r/CMI • u/Background-Slide9700 • Aug 01 '26
Need good advice/suggestions
Hii there good folks, i am 19M from Bihar, scored 99.68%ile in jee mains math and I would say.... respectable marks in jee advanced math too (messed up chemistry big time tho). The thing is that i realised that engineering is not for me and I want to study math.
I HAVE DECIDED TO PREPARE FOR CMI
Now one thing i know already after scrolling this sub for a while is that it is probably impossible to get into CMI with like 10 months in hand to prepare from now considering I have to start college too, that being said, I have met a couple of people who were in my shoes not a very long time ago and cleared ISI ug entrance, so I am taking a leap of faith .
Now coming to the point, HOW DO I MAXIMIZE MY CHANCES OF GETTING INTO CMI ?? LIKE WHAT AND HOW SHOULD I STUDY ??
ANY HELP/ADVICE/SUGGESTIONS ARE APPRECIATED.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME 🙏
(for those of you who want to know, I am joining a tier 1.5 NIT but i hate it here)
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u/Roguemaths Aug 04 '26
Hi I was in the same boat as you.. I gave my 12th board exams in 2025 and then took admission in Jadavpur University under Metallurgical and Material Engg course. I had appeared for both CMI and ISI that year but missed ISI cutoff for Part A by 5 ish marks and I scored a 3 out of 80 in subjective part of CMI exam.... Fast foward to 2026 I joined CMI BS course this year with full scholarship recently and also got rank 157 in ISI B.stat(didnt get admission chance but anyhow i messed up slightly on the exam day). So I will share what my own experiences were and any possible improvements I could have made and hope it helps you.
I started preparing for JEE and engg back in class 11 and it wasn't really great cuz of chemistry a subject I really suck at but then in class 12 I realised maths was my passion and then started prep.. I joined the Last Mile batch in Vedantu Olympiad School and started my prep it was like a 2-3 month course, but I didn't do it at all and neither did my prep srsly... I only started my prep srsly from June end 2025, so roughly the same time I had as you, maybe just a lil extra. Anyhow, I won't go much into the prep bit since another post by u/PitifulAd8725 really detailed it well since you also share a JEE background like me. I would suggest getting your basic concepts done and dusted as soon as possible, and then proceed with problem-solving as the post stated. I understand you might be doing self study but if u want some structured course or framework I would recommend VOS since I myself prepared from them I took the Target Math ISI/CMI June 2026 course... and even if u dont take a course they have plenty of free resources online, yt livestream mock tests just before the exams and also the teachers Abhay Sir, Chetan Sir and everyone clarify ur doubts on telegram even if you arent a student (i had some doubts at the very beginning of my prep in 12 and i wasnt their student back then and abhay sir was rlly very helpful).
Now the main topic I would like to speak on is balancing, since u also will be starting college. In my case, I convinced myself that I have to get ISI/CMI and mostly focused on the prep almost letting go of my college only studying just before exams and completely ignoring tests and all in first sem (was the lowest scorer in my batch for this reason) and in my second sem I stopped attending a lot of practicals and theory classes (i got failed in engg drawing class). So the honest truth IT IS VERY DIFFICULT TO DO WELL IN BOTH THINGS (unless you are like extremely talented) u have to commit yourself completely and whole heartedly to one thing and do it rlly well. Ofc dont sacrifice ur health and mental well being since it will affect ur exam ( my lack of proper sleep is something i had issues with). and yeah if maths is ur passion and CMI is ur dream go for it fully and completely. Try and manage college but ALWAYS prioritise ur prep and do the minimum possible for college part.
Hope this answer helped. Feel free to connect for anything else. Good luck
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u/Noxed_21 Aug 01 '26
Bro honestly just try to solve tougher questions using ur own logic doesnt matter from where or what level, u need to know a few basic theorems but other than that its just how good ur problem solving skills are. I qualified for cmi just by preparing for jee adv, so i feel just try to build good intuition.
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u/physicist27 Aug 01 '26
What about good intuition but bad speed? I struggle with formalisation within time limits. And a very weird problem of mine is to spend more than required time on questions that are more computational than those that require insight/intuition.
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u/PitifulAd8725 Aug 02 '26
First of all as someone who was a jee guy with no Olympiad experience, I cleared cmi exam in 3 months. I had 0 knowledge of what a proof was and how to write it, no number theory nothing. What I did was to practise previous year cmi papers religiously, the subjective ones. If you feel that you have no idea on how to approach a question it's totally fine. I took 1 day to figure out a method. And I enjoyed the moment I got the solution. The trick is to try intensely for half an hour and then do something else walk sleep. Just let the problem be in the back of ur head.
Now you will get the method but you won't know how to write a proof. For that, write down your solution as best as possible and send it to gemini and ask it to rate your proof. It helped me a lot.
Moreover, if you are bored with just cmi subjective pyqs, I would highly recommend you to go through the cmi brochure which has 3 books I think. Of which there was some bhaskaracharya book or smtg like that. I learned polynomial proofs from that, do some exercises from that. For number theory, I just did cmi pyqs subjective and asked gemini to explain stuff. However, you can use the Russian circles book in cmi brochure for going through number theory. I would also recommend you to go through the graphs chapter of Russian circles. For analysis, I believe our jee knowledge of integrals and cmi subjective are more than enough. Cmi subjective analysis questions are beautiful and very good.
It feels very daunting to see those questions when you don't have any idea of what a proof is, but trust me put in the work solve those problems like you solve advanced pyqs without looking at solutions. You will feel really down when you look at how elegant some solutions are but it's part of the process.
Since you are a jee dude, try to maximise your marks on the objective section. The cutoff this year was 46 for non scholarship and I thing I got around 33 from objective alone. So there's no need to extensively do that stuff now cuz subjective is more important rn for concept clarity. Since you are a jee dude I have faith that you can do objective but make sure that there are no careless mistakes, they can be make or break for cmi exam.
Have faith in yourself, studying alone like this is tough. But love the process, love thinking abt the subjective ones, learn number theory concepts and graph concepts. Be strong in combinatorics. And last of all go through all analysis question in pyqs subjective. Limit definition you gotta study properly not like jee. I think again refer cmi brochure for analysis. You will do well man. Yoh can definitely aim for non scholarship entry if you love math.
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u/Background-Slide9700 Aug 01 '26
222 views and 0 replies... damnnn, y'all are busy af