The right reference materials make a big difference.

The IIT guides for Physics (Gupta & Gupta), Chemistry (O P Agrawal) and Mathematics (Khanna & Sharma) published by Tata-McGraw Hill and J T Nath come highly recommended. Use text books which contain large number of solved problems. While going through the solution, concentrate more on why that particular method is being used rather than mugging up the method mindlessly. As coaching classes are in vogue, students can avail of this facility as well. However, take assistance from those teachers who specialise in analysing instead of just solving problems. Here is a suggested list of topics that you should master first before others: Physics : Thermodynamics, Conduction and Convection of Heat , Hydrostatics and Bernoulli's Principle, Waves in Elastic Media, Interference Beats and Doppler's Effect, Electrostatics (full) , Electromagnetic Induction, Lorentz' Forces, Circuits with Capacitors, Modern Physics (full), Collisions, Rotational Motion, Gravitation, Elasticity, S.H.M. Chemistry : Atomic Structure, Bonding, Redox Reactions, Volumetric Analysis, Chemical Equilibrium and Kinetics, Ionic Equilibria, Electrochemical Cells, Solutions, Hess's Law, Organic Chemistry (full) with special stress on reaction mechanism of reactions named in the syllabus, Oxyacids of P,S, C & N, Properties of Ozone Thiosulphates, H2O2, Coordination Compounds. Mathematics : Calculus (full), Quadratic Equations and Expressions, Complex Numbers, Progressions, Solution of Triangles, Solution of Trigonometric Equations, Vector Analysis, Straight Lines, either Circles or Conic section.