College & Careers

Two months into class 11, my son wants to drop JEE coaching. A bad patch, or a real change?

gentle_drum_2498

Our son began class 11 in June with PCM at school and the usual evening coaching for JEE. He leaves home at 7, gets back around 9.30, and does coaching homework after that. Last weekend he told us he wants to stop the coaching. He says he enjoys maths and physics at school but finds the coaching pace joyless, and that he would rather aim for a BSc through CUET or the science institutes' own entrance exams than for engineering. I want to be careful about what I know versus what I am guessing. I know he is tired and that his first coaching test went badly. I do not know whether this is a reasoned preference or a reaction to one bad month. Those of you who have been through this, how did you tell the difference? Did you agree on a trial period before deciding?

7 comments

  • silver_sketch_5324

    Our daughter said something very similar in the first term of class 11. We asked her to keep going until the end of the term while she wrote down, honestly, what she would study instead and where. It took her about six weeks to come back with a real answer. She did stop the coaching in the end and is now in a BSc programme she chose herself. What made us comfortable was that the alternative had specifics. Does your son have names of courses yet, or only 'not engineering'?

  • citrus_bookmark_7662

    One bad coaching test in August tells you almost nothing. Half the batch does badly in the first one. Look at his school marks separately from the coaching. If he is doing well in school physics and maths, the problem is the coaching, not the subjects.

  • apricot_wave_3183

    Mine is in 11th too. Before agreeing to anything, check one assumption: are those science institute entrances easier to prepare for without coaching? I'm not sure that's true. Some of those papers are no softer than JEE.

  • saffron_quilt_8232

    Two years behind you, so only a question. Who chose the coaching in the first place, him or you? That changes how I'd read this.

  • jasmine_mynah_971

    I left EAMCET coaching in inter second year and did BSc. My parents were very upset at that time. Now I am fine, no regrets. But please don't let him stop studying fully, only the coaching. My cousin stopped everything for some months and it was very hard to start again.

  • cinnamon_sandal_7899

    Reading this with great interest, my eldest is a few years away and already allergic to the word coaching. One thing a colleague did with her son: he dropped the weekday batches but kept only the weekend test series for a term. They got actual data instead of arguments 🙂

  • orchid_pool_5209

    state board here, so the inter college does coaching inside the timetable. son tried to quit in first year too. we let him drop the extra sunday classes and kept the rest. he's in second year now and calmer. not sure it was the right call but it was a smaller call

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