Start small: 1 hour a day

You don't have to study everything, and you don't have to start big. This plan starts at 1 hour a day, builds up slowly, and puts the chapters worth the most marks first. Even if you never reach the end of the list, you'll have covered the material most likely to get you past the qualifying score.

Start date Exam date Start with (h/day) Build up to (h/day) Over Day off Day-off hours: start Day-off hours: later Video speed

The hours go up gradually, every two weeks. If a step feels too big, choose a slower build-up period and the plan recalculates. Settings are saved in this browser.

day streak

days studied

The last 28 days. Studying on most days matters far more than any single long day. A 15-minute day still counts, so try not to have zero days.

Your first two weeks

What you'll cover, and why it's enough

Core (qualifying) chapters you'll cover Rank-builder chapters you'll cover Not reached

How your hours build up

Study hours per week

Weeks	From	Work day	Day off	/ week

The roadmap: highest-yield chapters first

Chapters are put into three levels by how many marks they're likely to be worth for the time they take. Within each level, a short subject alternates with a big one so it doesn't get monotonous. Each subject's chapters stay together, so revision stays organised. Greyed-out chapters won't be reached by the exam at your current hours; increase the hours and more will fit.

What a study session looks like

Why this approach works

The exam rewards the best chapters, not complete coverage. The 2026 general qualifying cutoff was 262 of 720 (50th percentile). The SC/ST/OBC cutoff was 226 and General-PwBD was 244. With +4/−1 marking, answering about 105 questions at 70% accuracy (about 74 right and 31 wrong) reaches 262. That is under 60% of the paper. The “Core” level is built to cover chapters worth about 105 questions as fast as possible.
Small, regular sessions add up. Spaced practice beats cramming in learning research. One focused hour a day, kept up, also builds the habit that makes the later 3-hour days possible.
Questions from the very first day. Every session ends with MCQs on what you just studied. Learning by answering questions is one of the most effective study techniques, and it's also what the exam tests.
Revision is protected. The last part of the plan (at least 4 weeks) is kept for revising only the chapters you covered, plus PYQs and tests. Learning something well beats skimming everything.
Answer what you know and skip blind guesses. Ties are broken by fewer wrong answers. Spend exam time on the chapters you covered, and answer from the rest only when you can rule out 2 options.

Note: qualifying only makes you eligible for counselling. A preferred branch or college needs a much higher score, so keep increasing your hours once the habit is in place. Cutoffs change every year, and the per-chapter question estimates are approximate (see the pattern analysis).