the mistake of being weak to my parents.

I sought medical attention too and got diagnosed with anxiety and depression. I was given meds but they're not helping at all.

I want to go down engineering path, really I have an interest in it. Esp electronics. But depression killed off all my emotions, ambitions, motivations... I'm nothing more than a hollow shell now. I went from a bright, scoring student to a barely functioning adult who is falling in deep despair. If I fail all entrance exams and get into a tier 69 college, I don't know how I'll put food on the table.

It doesn't help that I have a severely disabled sister, an alcoholic father with a quick temper, and an indifferent mother.

 

[Endisclose]

I recently turned 18 this year. Yes I talked to my mother but she instead uses my vulnerabilities against me. Never again I'm doing the mistake of being weak to my parents.

I sought medical attention too and got diagnosed with anxiety and depression. I was given meds but they're not helping at all.

I want to go down engineering path, really I have an interest in it. Esp electronics. But depression killed off all my emotions, ambitions, motivations... I'm nothing more than a hollow shell now. I went from a bright, scoring student to a barely functioning adult who is falling in deep despair. If I fail all entrance exams and get into a tier 69 college, I don't know how I'll put food on the table.

It doesn't help that I have a severely disabled sister, an alcoholic father with a quick temper, and an indifferent mother.

... And you're preparing for the JEE with all this going on?.. My heart goes out to you.. I am sorry, I can totally identify with feeling helpless at your age.. I struggled myself in my 11th and 12th standards, I just didn't realize at the time. My parents were in denial as well.. In time I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

You see the thing is with mental illnesses, they most often have to do with and imbalance of neurochemichals in the brain which affects parameters like focus, attention, memory, processing speed etc.. i. e., these illnesses have a set of what is known as cognitive deficits associated with them.. Which makes it difficult while learning compared to neurotypical people. The major factor that is responsible for setting of symptoms in most mental illnesses is stress.

I took up engineering because it was the thing everyone did, and I wanted to have a job and what everyone else and so I ended up doing it despite not having any aptitude for it, ended up doing very poorly and couldn't hold a job as I was incompetent. Unfortunately this realization has come too late for me to do anything much about my life. I wish young people here can learn from my mistakes and take action accordingly to give themselves the best chance possible..

The first thing I'd advise you is to find that one thing you are passionate about and that you feel is within you.. i.e., within your capacity to do.. Eg.. For me I have a natural gift for languages (learnt French and German) and translation would have been an ideal career for me. I love literature and combining the two, I would have enjoyed something like literary translation very much. There are options to freelance, work from home with flexible timings.. This would have been a much better option for me as there is less stress compared to a field like IT.

 

[PrincessMeow]

... And you're preparing for the JEE with all this going on?.. My heart goes out to you.. I am sorry, I can totally identify with feeling helpless at your age.. I struggled myself in my 11th and 12th standards, I just didn't realize at the time. My parents were in denial as well.. In time I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

You see the thing is with mental illnesses, they most often have to do with and imbalance of neurochemichals in the brain which affects parameters like focus, attention, memory, processing speed etc.. i. e., these illnesses have a set of what is known as cognitive deficits associated with them.. Which makes it difficult while learning compared to neurotypical people. The major factor that is responsible for setting of symptoms in most mental illnesses is stress.

I took up engineering because it was the thing everyone did, and I wanted to have a job and what everyone else and so I ended up doing it despite not having any aptitude for it, ended up doing very poorly and couldn't hold a job as I was incompetent. Unfortunately this realization has come too late for me to do anything much about my life. I wish young people here can learn from my mistakes and take action accordingly to give themselves the best chance possible..

The first thing I'd advise you is to find that one thing you are passionate about and that you feel is within you.. i.e., within your capacity to do.. Eg.. For me I have natural gift for languages (learnt French and German) and translation would have been an idea career for me. I love literature and combining the two, I would have enjoyed something like literary translation very much. There are options to freelance, work from home with flexible timings.. This would have been a much better option for me as there is less stress compared to a field like IT.

