From Kota to IIT Bombay | Sharing Kota Coaching Experience

In this blog post, I will be sharing my experience and common things you should expect while joining a coaching institute in Kota for pursuing IIT. I am a BTech graduate in computer science and engineering from IIT Bombay. I studied in Kota for two years before joining IIT, these two years played a key role in me obtaining my dream of joining a premier Engineering institute. Hope this helps students and parents going to Kota to study.

Coaching Classes

As you may have expected main part of your day will be attending coaching classes and taking tests. there are 2-3 classes of 1.5 hours every day, divided into 30 mins of question/homework discussion and 1 hour of the actual class. this might seem less but keep in mind each class is densely packed will the material the instructor will cover. normally what would be covered in over a week in your normal school will be finished in 1 session.

Tests are taken once every 2-3 weeks on Sunday. 1 or 2 papers of 3 hours depending on whether it is the main pattern or advanced pattern. Your next batch is completely dependent on what rank you get in these tests. You get material/homework you have to try and solve at home. (in terms of problems from sheet or daily practice problems aka DPP). this might take you anywhere from 1 to 3 hours to solve depending on the amount of homework and difficulty.

In my opinion, your main daily focus should be attending each class (don’t skip) and complete your daily homework daily. because if you fall behind it will be very difficult to catch up.

Hostel / PG

There are two main ways people from outside Kota choose to stay, Hostels and PG. As most don’t have relatives they can stay with and not all parents can leave jobs and relocate to Kota. during my stay first year, I was in a Hostel and Changed to a PG in the second year.

The main difference between them is hostels are a bit expensive but all the facilities like food, laundry, cleaning are included in the price. PG is cheap but you have to look for Open mess or tiffin services (very easy to find) for food and they sometimes don’t have service for smaller meals (like breakfast, evening snack, tea, etc.) If you are like me and consider breakfast and tea a non-negotiable part of life you should definitely go for a Hostel. But if you like everything customizable like changing mess services every other month and save money you should go for a PG.

Just a point of advice choose your place of stay very near to your coaching center ( < 500 meters ) so you could just reach there by walking. If that is not possible stay within 2-3 km and get a cycle. avoid van and auto services as much as you can ( they can waste too much of your valuable time, in delays and waiting for other passengers)

Food in Kota

Food in Kota is very decent for the most part. but if you are in a hostel don’t get tricked by the food in the initial days when your parents are present as they serve their best at the beginning and start to lower quality as all inmates have joined and turned in their deposits. just clarify with them at the start with your parents present that if this happens they allow you to stop mess services and join outside open mess/tiffin services. you can also already present students who have been living there for more than 6 months about actual quality when hostel staff is not present. avoid red flags like the number of students with more than 6 months are too little.

For PG you don’t have to worry about these types of politics as your contract is on monthly basis and can just switch if you don’t like the food. just make sure your PG has at least 4 to 5 open mess/tiffin services in 100 meters radius so it is easier to switch. you can also dine at a hostel mess while staying at PG. Hope this is helpful.

Conclusion

I hope this helps the aspirants who are trying their best to make use of the opportunities they are getting in Kota. Ultimately, it depends on the hard work that we put in our preparation years and a little bit of luck that decides where we will be spending the next few years and the most important time of our lives. I was fortunate enough to get into IIT Bombay. If you would like to know about life at IIT, read this blog post.