Inorganic Chemistry: The Secret Hero for your fight

The Hero?? How? Well, Yes, it is!

I know, Inorganic Chemistry is that one part of JEE syllabus which students often neglect or rather postpone for future. But what if I tell you when JEE rankers are asked about a differentiating factor for their JEE Ranks, most of them promptly answer: INORGANIC CHEMISTRY

The main reasons behind such feelings of students for this subject are:

1. It is mostly fact-based (Some topics like Metallurgy, Chemical Bonding, Coordinate Compounds etc. are exceptions) due to which students find it boring to memorize through rote learning.
2. Being fact-based, most teachers do not give proper attention to teaching this subject and rather focus on more conceptual parts which decrease the attention of students towards this part of chemistry.

My experience with Inorganic Chemistry was not different from most aspirants. But thanks to some expert advises from rank-holders who told me about this secret weapon.

Coming to how Inorganic chemistry can effectively increase your JEE Score and ranks:

1. Again mentioning, it is fact-based. If you know the answer you know the answer. No wasting of time to get to the solution (highly time-saving during the exam)
2. The syllabus can be confined (though IITs sometime ask out of the world questions (about which you should not worry), most questions are directly from NCERT/Exemplar Problems)

Ok, now the question is, How to prepare Inorganic Chemistry for JEE?

For this subject, as I mentioned you can (or in fact you should) confine the syllabus. For all reaction-based chapters like s-block, p-block, quantitative analysis refer NCERT along with exemplar problems. For more concept-based chapters like atomic structure, chemical bonding, coordination chemistry you should go to good reference books like the one by O.P. Tandon, J.D. Lee. I will create a separate post for the recommended books for each section of the JEE syllabus.

As every IITian believes, keep these points in mind:

1. Start Inorganic Today: Don't leave inorganic chemistry for the last 2 months. At least give 4 hours to inorganic chemistry/week and revise what you've learned every weekend. Believe you'll be rewarded.
2. NCERT is the bible: Most questions in the JEE advanced are directly from NCERT. The key is that you must mug-up each and every word of it. It is better to do this than to grasp just 30% of 3 random reference books. Follow point (1) and it'll not be hard at all.
3. Make short notes: I used to make short notes in a thin notepad where I wrote all the important stuff in concise terms. This helped me a lot during weekend revision and during the final revision for the exam.

The stigma that JEE looks only for logic is a myth. It looks for everything. Understanding this will make you stand out of the others and get a differentiating rank.

All the best for Inorganic Chemistry.

Comment your views/doubts.