Thank you so, so much for your kind words . You're right, I do think my learning methods are a bit different from others. I have suspected from a long time that I might have ADHD. My severely mentally retarded sister has serious ADHD, mine isn't as extreme as hers but I have exhibited behaviours similar to hers. I was always very talkative, I talk very fast or very slow, I could never sit still without doing anything, I get addicted to anything very easily whether it's food, games, and even studies if they're interesting to me. I forget to even eat often. And I was scolded for this behaviour since I was 3. So yes maybe I do have mild ADHD at most or an anxiety disorder at least.

I know vocational subjects in 12th aren't indicative of the entire subject but...I had electrical maintenance subject in my 11th and 12th and that was when I realised my true love. I loved anything related to electricity and electronics. I loved working on stuff and studying the things. I scored 100% in practicals and 90% in boards. So my true passion does lie in electrical/ECE...

I'm giving Mhtcet and vitee, let's hope I get my favoured subject there...if not, and I don't CTB, then maybe I'll give gate in future and shift to ECE.

Btw thank you very much for your reply

 

[Endisclose]

I have all the symptoms of combined Adhd myself and strongly suspect I have it although am not sure cause some aspects are common with bipolar. I can totally relate to how frustrating learning can be.. I just wanted to ask you.. like when you are learning electronics, how do you learn - do you learn by rote or do you understand the concepts..

Marks have no relevance really when it comes to measuring true learning. The goal of all learning is understanding. Eventually in the workplace, one will have to deliver results practically and only understanding will help one to do that. The ability to understand and combine concepts and create concepts on one's own, the ability to think critically with creation as the highest value in the learning pyramid is what will distinguish you from the crowd. Look up bloom's taxonomy.. Not sure if you know about this..

 

[PrincessMeow]

I have all the symptoms of combined Adhd myself and strongly suspect I have it although am not sure cause some aspects are common with bipolar. I can totally relate to how frustrating learning can be.. I just wanted to ask you.. like when you are learning electronics, how do you learn - do you learn by rote or do you understand the concepts..

Marks have no relevance really when it comes to measuring true learning. The goal of all learning is understanding. Eventually in the workplace, one will have to deliver results practically and only understanding will help one to do that. The ability to understand and combine concepts and create concepts on one's own, the ability to think critically with creation as the highest value in the learning pyramid is what will distinguish you from the crowd. Look up bloom's taxonomy.. Not sure if you know about this..
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I used to learn by rote, but over time I gained a massive interest in the subject and I began to actively understand it. I genuinely enjoyed studying it.

Wow, thank you for telling me about the bloom taxonomy! This is quite interesting. I didn't know of this hierarchy before. It makes sense now, damn Indian education is really shit because we only focus on 'remember' part...schools never make kids develop other skills. How sad.

 

[Endisclose]

I used to learn by rote, but over time I gained a massive interest in the subject and I began to actively understand it. I genuinely enjoyed studying it.

Wow, thank you for telling me about the bloom taxonomy! This is quite interesting. I didn't know of this hierarchy before. It makes sense now, damn Indian education is really shit because we only focus on 'remember' part...schools never make kids develop other skills. How sad.

Never learn anything by rote! Most schools in India are really slaughterhouses where the parents unknowingly pay money and send their children to be lobotomized and turned into a zombie. It is useless unless one understands and is able to apply the concepts. Sadly in 99% of the cases, the parents are the worst enemies of their own children.. It is best to awaken one's critical faculty and observe what sort of environment one is in and take measures accordingly.. I highly recommend the following book..

Critical Thinking: Tools for Taking Charge of Your Professional and Personal Life by Linda Elder and Richard Paul.

There are some other books also by the same authours available on Amazon.. Only drawback is they are a bit pricey.. But I'd definitely recommend buying at least the one above here as the ideas mentioned will prove to be very valuable in the future..

