.If you’ve cleared IIT JEE, have you been able to solve HC Verma on your own? If not, did you solve any, and which basic book before that? Did you refer to any online solution for HC Verma? Will it clear concepts if no basic book is done before it?
While preparing for JEE, I went through similar circumstances. I loved physics, but the CBSE book of physics just takes all your interest away. (Seriously, I never studied from that book)
I studied with Kumar Mittal while preparing for my CBSE boards. Although the book is meant for ISC students, it helped me clear my concepts to a great level. The book covers all the topics for CBSE, and has explained it well enough to clear all sorts of doubts.
However, when it comes to JEE, Kumar Mittal lacks quality problems. You’ll find plenty in HCV, which I would recommend if you have built a little concept from a board level book (like Kumar Mittal, in my case).
I prepared for my JEE from HC Verma, sometimes referring to DC Pandey or Resnik Halliday to check my progress. Whatever I learned from HCV helped me a lot in JEE, since I could relate the problems in the paper to the ones in HCV to some extent. With all I had gained from HCV, I cleared JEE Advanced 2016 with a decent rank; with almost 60% of my total marks from physics alone!
(That’s a different story that I totally screwed my Chemistry section!)
Now, Did I solve the entire HCV on my own? Well, No. Certainly I faced a lot of problems while solving hcv, and since I did not have an entire day to give to a single question, this was the strategy I adopted:
Whenever I got stuck on a question (solving time t>5 mins); I star-marked the question and moved to the next one.
After going through all the questions, I went back on the star-marked ones; again not giving more than 10 minutes to each question.
After everything failed, Google always came to the rescue (plenty of solution pdf available online). I downloaded the answers, went through the solution pdf, closed the webpage; and finally solved the problem ALL BY MYSELF WITHOUT LOOKING INTO THE SOLUTION pdf (I repeat, all by myself without looking in the solution pdf). This is really necessary if you want to gain something from that question.
There is no harm in looking into the solutions unless you follow the procedure stated above. Most of us tend to look into the solutions without actually using our brain to solve it on our own at least once. As a result, we forget what the concept was, at a time when we really need its help.
So, here is what I had to say. I have done both the books; and so, have given you all the pros and cons. Sorry for this huge answer, couldn’t make it smaller!