Power of self-study: Village boy makes it to IIT without coaching, internet

Tufail Yaqoob, who belongs to Pannad village of Bijbehara teshil in Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir, faced a lot of difficulties while preparing for the IIT entrance exam, but came out strong with determination. 

When you are working with full dedication to achieve your dreams, nothing could put the full stop on your way. Among the many students who cleared Joined Entrance Exam (JEE) is Tufail Ahmad of Pannad village of Bijbehara teshil in Anantnag district, who aced the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) entrance without any coaching.  

Tufail Yaqoob, who belongs to Gujjar community, prepared for the exam purely with the power of self-study. He has secured a seat in Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mandi and is currently focusing on the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) civil services examination. Despite facing a lot of difficulties while preparing for the IIT entrance exam, Yaqoob came out strong with determination. He said, “If one has a set goal in life, he/she can easily achieve it. I had to work hard a lot due to lack of basic facilities at my village such as erratic power supply. Also, there is no internet facility here. I was determined and focused. I mainly studied from books and as there is no internet, I had to travel to Khiram to download videos from YouTube.” 

‘Set up your goal and remain focused’ 

In his message to IIT asiprants, he said, “Don’t waste time in unnecessary things. Set up your goal and remain focused. Blend of hard work and smart work always pays.” Yaqoob who has studied in a government school said the mindset that private school education is better than government schools is wrong. If you are determined, nothing can stop you from achieving big. 

Congratulatory messages pour in on Twitter 

He is receiving congratulatory messages on social media, especially Twitter. A user wrote, “No coaching, no internet facilities available, a Gujjar student from a remote village of South Kashmir’s Anantnag is set to wear the IIT badge after cracking all India level JEE Advance prestigious exam,” while another tweeted,”All the best to this young lad. But it’s important the area gets facilitated ASAP.”

JEE Advanced is a national-level engineering entrance test. It is conducted by any one of the seven IITs namely IIT Kharagpur, IIT Kanpur, IIT Madras, IIT Delhi, IIT Bombay, IIT Guwahati, and IIT Roorkee or Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore, under the aegis of the Joint Admission Board (JAB). The courses offered by the IITs via JEE Advanced are BTech, BS, BArch, BTech and MTech dual degree, BS and MS dual degree, Integrated MTech, and Integrated MSc.

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