JEE Main Physics: Chapter-wise weight and Most important topics

JEE Main 2019/2020 may change it's name or frequency, but one thing that has remained consistent from AIEEE to the current JEE Main to any upcoming version is the syllabus, the level of questions and the weightage of chapters and topics maybe because the exam has always been conducted by CBSE. Keeping this in mind, we analysed the question papers of previous 5 years to get a weightage, backed by data. In this article,we share the weightage of units and chapters of Physics, along with the most important topics to cover.

JEE Main Physics: Unit-wise weight

We have divided all the chapters of Physics into 5 Units as given below:

1. Mechanics (Class XI)
2. Heat & Thermodynamics (Class XI)
3. Electrostatics & Magnetism (Class XII)
4. Current Electricity & EMI (Class XII)
5. Optics & Modern Physics (Class XII)

The weightage of these units is given below:

So as we can see, the highest weightage is that of Mechanics. Of course this includes all the questions of Electrostatics which requires the knowledge of laws of motion or kinematics, which would actually take the weightage higher. So focus a lot on the mechanics part of class 11th for a clear understanding of the entire physics. Let's take a look at the chapter-wise weight in each of the units.

JEE Main Physics: Chapter-wise weight in Mechanics

Mechanics consist of the first 9 chapters of class XI from units & dimensions to Oscillations & waves. Let's take a look at the chapter-wise weight (the values given in each pie are the chapter-wise weight percentage out of total Physics marks).

The most important topics here are:

• Dimensional and error analysis
• Equations of motion
• Relative motion
• Projectile & circular motion
• Mechanics of common forces
• Conservation of momentum & energy, and collisions
• Potential energy of a spring
• Moment of inertia and dynamics of rotational motion
• Kepler's laws
• Acceleration due to gravity
• Satellites
• Simple Harmonic Motion
• Transverse & longitudinal waves: superposition and reflection
• Standing waves & Beats, Doppler effect
• Pascal's law, Bernoulli's principle, viscosity & Reynolds' number 

JEE Main Physics: Chapter-wise weight in Heat & Thermodynamics

Heat & Thermodynamics consists of the rest of the chapters of class 12th as given below. Every year, atleast 3 questions are asked from this part. Check out the chapter-wise weight below:

The most important topics in this unit are:

• Temperature and Thermal Expansion
• Specific Heat Capacity and Calorimetry
• Heat Transfer
• Newton's Law of Cooling
• First Law of Thermodynamics and Heat Capacity
• Thermodynamic State Variables, Equation of State and Thermodynamic Processes
• Heat engines, refrigerators and Heat Pumps
• Second Law of Thermodynamics
• Reversible and Irreversible Processes and Carnot Engine
• Law of Equipartition of Energy, Specific Heat Capacity and Mean Free Path

JEE Main Physics: Chapter-wise weight in Electrostatics & Magnetism

The first book of class XII consists of 8 chapters which are all inter-related. We have tried to broadly classify them in 2 Units, the first of which is Electrostatics & Magnetism. Let's take a look at the chapter-wise weight in this case:

The most important topics are:

• Electric Charge and Coulomb's Law
• Electric Field, Field Lines and Flux
• Continuous Charge Distribution and Gauss's Law
• Electrostatic Potential and Work done
• Potential Energy in an external Field
• Electrostatics of Conductors and Dielectrics
• Capacitance and Capacitors
• Motion in Electric and Magnetic Fields and Cyclotrons
• Biot-Savart Law
• Ampere's Circuital Law
• Force Between Two Parallel Currents
• Torque on Current Loop and Magnetic Dipole
• Bar magnet and Magnetic Field lines
• The Earth's Magnetism
• Electromagnetic Waves and Spectrum
• Bandwidth & modulation of Signals in communication systems

JEE Main Physics: Chapter-wise Weight of Current Electricity & EMI

In this unit, we cover the rest of the chapters of the first book. It has a higher weightage than the previous unit, even though we spend more time on the concepts of the previous unit. Let's take a look at the chapter-wise weight and now you know what to focus on.

The most important topics are:

• Electric Current and Ohm's law
• Drift of Electrons and resistivity
• Electrical Energy and Power
• Cells, Emf, Internal Resistance
• Combination of resistors and cells and Kirchhoff's Laws
• Wheatstone Bridge, Meter Bridge and Potentiometer
• Magnetic Flux and Faraday's Law of Induction
• Motional EMF and Eddy currents
• Inductance and AC generator
• AC voltage applied to LR, CR and LCR circuit
• Power in AC circuit
• Types of Semiconductors and Semiconductor devices: Junction Diodes and transistors
• Circuit Configurations and transistor Characteristics
• Applications of transistors: Switches, Amplifiers and Oscillators
• Logic gates and IC

JEE Main Physics: Chapter-wise Weight of Optics & Modern Physics

This is the final unit and by the time you reach this you are exhausted and just want to finish the syllabus. However, if you went through the first graph, you would know that it has a huge weightage. Now, not to mention, this is perhaps the easiest unit to take care of considering all the questions asked here are completely formula based. Let's check out the chapter-wise weight of this unit.

The most important topics are:

• Concept of refraction & total internal reflection
• Refraction at spherical surfaces and by lenses
• Power of a lens
• Refraction by Prism & dispersion
• Optical Devices
• Young's double slit experiment & Interference
• Diffraction & resolving power of Optical instruments
• Mass-Energy relationship and Nuclear Binding Energy
• Radioactivity
• Photoelectric Effect
• De-broglie relationship

JEE Main Physics: Chapter-wise Weight

In case, that wasn't clear, let's take a look at the table of chapter-wise weight for the benefit of all those who don't like graphs (in case you don't, you are not supposed to be an engineer).

So now you have the chapter-wise weight of all the chapters. Just to prove that this works, I am going to share my analysis before the JEE Main 2017 exam and you can see how close it is to the actual JEE Main 2017 exam:

Check the similar analysis & Chapter-wise weight of other subjects here:

JEE Main Maths: Chapter-wise weight & Important Topics

JEE Main Chemistry: Chapter-wise weight & Important Topics

Check out the detailed syllabus of Physics and the rest of the subjects below:

JEE Main Physics Syllabus

JEE Main Chemistry Syllabus

JEE Main Maths Syllabus

All the best!!

Team Gradeup