IIT Syllabus: What You Must Study to Get Into an IIT

How the IIT syllabus is tested on the way to a seat

The two exams share a subject list, but Advanced reaches a little wider and asks much deeper questions. So if your aim is an IIT, prepare to the Advanced level from the start, and JEE Main becomes a checkpoint on the way.

Physics for IIT entrance

• Mechanics (the heaviest block): kinematics, Newton's laws and friction, work and energy, momentum and collisions, rotation of rigid bodies, gravitation, simple harmonic motion
• Properties of matter: elasticity, fluid pressure and buoyancy, surface tension and viscous flow
• Heat: calorimetry, the gas laws and kinetic theory, thermodynamic processes and engines
• Waves: transverse and longitudinal waves, sound, beats, organ pipes and strings
• Electromagnetism: electric fields and potential, capacitors, DC circuits, magnetism from currents, induction, alternating current
• Optics: reflection and refraction, lenses and instruments, interference and diffraction
• Modern physics: photoelectric effect, atomic models, nuclear decay, semiconductors (Main)
• Experimental skills: errors, vernier and screw gauge readings, standard lab set ups

Rotation, electrostatics and induction are chapters many students find hardest, because they combine many earlier ideas in one problem.

Chemistry for IIT entrance

• Physical: mole concept, atomic structure, bonding and molecular shapes, states of matter, thermodynamics, equilibrium, solutions, redox reactions and cells, rates of reaction
• Inorganic: trends across the periodic table, the main group elements, transition series and lanthanoids, coordination complexes and their bonding, identifying salts
• Organic: nomenclature and isomerism, reaction intermediates and mechanisms, hydrocarbons, halides, alcohols and ethers, aldehydes and ketones, acids, amines, biomolecules, polymers

Chemistry rewards students who revise often. Inorganic facts fade quickly, and organic named reactions only stay with you if you write the mechanisms out by hand every few weeks.

Mathematics for IIT entrance

• Algebra: functions and relations, complex numbers and quadratics, progressions, counting (arrangements and selections), binomial expansions, matrix and determinant work
• Trigonometry: identities, equations, inverse functions, solution of triangles
• Coordinate geometry: lines, circles, parabola, ellipse, hyperbola
• Calculus: limits, continuous and differentiable functions, maxima, minima and tangents, indefinite and definite integrals, area under curves, differential equations
• Vectors and three dimensional work: scalar and vector products, the equation of a plane, distance between skew lines
• Probability and statistics: dependent events and Bayes' rule, the binomial distribution, measures of spread

Calculus runs through many other maths chapters and through physics as well, so weakness there costs you twice.

Where JEE Main and JEE Advanced differ

NTA trimmed some chapters from the JEE Main list that the IITs still keep in the Advanced list. Typical examples are heat transfer by conduction and radiation in physics, metallurgy and some descriptive inorganic chapters in chemistry, and a few calculus results such as the mean value theorems in maths. The full comparison sits on our JEE Advanced syllabus page, and the NTA unit list is on the JEE Main syllabus page.

Eligibility you should know early

• A class 12 exam in physics, chemistry and maths, taken for the first time in the current year or the year before
• A place among the top 2.5 lakh JEE Main Paper 1 candidates, spread across categories
• An age rule tied to your birth date (general candidates must be under about 25, and five years of relaxation for SC, ST or PwD candidates), as printed in the brochure
• No more than two JEE Advanced attempts, in consecutive years

The IITs may also apply a class 12 performance condition at admission. Read the JEE Main eligibility guide and the current brochure so nothing surprises you at counselling, while past qualifying marks sit in our JEE Advanced cut off guide.

IIT exam syllabus beyond B.Tech: JAM, GATE, online BS

• M.Sc and integrated PhD: through IIT JAM, a subject paper in areas such as physics, chemistry, mathematics or biotechnology; see the IIT JAM syllabus
• M.Tech and many PhD seats: mainly through GATE scores; see the GATE syllabus
• Online BS degree: IIT Madras runs a BS in data science with its own qualifier process instead of JEE; the course list is on our data science syllabus page

A two year plan for classes 11 and 12

NCERT books are the base for every chapter, especially in chemistry, where many questions come straight from their lines. Add one good problem book per subject, not five, and use the official past papers on the JEE Advanced website for the final stage.

IIT ka syllabus in Hindi

IIT में B.Tech प्रवेश के लिए अलग से कोई परीक्षा नहीं होती। पहले NTA की JEE Main देनी होती है, फिर चुने गए लगभग 2.5 लाख छात्र JEE Advanced देते हैं। दोनों का सिलेबस कक्षा 11 और 12 के भौतिकी, रसायन और गणित पर आधारित है। भौतिकी में यांत्रिकी, विद्युत और चुंबकत्व, प्रकाशिकी और आधुनिक भौतिकी आते हैं। रसायन में भौतिक, अकार्बनिक और कार्बनिक भाग हैं। गणित में बीजगणित, त्रिकोणमिति, निर्देशांक ज्यामिति, कलन, सदिश और प्रायिकता शामिल हैं। JEE Advanced में दो पेपर होते हैं, हर एक 3 घंटे का, और दोनों देना ज़रूरी है। NCERT की किताबों से शुरू करें और पिछले वर्षों के आधिकारिक पेपर हल करें।