Faridabad boy tops IIT-JEE

Arpit Agarwal of Faridabad emerged as the cynosure of the country’s academic circle, topping the IIT-JEE entrance test this year with a score of 385 out of 401.

The results were declared Friday.

Speaking at a conference organised by a private coaching centre, the student of Modern Vidya Niketan school said he spent around five hours a day for study. He also studied at coaching classes. “During my free time, I used to be on Facebook. But I deactivated the account a while back to concentrate on my studies,” said Arpit.

His cousins’ failure at cracking the IIT entrance test inspired Arpit to give it a shot.

“After my cousins could not crack IIT, members of my family pinned their hopes on me. I am happy I made them proud today,” he told Deccan Herald. However, the music addict is yet to decide on the course to take, but his interest lies in computer science.

Speaking on his son’s success, O P Agarwal, an assistant engineer with the Central Public Works Department, said though Arpit worked hard, “we never expected him to top IIT.”

With congratulatory calls flowing in since morning, the family has decided to celebrate Arpit’s success later in the week. “We have been busy meeting relatives and other people since morning. Will have celebrations later,” said Agarwal. While Bijoy Singh Kochar of Chandigarh came second, Nishant N Kaushik of Bhilai, Madhya Pradesh, secured the third place. A total of 4,79,651 students, contending for 9,647 under graduate seats in 17 IITs, wrote the entrance test at 1,067 centres across the country on April 8.

Apart from the IITs, reputable institutes like Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi and the Indian School of Mines in Dhanbad accept the IIT scores for admission.

“As many as 24,112 secured ranks in various categories and 19,426 were shortlisted for counselling,” said G B Reddy, Chairman for JEE. Parul Jain from the IIT-Delhi zone headed the girl brigade with a score of 320.