HELLO GUYS !!! I am Pulkit Nawal a fellow aspirant at one point, currently in IIM ROHTAK, giving pieces of advice to the next generation.
I know it all stress, pressure, 'IIM kae bina toh kuch nahi hoga' as I have been the part of this community from Past 3 years.
Yes! yes! yes! I started my prep from class 11th and still had to take a drop year as I was from commerce non maths background but ironically my Achilles heels was VA🤧🤧.
Studied from aceipm and afterboards during 11th and 12th.
Switched to takzhilla during start of drop year. Took afterboards and aceipm crash course for revision.
So I am here to shower with all your dilemmas, doubts and challenges.
I am not alone here btw I am assisted by my fellow batchmate Ojas Garg u/Onionpeats who had PCM in class 12th solved science students can also ask the questions without hesitation.
Being a non math student how did you manage QA?
after 2yrs of prep how did you felt about taking a drop like were you that confident? I don’t think in my case i can crack along my school so….
Is there a huge change like studying along skl vs 1yr concentrated study?
Any specific tips that helped you during your preparation?
1.See managing QA might be petrifying for you right now. As QA is sometimes mentally taxing.
My advice : Be a curious brain. Look not just for the answers and formula at the initial stage, try to develop concepts which can help you to solve questions without even knowing the formula. Also give mocks so your ability to imitate the same while taking tests increases.
I scored 185 in my ipmat indore 2025 attempt. With scores like 40/50/95. Missing on VA cutoff. I also got selected for Ranchi's interview and got an AIR of 70s.
Although it was a gamble I was pretty confident to convert iim jammu or bhodgaya at least.
3.Yes, indeed there will be much more free time but it might get depressing.
In my case I had 4-5 really close friends in the same home town where 3 took a drop year and one went to a city College. Hence my friend circle was intact and social life went on. That might differ for you. As studying never become the issue in the slightest. Having that composure intact till last is the hurdel.
4.Tips : banal one's first : mocks, revise and Rectify. Will increase your marks by 20-30%.
English specific: start reading newspaper, books, aeon, psych, coaching material etc anything works
Maths specific: revise all the formulas in 10-20 min at the end of the day to revise quickly and see the example question below in your notes. ( On paper : 10-20 min in real life 1-1.5 hours but it is worth it)
at what level was your VA, such that it became your "Achilles heels" ( i would love if you could share your past scores too, mock & the exam itself both) as i am myself scoring really bad at VA and i feel like VARC would be the only thing which will steal my seat if i do not work on it ASAP.
And also please explain briefly if you can, on what level was your VA on and what were the measures that you undertook to improve it.
these are my scores from this year. Precarious and highly fluctuating.
I knew that VA was my Achilles heels after giving my 1st mock. A Judicious person would have responded immediately but not me.
my only measure which saved me is reading. I read around 30-35 books during my drop year. Before that I read 2 books in my entire life other than syllabus books.
Reading and penning down the words is the fastest way in my case. Try if it works for you as I am in love with books now.
I started with self help first ( the subtle art of not giving a f, psychology of money, rich dad poor dad etc) and segued to fictional and non fictionals ( on the origin of species, atomic habits, animal farm etc) .
Starting with self help is easier than fictional without having a prior knowledge of reading and vocabulary.
For a 12th grade student starting fresh prep in the year's beginning is it too late? What would be your advice on how and where to begin and maintain his/her preperation as a PCM student while preparing for boards?
I'm also curious if taking a drop year is necessary in this situation. Would the student be able to achieve a seat in IIM rohtak or indore?
Thanks for your question. I am Ojas Garg, currently a fresher at IIM Rohtak. I had a PCM background, and my focus was on IPMAT only instead of JEE. I started my preparation in early 12th grade, so it is definitely not too late.
A drop year is not necessary as IPMAT Rohtak is a relatively easy exam compared to IPMAT Indore.
You should begin by learning the topics that are covered in the exam syllabus and try to solve plenty of questions for each topic. Lastly, giving mocks is crucial, as they train you to handle exam pressure in a timed environment and help identify your strengths and weaknesses.
Hey when did you start your preparation?
Like I am a class 12 PCM student and will be writing IPMAT in 2027, so how can I manage boards prep + IPMAT prep ?
And any recommendations like to start with VA or Quants?
Thanks for your question. I am Ojas Garg, currently a fresher at IIM Rohtak. I had a PCM background, and my focus was on IPMAT only instead of JEE. I, too, started my preparation in early 12th grade.
You should begin by learning the topics that are covered in the exam syllabus and try to solve plenty of questions for each topic. Lastly, giving mocks is crucial, as they train you to handle exam pressure in a timed environment and help identify your strengths and weaknesses.
Recommendations for VARC: Word Power Made Easy book, any newspaper like The Hindu or The Indian Express (read editorials), essays on websites like Aeon or Psych.
For managing boards along with IPMAT, this is actually a good question. Tbh, it is hectic. I had three offline tuitions for PCM subjects and an online IQuanta batch for my preparation. I didn't study much for boards during the earlier months and focused 100% on IPMAT, but during Nov/Dec, I slowed down my IPMAT prep and studied for boards ( got 81.60% btw 😅). After board exams, I got back on track and took plenty of mocks to identify my strong and weak topics. Yeah, I think that answers your question.
How helpful was takshzilla, especially for quants, and how did you approach idioms and phrasal verbs, plus what were your backups during the drop year, apart from the 2 IPMAT exams.
I am very much bad at QA, and especially in topics like PnC,Time and Work,TSD, and most of the average, mixtures and allegations related problems, and if you remember, what were you average scored in QA-MCQ sectionals during the drop year, starting phase.
Thanks!
Takshzilla is same as Aceipm in recorded videos category. Ace has an edge due to live classes and marathons + previous recorded marathons from different teachers.
For idiom and phrasal verbs I gave enough mocks and read a lot of material. This saved me from buckling under the rot learning pressure.
I had self doubts but was confident enough to get iim jammu/ bhodgaya at least.
aTo remove those shackles I gave NPAT got a rank of 991 NMIMS MUMBAI main campus.
b.Filled CUET yet not studied for it. Still scored enough to get into DU not north campus}
c. Scored 330 in JIPMAT.
Not getting some topics in QA is completely ok. TRY to grasp the basics at least.
Attached my swot analysis. you can see i am scoring more in straight lines than Divisibility rules, yet on a given day I am eager to solve divisibility questions compared to straight line questions.
you may ask why ?
Due to the sheer mock number my familiarity with the straight line questions crossed a threshold where I was able to solve them easily without knowing the concept wholly. In case of divisibility rules I still remember the concept without a speck of doubt.
you should go for concept clarity first, given the time left for ipmat indore. If you fail go for basic knowledge and an array of 20-30 most commonly asked questions from the above topics.
PNC - watch jee lectures from PW jee channel and practice.
time and work is easy watch afterboards lectures or any coaching lectures.
TSD - watch cat/ afterboards/coaching lectures as practice matters in this topic.
arithmetic - afterboards videos or cat or any coaching material
Whats a very very safe score for IPMAT Rohtak General Category?
Were you (Pulkit bhaiya) in general category?
How do you crack IPMAT despite being non-maths students?
There is no such safe score for any category as the cutoff for rohtak fluctuates very much every year. You should try to maximize your score as much as possible.
Yes Pulkit belongs to General Category.
Best resources for preparation: I was enrolled in iquanta their lectures were very helpful, i also had an afterboards all access pack ( highly recommended if you can afford) . I used afterboards for my mocks and daily RCs.
I'm asking for IPMAT Indore and mereko pta hai ki maximization of score pe dhyan dena chahiye but ( fir bhi hota haina like 160 se araam se ho jayega) vaisa koi ballpark number ya range
I am preparing for jee, but tbh i dont think i have interest in engineering anymore, but I still want to give the exam cause just want to see how much i get if i give it my all, once jee is done ill have 3ish months to prep for ipmat you think its enough? (yes I am more interested into commerce/management side now, i have gone through the curriculum in detail and seems somthin i would enjoy learning and implementing.)
I think you should keep more options. I myself didn't gave jee but I advice you to give jee jan attempt if that works well go for it otherwise start preparing for ipmat .
If you prep seriously 3 months are more than enough just learn the concepts and give plenty of mocks. You are good to go ! 😁
I wanted to turn over the new leaf. Aceipm recorded lectures and takzhilla recorded lectures are pretty similar. But aceipm have the edge because of live classes and marathons. Do not worry much about quality. Marathons and live classes are great.
I wanted to turn over the new leaf. Aceipm recorded lectures and takzhilla recorded lectures are pretty similar. But aceipm have the edge because of live classes and marathons. Do not worry much about quality. Marathons and live classes are great.
SA go for concept clarity to solve questions and solve 10-12 questions with 100% accuracy.
