"How to Solve ..." - The Art of Problem Solving

“How to Solve …” – The Art of Problem Solving

April 28, 2015 Anshu Singh Adaptive Instruction, BITSAT 2018, DoPrep Method, JEE (Advanced), JEE (Advanced) 2018, JEE (main), JEE (main) 2016, JEE (main) 2018, Other Engineering Entrance Examination 2018, Smart Learning, Teaching Methodology

It has been noted over the years that most of the students who fail to clear a competitive entrance test like JEE, BITSAT etc. fail to understand the underlying thought process of “How to Solve” a particular question in the first place.

The most common practice followed by the students while solving a question is

Start answering the question immediately
Try to remember an exactly similar question that you had seen before
Try to remember the steps of the previously seen solution

But these practices lead you no where because there is no logic or structured approach towards it. And, this does not help in the long run and also involves a lot of luck! So in order to remove the falsehood of luck and bring in the assurance of certainty, we follow the DoPrep method

The DoPrep method of solving questions is strongly influenced by the works of the great Hungarian Mathematician George Pólya.

We at DoPrep strongly believe that the approach towards solving a question is more important than knowing how to solve it. If the approach is correct, then it is a 99% probability that you will get to the answer of the question.

We have derived a 5 step process of solving a particular question which is easy to implement.This method increases your concept retaining and application skills which is very important for clearing any competitive examinations like JEE, BITSAT, etc.

Understand the question
Make a plan
Carry out the plan
Look back at it? How could it be better
“If you can’t solve a problem, then there is an easier problem you can solve: find it.”

Understand the question

Understand the information/data that has been given in a question – input
Understand what you are asked to find out in the question – output

Make a plan

Find out the concept that links the output to the input
Remember :- There can be more than 1 concept which may be needed in order reach the output

Carry out the plan

Now that you know the concept link apply it
Remember to revise each previous step in order to reduce the possibility of calculation/silly mistakes
You should also develop the habit of foreseeing the next step. This will help you to know if you are proceeding in the right direction or not, which in turn will help you manage your time effectively during a test.

Look back at it? How could it be better

While practicing questions, always develop the habit of looking back at your solution
Analyze if there could have been a shorter/more effective link between the answer (output) and the information given (input)
If you have a solution at hand, always compare your plan with the plan implemented in the solution

“If you can’t solve a problem, then there is an easier problem you can solve: find it.”

You cannot solve it, not an issue
At DoPrep, we will automatically give you an easier question of the same chapter/concept to solve
This will go on till we find your level of preparedness in a particular chapter
Then, we will start building the blocks till you can solve the question which you were not able to solve in the first place.