JEE Mains: City boy Pradish secures all-India rank of 36

Chennai: Pradish Gandhi S from Chennai scored 99.999 percentile and achieved an all-India rank of 36 in the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE Main). The National Testing Agency has declared the results and ranks of the two sessions of JEE Main exam conducted in January and April on Friday.

"I scored 295 out of 300 marks in the exam. It was challenging. My preparation helped me score high marks," said Pradish Gandhi, who wrote the Class XII exam from Maharishi Vidyamandir School in Chetpet, to TOI. He prepared for the exam from Class VIII onwards during the Covid-19 pandemic. In the past two years, he prepared for the exam for four to six hours daily. "I did not keep a backlog in studies, and it helped me score well," he said.

He is currently preparing for the JEE (Advanced) exam scheduled to be held on May 18. "I want to prepare well and get a top rank in the exam. I am planning to join computer science engineering at IIT Bombay or IIT Madras," he said. His father, Sathish Gandhi, is a businessman, and his mother, Devi Kamatchi, is a homemaker.

Another student, Sarvesh Anand from Katpadi in Vellore, got an all-India rank of 42 in the JEE (Main) exam. He also scored a 99.999 percentile and aims to join computer science engineering at one of the IITs.

"I used to prepare for eight to ten hours a day," he said. His parents, Sivanandam S E and Sankaranandhi S, are doctors.

"Different question papers had varying difficulty levels. Some papers had tough maths questions, and some had tough physics questions. This year, chemistry questions were tricky, and the chances of making mistakes were high," said Sivaramakrishna, core-dean, Narayana Educational Institutions.

"The paper difficulty level was high in physics compared to last year. Questions from the subject were lengthy and tough. The competition also increased, with more than 1.3 lakh students writing the JEE exam compared to last year," said B Pavan Kumar, deputy director of FIITJEE Chennai.

"NTA also dropped two questions due to the ambiguity of the questions. It could have affected the performance of toppers," he added.

The top 2.5lakh students are qualified to appear for JEE (Advanced) exam scheduled to be held on May 18.