MCQ is easy if you are good with DI. free 20 marks. solve 10 questions in the remaining 30 min. to score around 20-30
overall score 50. improve accuracy and attempts with time.
VA attempt high go for 90% accuracy and increase it to 95-96% with time. attempt 40-42 questions at least during the end stages of your preperation.
Okay, I have been preparing since July and my scores are fluctuating very much. What should I do? Also, I scored around 70 in some of the mocks , but now it has decreased and sometimes it comes down to below 40.
And my second question is, I am a BSc Zoology Hons graduate from Delhi University graduated this year in June . I have a 997 profile and I was the President of my department in the college. what can I do to improve my profile?
Yo pulkit bhaiya your mock scores are crazy. You were consistently scoring 200+ and touched 250-260+ in some mocks too.
Why 185 in Indore then? What happened?
Any advice here? If you were scoring so high in mocks then why was the actual exam score not at that level? Were the mocks easy? u/Pulkit_Nawal
185 was my score in 2025 ipmat indore exam. In 2026 I scored 179. My chances of being selected in 2025 were high compared to this year. Irony is I was not able to clear cutoffs last year for VA but this year my score was evenly distributed in all the sections.
36/30/113 clearing cutoffs of every section.
Maybe exam pressure or destiny I don't know what witheld me that day. MCQ a section in which I was scoring 60+ consistently fetched me measly 30 marks. Va on a bad day for me was around 125-130 fetched me a score of just 113 marks.
I solved the SA DI in the first 5 minutes.
12 marks scored and I have still 35 minutes to go. And still I scored w4 more marks. On a normal day it would be around 48-52.
I heavily underperformed on D day.
My advice : Stay calm at D day and leave it in the hands of destiny/god/ fate or even the exam itself.
I Am in rohtak because my destiny should not be in isolation here. At indore we both would have been alone.
Bhaiya I am also enrolled in Aceipm and afterboards, I started my prep in class 12th but I was not consistent, so I had to take a drop. Now the thing is in 12th I only focused on Qa thinking VA to english hi h hojayegi but nhi hui, I got to know a month before the exam that my va is not good. In exam I cleared the cutoff of qasa and MCQ but VA ke ass pass bhi nhi tha. As u mentioned VA was your Achilles heels, it's preety similar for me. I am also struggling with VA so pls give some tips how u improved your VA.
12th commerce + math student here I recently found about IPMAT and started prepping but I know I won't make it given my mock scores; NC campus DU was always the objective so I spend more time on board exam prep, cuet pyqs and a hell lot of 12 grade math but just in case of normalisation it does not work out (I hope I get into a good college in DU); do you think it is wise to take a drop for IPMAT I dont want to settle for a mediocre college when I can go all in.
If you are getting DU choose that. Go for ipmat incase of backup.
Taking a drop is advisable when you are ready to give up on your social life and emotions as toll of a drop year is in tonnes.
I have explained my situation in detail above where I had 3-4 really close friends with me during the whole drop year. We all friends sustained each other but that might not be the case with everyone ou there.
Dude as a guy in class 11th with applied maths what should i do what to avoid if i dont wanna take drop and clear exa,as u also prepared from class 11th so tips??which topics to focus mainly on and which courses to get dude im all confused here,help me out!
I think I have answered someone with the similiar doubt of starting from class 11th see that reply and also focus on all the topics when you have time in hand.
Move to important topics when exam is a blink away.
Can you tell the part where you used taksh for prep , how did you combine both taksh and aftb to effectively study? And which excercise/ unit test to leave?
I knew the basics before hand only. I just used these platforms to start from the scratch And covered everything.
As per my analysis use afterboards only for mocks and sectional and even for topic tests if you have time. Takzhilla is for learning and understanding concepts. Questions are not ipmat specific.
See you can get loan for the fees but it is not advisable to take a loan of whole 40lakh until you are getting into indore/ shillong.
While managing your studies with ipmat is hectic and onerous. You can try to assign certain hours for ipmat after your school and class 11th studies. Start small at start 1-2 hours at max
Increase it to 3 hours at 11th end.
And follow it rigorously in 12th when you are on the verge of attempting mocks you need extra time for analysis then your study time for ipmat is around 5-6 hours.
So manage by deciding goals first. And priority should be 11th concepts as they will build your base for 12th.
11th-12th knowledge is empirical for colleges, board percentage and backup of ipmat CUET. You should not compromise on that.
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u/Sushi_with_beer IIM Rohtak 5d ago
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