Record march through IIT-JEE

Namit said: “I hope to get a computer science or mechanical engineering seat at IIT Powai.”

He said he had put in more efforts into IIT JEE preparations than his HSC exams and had joined the M Prakash Academy when he was in Class XI. Many students were unhappy about the newly introduced subjective questions,but Namit said he did not face any problems.

Namit’s father is a paediatrician and mother an ophthalmologist.

Two other students,Sagar Chordia (rank 82) and Vinit Atal (rank 90) from the same Academy made it within the first 100 rankings. Vinit has also been selected for the International Physics Olympiad to be held in Mexico. “We have about 80 students who cracked IIT JEE this year,of which 29 have IIT ranks,four have OB ranks and the rest are in EML,” said M Prakash,of M Prakash Academy.

This year,275 students are on the merit list,if students with final IIT ranks,those in extended merit lists (EML) and those in the reserved seats list,are included.

Those in EML do not get preference to IITs and are considered only if seats remain vacant. They qualify for admission to Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISER),Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology,Indian Institute of Maritime Studies and Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology.

“This is the all-time best from Pune although an upward trend was being observed since 2004,” said Mohit Goel,director,Yukti Educational Services Private Limited. Around 3,000 students from Pune had appeared for IIT JEE this year,said Durgesh Mangeshkar,director,IITians Prashikshan Kendra.

“Not only has the number of students who qualified for IIT increased phenomenally this year,the number of girls clearing the examination has also increased. Last year,the ratio of girls to boys who cracked the examination was around 1:9,which has increased roughly to 1:5 this year,” Mangeshkar said. Ninety-one students out of 120 from IITians Prashikshan Kendra have qualified,of which 26 received IIT rankings and the rest are in the EML.

While the collegewise break-up of qualifying students from Pune was not available on Monday,“six to eight students from Army Public School have qualified for IIT,” said Binita Punekar,principal of the school.