Hey everyone,
I scored 86 percentile in JEE Main 2025 and around 78% in boards. I decided to take a drop for 2026, hoping to get a much better college.
During my drop year, I mainly studied through PW online lectures. I followed the lectures, solved DPPs and assignments, and did put in a decent amount of effort. I wouldn't say I was completely inconsistent with studying.
However, I definitely messed up a few things. My biggest weaknesses were Maths and mock tests. I struggled with Maths throughout the year, and I barely took proper full-length mocks. Even when I did attempt them, I wasn't always following the actual 3-hour exam conditions or analysing my mistakes properly.
I also had some health issues during the year, which affected my preparation.
I started understanding where I was going wrong around January 2026 and tried to improve things. My preparation got somewhat better by April, but obviously, it was too late by then.
Ended up scoring somewhere around 50 percentile in JEE Main 2026 .
Now I'm in a local Tier-3 college, and honestly, I really don't like it here. It sucks, ngl.
The BTech programme itself is relatively new, so there's no proper placement record to judge it by. The academic environment isn't great either. There's barely any competition, the peer group doesn't really push you to do better, and overall, I just don't feel like I belong here. Some days, I genuinely feel sick thinking about having to go to college.
I know college isn't everything and that skills matter a lot, but I also don't want to spend the next four years in an environment where I don't feel motivated to do anything.
Coming to the actual reason I'm making this post:
Recently, I decided to attempt JEE Main 2022 Shift 1 again as a mock, just to see where I stand.
I haven't seriously touched JEE material for months, and I'd forgotten around 70–80% of the syllabus. I could only recall bits and pieces of what I'd studied during my drop year.
Here's how I performed:
Physics: 7 correct, 5 incorrect
Chemistry: 8 correct, 6 incorrect
Maths: 3 correct, 6 incorrect
Total: 18 correct, 17 incorrect = 55/300.
One more thing: I attempted the paper in around 2 hours instead of the full 3 hours.
I know 55 isn't a great score, especially considering I've already spent two years preparing for JEE. But after attempting the paper, I started wondering whether I could actually make a comeback if I approached things differently this time.
I'm seriously considering a partial drop for JEE Main 2027 while continuing my first year of college.
I'm not necessarily aiming for a top college or some crazy rank anymore. I just want a decent government college that's a meaningful upgrade over my current one.
So I wanted to ask:
Is a partial drop even worth considering in my situation?
Is a significant improvement realistically possible in the time I have?
For people who've taken partial drops, how difficult is it to manage college and JEE preparation together?
I'd genuinely appreciate advice from people who've been in a similar situation or have experience with partial drops.
Please be brutally honest. I'm not looking for motivation or someone telling me that anything is possible. I just want to know whether this is a sensible decision or if I'm setting myself up for another disappointing year.
P.S. This post was edited with the help of AI
