The biggest worry students have about Inorganic Chemistry is that they think it has to be memorised word by word. They feel there is an endless list of
facts that must be crammed. The reality is different. If Inorganic Chemistry is studied through a “memory map”, it becomes the least time-consuming and one of the highest-scoring sections of JEE Main. Here, repetition and organised structure matter more than long hours of study. First, do not treat the Periodic Table as a list of elements. Look at it like a story. As you move across periods and down groups, understand trends such as atomic radius, ionisation energy, electronegativity and electron affinity like graphs. Once these trends become clear, half the facts automatically stay in memory. For example, knowing that radius increases down the group and decreases across the period helps you answer many questions instantly. For the p-Block, d-Block and coordination compounds, create memory tables. Make four simple columns — oxidation states, colours, important compounds and special reactions. This becomes your personal “memory map notebook”. By reviewing it repeatedly, information shifts from short-term memory to long-term recall. During the exam, these tables start appearing automatically in your mind. The biggest mantra for Inorganic Chemistry is straightforward — study NCERT directly. In this section, even a change of wording can change the meaning. So read in the language of the book and revise in the same language. Use external notes only as support material, not as a replacement. If you analyse previous year papers, you will notice that most factual questions directly originate from NCERT. For coordination compounds, bonding and hybridisation, studying with diagrams is highly effective. Instead of reading only text, draw the structures. Visual memory lasts much longer than verbal memory. Remember, success in Inorganic Chemistry does not depend on "how much you studied", but on "how many times you revised". Once the right memory map is created, this section becomes your most reliable scoring unit. In JEE Main, the student who revises smartly often moves ahead of the one who merely studies more.
(Inputs from Nitin Vijay, Educator and Founder, Motion Education, Kota)
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