Typhoid nearly derailed his JEE preparation. Here’s how he bounced back to secure AIR 3

“My cousin studied in IIT Roorkee,” he said. “Seeing him, I wanted to go into engineering too. That’s why I chose IIT.”

He joined coaching in Class 7, initially focusing on Olympiads rather than JEE. Over the years, he qualified for camps in the Junior Science Olympiad, Earth Science Olympiad, Astronomy Olympiad and Chemistry Olympiad programmes. The exposure sharpened his scientific curiosity long before he formally began preparing for JEE in Class 11.

“If I had joined later, I might not have been able to do this,” he said.

Unlike many top rankers who migrate to Kota, Chahar prepared in Sikar, another coaching hub in Rajasthan. His days followed a disciplined routine: wake up at 6 am for classes beginning at 7 am, attend lectures until afternoon, return home for a brief rest and then spend the evening completing homework, revising notes and solving additional material.

“When there were no classes, I used to study for around 12 hours,” he said.

In September, just as an important phase of testing was about to begin, Chahar contracted typhoid. The illness forced him to miss classes and examinations and disrupted his momentum. “I felt that I had lost a lot of things,” he recalled. “I couldn’t even give two tests in the beginning.”

“But my teachers and family always told me it was okay,” he said. “Nothing will happen if you fail today. Study well for the next paper.”

After every test, he maintained a notebook dedicated solely to errors. “Whenever I made a mistake, I wrote it in my notepad,” he said. “Before the next paper, I would read those common mistakes so that I could avoid repeating them.”

Mock tests became another cornerstone of his strategy. By the time the actual JEE Advanced examination arrived, the atmosphere felt familiar. “After so many mock tests, when you go to give the main paper, it doesn’t feel like today is the main paper,” he said. “You get used to the tests.”

Outside academics, Chahar played badminton with friends, followed football and watched episodes of Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah for entertainment.

“Even if you study all day, you cannot study effectively all the time,” he said. “It is important to have fun in between. It keeps your mind refreshed.”

After JEE Advanced ended, he finally allowed himself a break. He visited friends he had not met for months, watched movies and began learning coding languages, something he had long wanted to explore but had postponed because of preparation.

This interview was given to ALLEN Career Institute