Students from Tamil Nadu are among the top 100 in the recently-released results for the Joint Entrance Examination Mains (JEE Mains). Deeksha Dhiwakaran, a girl from Coimbatore topped in the State with 99.998, and has been ranked 53 in the country.
She says she began preparing for the test from Class XI, allotting 10-12 hours every day to her studies. “Till 10th, I had no idea about competitive exams and struggled a lot in the beginning. I had no idea about this kind of training. But then I spent long hours studying and I could do it,” said the aspirant, who plans to pursue B Tech in Computer Science and Engineering. She scored 100 in physics, and 95 in chemistry and mathematics. Her father is an ENT surgeon and mother, a homemaker.
S. Shravan has been preparing for two years and scored 100 in chemistry and 95 in mathematics and physics respectively. He spent three-four hours studying and two hours on practice tests. He is ranked 65th in India.
Ashwin Subramanian Murugan, scored 100 in math, 100 in physics and 90 in chemistry.
He prepared for two years for around 7-8 hours daily. “My ambition is to work in ISRO,” said the aspirant, who aims to get into IIT-Madras. Athreya Vedantam scored 99.98 with 95 in physics; 90 in chemistry and 91 in mathematics. He spent around 5-6 hours studying, and became more serious about the preparation in Class XII and Class XII. He is aspiring to join IIT-Madras.
For Pavan Kumar, a professor in FIIT-JEE coaching centre, Deeksha’s performance signals the coming of age for girls. “It is a vigorous competition and girls topping in the State is a rare phenomenon. Deeksha’s achievement will inspire more girls to take up competitive tests,” he said.
Unlike NEET, fewer girls attempt JEE and the number of those who ace the test is even lower, he rued. In contrast, in the public exams, Class X and XII girls have been always done better than boys. Also, more girl students qualify in NEET.
Balaji Sampath, founder of AhaGuru that coaches students for JEE pointed out that since NEET was mandatory, more students take them, even repeatedly. “Tamil Nadu has a tradition of regular schools with coaching taken additionally. There is a larger holistic education that make students more articulate. In NEET, more people sit as it is now compulsory,” he explained.
