My journey from scoring low in JEE to becoming a college topper: Aman Ankur

During my secondary education studies, I was an average student. I did not study books or focus on the 10th percentage, which are actually very important to decide your stream for higher secondary education i.e., where your career begins.

I always wanted to play games, be it indoor or outdoor ones. I scored 6.8 CGPA in 10^th since I only studied for 2 hours on the final day before the exam and I played cricket for half an hour before the 3-hour exam. But playing cricket before my exam gave me happiness.

Then came the time to select my stream for 11th class. I wanted to take the Science-Maths stream because I loved these subjects.

My father also advised me to take this stream, so I selected it. In 11th, I was very poor in all the subjects. I was the only student in the class who played volleyball. I got a supplementary in chemistry but I was not ashamed of my results, though my father did scold me about it.

In 12^th, I joined tuition classes during the summer vacation. I studied hard for one month. I completed almost half of the Maths portion in one month and after that, I started playing again and spent time with friends. I bunked almost all the remaining classes of my tuition.

In the half-yearly exam of 12^th, I scored well in Maths i.e. 73 out of 100 (2nd topper in the class), and also scored average marks in the remaining subjects.

But before the final exams, I once again spent my time with friends in playing and outings, so my 12th result was not so good. I just scored 65% in my 12^th CBSE Boards. Then I started preparing for IIT. My parents admitted me to Gurukripa Coaching Institute, Jaipur for the IIT target course, but I had to fill up for an improvement in 12th exams because there was a demand of a minimum of 70% for appearing in JEE-Advanced, so I reappeared to improve my results in class 12th CBSE.

In the beginning, I studied hard for 2-3 months, then I made some friends and spent lots of time with them, which included hanging out and bunking coaching classes. After 2-3 months of coaching classes, I attended only 9-10 classes in remaining 7-8 months.

In the JEE-Main entrance exam, I got only 68 marks and thankfully, my SC category cut-off was 50 marks. I had scored passing marks and in 12th class, after preparing well for 15 days, I got 73%. Then came the chance for appearing in JEE-Advanced since I had cleared JEE-Mains. But once again, I was hanging out with friends and I was not serious about my studies and career. In JEE-Advanced results, I failed by around 7-8 marks.

I applied for counselling in JEE-Mains in the spot round, and from here, I got a seat in BIT Mesra, a central government institute.

But I did not opt for that college as it was very far away from Jaipur. My parents were not happy with my decision and were worried about my plans for the future. My father believed that I was good in studies but I did not work hard.

We both decided that I had to join a nearby college offering BTech courses. During the starting days of my college tenure, I did not talk to anyone because I was very depressed, and I sat on the last bench of my class. I talked very rarely at home too. I thought all the time about why I had not studied well during my days in IIT coaching classes.

Then, I started to spend my time with books and watched a movie daily at night before sleep. I started studying well and then in midterms, I was the topper in my class (Electrical Engineering) after so many days. When my 1st semester final exams were approaching, I was again bored with studies, so I started to watch TV. But a teacher in my 1st semester encouraged me a lot to study harder, then I thought that if I do not study well, how could I face my teacher who thinks that I can achieve something? After final exam results were announced, I saw that I was the topper in the whole college. I scored 90.3% in the 1st semester.

I was the topper in my college among 800 students, hence, I felt very special. Then I continued studying well and scored 85% in the 2nd semester. In the 1st year, I was 2nd in the list of toppers in the entire college.

Now, I am in the 7th semester and the 2nd topper in my branch. I am preparing for GATE 2019 at the moment. I started attending coaching classes for GATE in the 5th semester and now, I am continuously preparing for GATE.

I want to say just one thing. If you want to be good in studies, it takes time. I won’t say that read a lot, but at least read daily which really improves you and your knowledge.

About the Author:

My name is Aman Ankur and I am from Shahpura (Jaipur). I am currently pursuing BTech as an electrical engineer from Arya College of Engineering & IT. I am fond of playing online trivia quizzes and browsing social networking sites. I aim to get a job in a PSU via GATE by scoring good marks in GATE 2019.