Chirag Falor, the 18-year-old from Pune who secured the top spot in the JEE Advanced Exams 2020 will not be in the race for the top IITs. He has already got through to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and plans to study Physics and Mathematics there and pursue a career in Astrophysics. Chirag too, like a huge number of students, felt that the exams came with an extra topping of stress this time due to the raging pandemic amid which the exams were conducted.
Chirag says he hardly had any trouble preparing. "I had come back from Delhi (where he was preparing) before the lockdown but the preparation was seamless and Aakash Institutes' online platforms helped bridge the gap of not being in a classroom," he says. "The exams were challenging because we had to wear a mask all the time. I felt suffocated after a while. It also sends less oxygen to the brain and slows you down," adds Chirag.
Chirag had already cleared the MIT entrance and the results were out on March 14 this year and he sat for the JEE exams just for the experience. He plans to take up Astrophysics later. "I will either choose Physics or go for a double degree in Physics and Maths. But I want to study Astrophysics going forward. I want to work either for NASA or ISRO," says the topper.
A total of 150838 candidates appeared for both the papers and only 43204 cleared them. While 20.41 per cent of the women who appeared cleared the test, men too did not fare too well at a staggering 30.93 per cent. A total of 7852 students cleared the exam in the SC category, 9195 in the OBC category and 2811 ST candidates qualified. The number of students who cleared the exam to get admission into IITs in the general category was 17823 while 5087 EWS category students qualified.
Minister for Education Union Minister Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal said: "I congratulate all students of #JEEAdvanced who got their desired rank and request them to work for #AtmaNirbharBharat in the near future," adding, "Plenty of opportunities are available for students who couldn't get their desired rank. Students should remember that an exam cannot define them." The minister also congratulated IIT Delhi for conducting the exams smoothly amid the pandemic and declaring the results on time.
This year around 1.6 lakh candidates were registered for JEE Advanced 2020. After checking their scores, now the qualified candidates will be able to register for JoSAA counselling, for which the registration will begin from October 6. All IITs will release their cutoff marks on Monday after the declaration of JEE Advanced Results 2020. Qualified candidates will be eligible to get admissions into the prestigious IITs. In the years 2017, 2018 and 2019, seven rounds of admissions were conducted but almost all IITs — old or new — had one or more seats vacant by the end of the common admission rounds. In the year 2019, almost 300 seats remained vacant after six admission rounds across 23 IITs which were re-allotted in the seventh and final round.
