5 ranks under 10 in JEE 2016 — How one of India’s top educators embraced embibe analysis
This is the story of the Narayana Chaitanya batch helmed by KK Sir at Hyderabad. Over the last 9 years, they have produced more than 30 students in the top 10 in the country in the JEE Advanced (IITJEE). Here is their beautiful story with the reasons for their success, culminating in a meeting of minds with embibe.
The history
E: How was this batch formed?
KK Sir: I was a good Chemistry teacher, Narayana sir made me Principal of a branch in an area which was in close proximity of many colleges. The first six months I struggled with administration. Once that was out of the way, I started to focus on the academic mentoring. At the time, there was a student called Santhosh Kumar — his family was not very well to do and he couldn’t pay the fees. I observed the spark in that boy and started working with him. Surprisingly, we got national 15th rank with that first student. An IIT admission from that part of the world was considered a joke. That was an eye opener for everyone including Narayana sir. For an unknown person without any major support and good faculty — he scored 15th. Maybe if he had all the facilities, he could have been IIT rank 1. Not getting the best ranks is not the fault of the student, it’s the fault of the system. Why cant we bring all the top students together and help them grow even further? Why cant KK work with them with the learning he had with Santhosh? Prof Narayana had this vision that he wanted students from South India to flourish in competitive exams and perform superlatively. And we started with a batch of 20 students.
This was 2008, the goal for the first year was to get one rank under 10 and 3 ranks under 100. In the first year, we got 2 ranks below 10 and 8 ranks below 100. I was so excited about the victory ceremony, all he said was “We didn’t get the first rank.” I got a bit disheartened when I didn’t hear any praise. But then I realized that maybe he is trying to motivate us to get the first rank. In 2010, we finally got the first rank and a total of 5 ranks under 10. Since then, we have got at least 4 ranks under 10 every year.
The Secret Sauce
E: This is quite amazing and inspirational for teachers and students alike. What is the secret?
KK Sir: Wonderful freedom was given to me from the management. I used to keep sitting in a room and going over student analysis in a lot of detail and then coming up with themes to track the students differently to explore newer angles in improvement. Its about the teamwork, not necessarily only the specific faces in the team. As long as there is strong empathy and command on the subject and complete communication about the student with super detailed analysis — it works every year.
The secret is microscopic following of the student & teamwork. Minute, detailed analysis of everything the student does. And then personalized feedback.
Generally, we never depend on one teacher and one team. A teacher with a positive, affectionate attitude who can build a strong bridge with the student is very important in the team. Otherwise, microscopic analysis is not possible. If a teacher scolds the student, I am always there to counsel and vice versa. We have very good coordination between the academic team. Team members change but the analysis remains the same.
E: Tell us more about the analysis. We know that pre- Embibe, you used to keep a register dedicated to every student.
KK Sir: I sit 8 hours in an A/C room and create the work. I keep thinking what else can I do? Different angles of comparison, student wise, branch wise…. I get so many interesting things. First I discuss with faculty and share their ideas and views. And then share with the student. Sometimes, these sessions with the student can be 3 hours as well. I prepare a lot for these sessions. It’s crucial for the student to feel that not even a single minute is wasted. They should feel that the session was very inspirational and useful. Every minute, every moment in that communication has to be well designed and based on data.
E: Why did you include embibe as part of the learning & analysis program for your students.
KK Sir: Simple reason. Whatever I did on the book, you do with embibe system. You even measure things that are impossible to track using the book system. Microscopic following can go to another level. Now I need not use pen or paper — all the analysis is just a click away. We don’t let our students use any system if we don’t feel 100% confident. Embibe can take this system and give the same level of analysis for every student.
(See below to know more about the depth of analysis embibe can offer for every type of student)
E: Tell us more about the academic system. What can other teachers learn from you?
KK Sir: First we have designed 3 Phases — 1,2 and 3. Phase 1 runs for 14 months, in that we cover the whole syllabus — the basic model for JEE Mains. Once that is done — We do 6 months and divide the syllabus into 14 parts. For every 4 part tests, we have one full test covering the portion of that syllabus. Then again 5,6,7,8 and one cumulative part test and then one on the whole syllabus so far. Slowly we prepare the student to answer questions from a bigger and bigger portion. As academic weaknesses are discovered during these tests — teachers go deep on and cover those topics in more depth. Vertical teaching is done for students in topics or sub topics. Once this is done, they have a good grip on the portion. All through they keep a track of their mistakes. Whatever mistakes have been committed and I check each and every book. Even though I am a Biology grad, I keep putting these questions to teachers and ask — why did the students get them wrong. If a single question is a mistake for a number of students, we again drill down to the teacher and try to understand why the mistake happened. Was it a weakness in the teaching or something else? The fault is rectified the very next day. Phase 3 is conducting full tests, we do so many exams by taking question papers from many sources so exam taking becomes a habit.
(Use embibe.com for 137 different types of Full, Part and Chapter tests)
E: Do you encourage multiple reference books?
KK Sir: We don’t typically allow many books as the focus here is not research. Its more to do well in the exam. But we provide the best content from relevant books as part of the course work. They are not allowed to waste any time.
E: Thank you sir, next year — we look forward to you using the Embibe system to make the learning for every student increase across the board. The short term success from the behaviour and test taking skill improvements that happen in just one test really inspire students to work harder. It then makes them jump to start learning more which is the true aspiration of education.
Also see:
