Will NCERT suffice for the engineering entrance exam in JEE Main 2026?

Dr. Saurabh Kumar

The primary source for science and math instruction in Indian schools, as well as for candidates planning to sit for the Joint Entrance Examination Main (JEE Main) 2026, are the textbooks produced by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT).

1. Describe JEE Main and the tests it assesses.

One of India‘s most demanding entrance exams, JEE Main serves as a springboard for admission to prestigious engineering programs at universities like NITs, IIITs, and other government-backed technical schools. In addition to evaluating your conceptual grasp of the subject, JEE Main will measure your general speed, accuracy, and applicability. Concepts mostly present in NCERT will be covered in the test, but the analysis will frequently go beyond NCERT-level questions to analyze your ability to solve numerous processes rather than just answering questions one and two. Therefore, even while NCERT can offer a solid basis for studying the subject, you will still need to study outside of it.

The top JEE Main scorers are also qualified to sit for the JEE Advanced exam. The entrance exam for IIT admission is JEE Advanced.

2. What is the significance of NCERT books?

NCERT books are very helpful for JEE preparation, even though they are not entirely enough, for the following reasons:

Conceptual clarity: NCERT clearly explains the fundamental principles of mathematics, physics, and chemistry. Advanced challenges are hard to solve if your foundation is poor.

Appropriate covering of the syllabus: The JEE Main syllabus closely resembles the Class 11 and 12 NCERT syllabus. As a result, you risk missing crucial subjects if you ignore NCERT.

– Trustworthy reference: Unlike certain reference books that provide outdated or unnecessarily complicated information, NCERT textbooks have been scientifically validated and contain no errors.

Benefits of inorganic chemistry: According to a number of JEE top scorers, NCERT is the Bible of inorganic chemistry. The NCERT contains nearly every factual question in this topic, word for word.

Therefore, starting with NCERT is not a point of contention for any prospective candidate.

3. The NCERT’s weak points

NCERT ensures that you will comprehend the topics, and JEE Main will assess your application of those principles in a unique and perverse manner.

However, this is where NCERT is insufficient on its own:

Application-based questions: JEE Main will offer application-based problems for several topics inside each problem, even if your NCERT material has none at all.

Accuracy and speed: You must be exposed to a variety of question kinds with varying degrees of difficulty if you wish to have both.

In-depth knowledge of physics and mathematics: JEE Main questions may touch on topics that NCERT would not, such as rotational motion, electrostatics, calculus, coordinate geometry, etc. An experience of working outside of NCERT is recommended to gain experience in those and related topics.

– Mechanisms in Organic Chemistry: NCERT shows some mechanisms in the form of equations. NCERT does not, however, provide a thorough explanation of the mechanisms. Understanding mechanisms becomes highly important for application based organic chemistry questions.

4. Study resources outside of NCERT

Use NCERT in conjunction with additional practice questions to improve your score on JEE Main 2026.

– For physics, make sure that you have strong concepts, and you can solve numerical and application scenarios, if you can do this regularly, you’ll be in good shape.

NCERT covers all of your physical and inorganic subjects in chemistry. But for organic chemistry, you will want to do some additional practice problems in conjunction with NCERT.

Once you have mastered the fundamentals, you should work on progressively difficult problems and practice exams to improve your speed and accuracy.

5. How to make effective use of NCERT

Rather than ignoring NCERT, the approach should be to ensure that you are making effective use of it by:

First, read NCERT: Read all of the NCERT material carefully to lay a solid foundation, paying particular attention to the definitions, derivations, and examples.

– Highlight and memorisation: Highlight the relevant and important formulas and exceptions. Regular review aids in memorization of the information, particularly chemistry facts.

Do the NCERT practice questions: The questions are taken straight from the examples and backward exercises, so don’t skip them.

Fill in the gaps: After you have a firm grasp of your NCERT foundation, you can tackle the more challenging problems by consulting reference materials.

– Connect: Try to connect what you learn in NCERT with application-based questions for instance, applying basic formulas of the kinematics learned in NCERT to original situations of motion.

For JEE Main 2026, NCERT is crucial but insufficient. You can think of NCERT as the strong, stable trunk of a tree, but in order to get a decent rank, you still need to branch out into problem-solving, practice papers, and advanced problem banks.

Good mock practice and NCERT-based preparation may be enough if you want to score in the 90–95 percentile. You must go beyond NCERT to apply concepts and practice based on time if you want to score in the 99th percentile and be admitted to an NIT.

Your JEE adventure begins with NCERT, but it’s just the beginning. In addition to their NCERT curriculum, you will need to do mock exams, solve challenging problems, and practice frequently if you want to succeed in the JEE Main 2026. Every year, the competition becomes more challenging, and it is more about applying what you have learned intelligently than it is about studying a lot. Be an NCERT master, but don’t stop there.

(The author is Shiksha Nation’s founder and CEO.)