CET engineering topper bags number one rank in JEE-Mains

Srinidhi Prabhu from Bangalore, who topped the Common Entrance Test (CET) this year in engineering and secured the 133rd All India Rank in the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) Advanced, has emerged as the number one ranked student in the country in the JEE-Mains. 

The JEE Mains decides entry into any one of the 30 National Institutes of Technology (NITs), 10 Indian Institutes of Information Technologies (IIITs) and the various Centrally Funded Technical Institutions (CFTIs). While results for the exam were declared in May, the All India Ranks (AIR) for JEE-Mains were released only three days ago. 

Only the top 1.5 lakh students of the JEE-Mains can appear for the JEE-Advanced which determines admission to the 16 Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and one Indian School of Mines (ISM) in Dhanbad. 

Although Srinidhi will have no use for the JEE-Mains top rank as he has already secured admission to IIT, Madras, he is nevertheless ecstatic about the achievement. He will study computer science engineering at the IIT, Madras, which he will join on July 21. “I expected a rank of around 20 or 25 in the JEE-Mains but never the number one rank,” said Prabhu. “It is unbelievable.” 

But Prabhu was modest when he said that the top 100-200 students of the JEE-Mains were equally capable. “It is only a difference of one problem that will set one back by a few ranks and it generally depends on one’s day. I would have loved to top the JEE-Advanced, but I got what and where I wanted,” he said. 

The JEE-Mains exam consists of three papers — Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics — and is held for three hours. Each paper is for a total marks of 120. Prabhu secured the near-perfect scores of 116 and 115 respectively in Mathematics and Chemistry and 105 in Physics.