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Your child says half the batch is joining a second institute: theory at one, test series at the other. It sounds like extra effort, and it is hard to refuse a teenager who wants to work harder. But two institutes usually buy the same chapters twice and take away the hours where marks are made.
Is joining two coaching institutes together a good idea?
For most students, no. Both institutes teach to the same exam syllabus, so the modules overlap: the same chapter at two speeds, two sets of practice sheets and two test calendars that rarely line up. Your child attends more and practises less.
In a review of ten study techniques, Dunlosky and colleagues (2013) rated only two as high utility: practice testing and distributed practice, which means spreading study over days. Both happen mostly in self-study, not in a lecture. In two experiments, Roediger and Karpicke (2006) found that students who took recall tests on a passage remembered more two days to a week later than students who simply restudied it. A second lecture on a chapter your child has already heard is closer to restudying.
The day has limits too. The Ministry of Education's Guidelines for Regulation of Coaching Center, sent to states in January 2024, say coaching should not be more than 5 hours a day, neither too early in the morning nor too late in the evening, with a weekly off. That limit is written for each centre, so nobody adds up the hours of a child who attends two.
How do you do a time audit before saying yes?
Draw last week as 168 hours. Use a real week, not an ideal one.
Fill in sleep first: teenagers aged 13 to 18 should sleep 8 to 10 hours a day, according to an American Academy of Sleep Medicine consensus.
Add school with commute, meals, rest and school homework.
Add current coaching, including travel.
What is left is self-study. Count only time spent solving problems or testing yourself, not rereading notes or watching lectures.
Add the second institute with its travel and see what remains.
Here is an illustrative week for a Class 11 JEE aspirant at a regular school:
Sleep, 8.5 hours a night: 59.5 hours
School with commute, 7 hours on six days: 42 hours
Meals, rest, exercise and school homework: 30.5 hours
One institute, 3 hours of class plus 1 hour of travel on six days: 24 hours
Self-study left: 12 hours
Now add a second institute three evenings a week, 2 hours of class plus 1.5 hours of travel each time. That is 10.5 more hours, and self-study falls to 1.5 hours a week, under 15 minutes a day. A short online class for one subject instead, 1.5 hours twice a week with no travel, adds 3 hours and leaves 9.
When does an extra class for one subject make sense?
It can be the right call when most of these are true:
One subject is clearly behind, and mock tests show why: the concepts were never taught well, not just practised too little.
The class covers what the main institute skips. Compare both schedules chapter by chapter; if most chapters match, skip it.
It is short, ends with a unit, and is online or close by, so travel does not eat the time.
After you add it, the audit still leaves most of the self-study hours in place.
Your child can name the reason, beyond "everyone is joining".
A second test series rarely helps if the tests from the first institute are not being reviewed. The Ministry's coaching guidelines also point to NTA's free National Test Abhyas app for JEE Main and NEET-UG mock tests.
If the gap is a few concepts rather than a whole subject, focused self-study may be enough. The Fermi Concept Library has a lesson for every concept in physics, chemistry, biology and mathematics, and the Fermi Problem Library has worked problems with a step-by-step solver that explains the reasoning.
What should you say to your child?
Start from their effort, not your doubt:
"I can see you want to do more. Let's check where the hours will come from before we pay."
"Show me which chapters the second place teaches that your first institute doesn't."
"Let's block self-study for four weeks first, then look at your mock scores together and decide."
If marks are not moving even with one institute, this four-week check for when tuition is not improving marks helps find the cause. If the self-study plan keeps collapsing, plan smaller so the timetable survives. And if the talk has turned to moving cities for a bigger coaching hub, read whether a parent should relocate for coaching first.
Tele MANAS is a Ministry of Health and Family Welfare service. This weekend, do the audit together, on paper, before paying any fee.