Here is a link to the website, again it's a bit pricey by Indian standards, but am providing the link here and hope you'd be able to take their courses if not now at least some time in future.. I think it will be very valuable.. Maybe you can get some contact who can guide you better..

Critical Thinking

www.criticalthinking.org

 

[Endisclose]

For people who have depression, one thing I'd also recommend is to get plenty of sunlight.. It is not recommended for people with Bipolar as too much of it might cause mania (which actually shows it works btw).. But this should be good for unipolar depression..

Try CBD oil, look up "nootropics"..



A couple of other resource that I think will be helpful

1) Feeling good by Dr. David Burns for CBT, emotion regulation, therapy. This is a good book that has got great reviews all round and used a lot by the community..

2) Nicomachean ethics by Aristotle (this is probably the best self help book to help one figure out life I think..)

3) International baccalaureate's theory of knowledge.. You can pick up from any one of several different publications Oxford / Cambridge / Hodder etc.. There seem to be quite a few..

Hope these will be valuable for your learning and your life..Wish you good luck .

 

[Endisclose]

i was preparing for jee. i wan even enrolled in a major coaching institute, " allen ". the preparation and all was going pretty well but then shit went south and i ended up NOT taking the exam. didn't fill the form for the January attempt neither for the one ahead. heck i wouldn't have enrolled for CUET either, but some people compelled me into doing so. i fucked my exams, boards basically and i have done it with such effectiveness that i know i am failing. but that's just me.
maybe all of this, the fear of facing my results and shit would coerce me into killing myself in about a month ?

although if you've been studying all these years, my advice would be to wait until the last attempt. once you step out of the examination hall, you pretty much are aware of what you're gonna score. if it's anywhere good ( i hope you know what a good score is and all ), things CAN turn around once you're out there in a pretty institute. life's different ( not any easier tho ).

and you must be aware that JEE ain't all, preparing for JEE makes you capable of taking a lot of other major exams too, actually, us JEE aspirants have an advantage over other examinations. my peers all nailed SAT, NDA, and many other examinations even though only a few could crack Mains.

I haven't taken the JEE. I have no idea what youngsters these days have to go through in trying to prepare for these exams. I feel there is simply too much of an emphasis on volume rather than quality of thinking when it comes to exams like JEE or IAS. I think it suits the people where political power is concentrated for it to be so - in a capitalistic environment, this is in the hands of the owners of capital (businessmen) and their cronies (politicians), so that the best minds in terms of reasoning capacity and stress endurance would be competing to be at their service.

Unfortunately, for those who are neurodiverse, and for those who are lower down on the performance scale if you are neurotypical, joining the rat race would mean getting burnt to the extent one is away from the top. I did take the CAT once though. I remember having issues due to my bipolar, difficulties in focus, processing speed, short term memory which affected my learning greatly and thus my preparation was not good at all. I had very little conceptual clarity and was part of the herd. I still got 55 percentile. I don't think I deserved even that given my level of preparation.

I just remember I found it very difficult having to sit down to study at all. I couldn't focus. If I read a sentence or a paragraph I had to keep reading it over and over many times to make sense of it (this is the deficit in short term memory). It took me time to think (processing speed). I was good in language though. I had good verbal ability. I had a good imagination. I had a good voice. I eventually came to realize I'd have been better at literary writing, language translation, and learning hindustani music.

Unfortunately I was abused and gaslighted by some people I put my trust in who didn't prove to be worthy of it and I had some terrible luck, but for that I feel like I almost made it. I hope this is a lesson for people reading this. These exams are not the only way. Find out who you are, what you are passionate about, believe in yourself. Have the courage to think outside the box, outside the norm and the way of the herd. The more neurodiverse, low "performing" you are as a neurotypical, the more crucial this is for you and the more imperative it is that you start early. Early intervention is key with a lot of mental illnesses. Use rational inquiry, critical thinking to think your way through and be smart.. Wish it works out for you.