Chennai: Two city students featured among the top 100 rank holders in the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Advanced. The results were declared on Monday, and experts noted that candidates from Tamil Nadu secured better ranks compared to the previous year.
Of the 1,79,694 candidates who appeared for the exam on May 17, a total of 56,880 qualified. Snehal Roy Choudhury, a student from Chennai, scored 290 out of 360 marks and secured the all-India 41st rank.
"I used to prepare for five to six hours a day for the last two years. Paper II in the JEE Advanced was very challenging. I was expecting a rank within the top 50 this year," he said. He plans to join computer science engineering but is yet to decide on the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT).
Thammina Girish, another student from Chennai, secured the 89th all-India rank. "The weekly tests and guidance from my teachers helped me to get a rank within the top 100 this year," he said. He is also yet to decide on an IIT.
Sharani Ponguru, director of Narayana Group of Schools, said Tamil Nadu students performed well in the exam. "Students who trained in time management and practiced tests scored well in the JEE Advanced," she said.
"This year, we have seven students among the top 1000 ranks, which is an improvement from four last year. Overall, more than 140 students from our institute have a chance of getting into IITs," said Santosh Singh, academic head (Tamil Nadu and Puducherry) of Allen Career Institute in Chennai. "The interest in taking the JEE exam has also increased in Tamil Nadu," he added.
B Pavan Kumar, academic dean of Maharishi Global Education, said the number of qualified students from the IIT Madras zone increased from 13,000 last year to 14,294 this year. "Though the paper was considered tough, there was no big difference among top scorers," he said.
