Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur announced the results of Joint Entrance Examination Advanced (JEE Advanced) on Friday, 15 October.
Those who appeared can check their result on the examination's official website, jeeadv.ac.in. IIT Kharagpur is yet to issue the full list of all-India toppers for the examination that was held across multiple centres in the country on 3 October.
Mridul Agarwal from Jaipur, Rajasthan secured All India Rank (AIR) 1, scoring 348 marks out of a total of 360, ANI reported. With this, the 18-year-old made history as the first candidate to score 96.66 percent marks. Previously, the top spot was held by Chirag Falor, who topped the examination in 2020 with 88 percent marks, scoring 352 out of 396.
The news agency announced toppers in male and female gender categories.
(Photo Courtesy: Twitter/Screenshot)
ANI also noted that a total of 1,41,699 candidates appeared in both papers 1 and 2 in JEE (Advanced) 2021, of which 41,862 candidates qualified JEE (Advanced). While a majority of those who qualified were male, 6,452 female candidates qualified the competitive examination.
As per NDTV, IITs have also prepared a "preparatory" list, comprising candidates that qualified with low marks. While these students remain qualified, they will be required to attend classes to help them catch up with the others.
While Agarwal secured AIR 1 and came out on top among male candidates, Kavya Chopra topped the female gender category securing 286 out of 360 marks, at AIR 98.
'My Hard Work Has Paid Off': Mridul Agarwal
After achieving 100 percentile in the March session of JEE Main examination, Agarwal decided to skip the April session to appear for the test in May as a practice examination instead, reported The Indian Express. "Since the sessions were delayed, it allowed me more time to prepare for JEE Advanced and worked well for me to test the waters right before the exam," he told the publication.
To help prepare for the Advanced examination, Mridul attended online classes at a coaching institute in Kota, Rajasthan.
The 18-year-old calls Google CEO Sundar Pichai his inspiration, not only due to his success, but also because of his path to his current position. Planning to pursue BTech in Computer Science from IIT Bombay, Mridul told The Indian Express that he would later try to get into colleges abroad for his master's degree.
He aspires to complete his education and make significant contributions to India's tech development field.
He added that he credits his success to his parents as they never "pressurised" him to choose a specific career path.
Lok Sabha speak Om Birla, who hails from Kota, congratulated Agarwal on his achievements, noting that coaching institutes in his parliamentary constituency had "yet again proven their superiority".
Birla also spoke to Mridul and asked about his plans.
(Photo Courtesy: Twitter/Screenshot)
As IITs have now announced results, the Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA) will commence allocating seats from Saturday, 16 October. The schedule and guidelines for the same can be accessed via the JoSAA's official website, reported Hindustan Times.
The authority is set to release its first mock seat allocation at 10 am on 22 October, while the second one will be announced at the same time on 24 October.
After both mock lists are released, JoSAA will begin the first round of seat allocation on 27 October and candidates will be able to pay fees and upload documents from 30 October.
After the authority has carried out counselling for all qualifying candidates, IITs will announce their final cut-off lists.
Applicants can also download the final answer keys for JEE Advanced from the exam's website without having to log in.
(With inputs from Hindustan Times, Indian Express and NDTV.)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)