Ishaan Gupta, a 17-year-old from Haryana’s Gurugram, decided to shift to Kota to prepare better for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE). His struggle paid off as he achieved the 100 percentile in the JEE Main 2024 Session 1 exams.

His mother, Meenakshi Gupta, quit her corporate job in Gurugram to shift with him. “We shifted here in April 2022 and he fell ill several times after that. I was there for him in those moments and that assured me that I took the right step by shifting here,” she said.

Gupta bagged a 100 per cent scholarship from Allen Institute due to which he was able to reside on the campus with his mother.

This was Ishan’s first attempt at JEE Main and he was unsure of getting 100 percentile. “I had doubts in Chemistry due to one question. Through my preparation and solved papers, I knew that I could have made some silly mistakes in Chemistry. But I am glad I was able to get rid of those,” he said.

The first to appear for JEE in his family, Ishan’s parents are CS and CA, and it was in Class 9 that he got to know about the engineering profession through his friends. “I wanted to explore things, and since I liked mathematics and physics, engineering came up as a good career option,” he told indianexpress.com.

Unlike many other JEE toppers in the past, Ishan did not go ‘overboard’ with his preparation. “I had no fixed hours for my everyday study. In the morning, I attended the classes in my coaching centre, returned home and relaxed for nearly 30 minutes. Thereafter, I used to revise the notes from my morning classes. If I had some more time and energy left, I used to practice some previous years’ question papers and sample papers,” he said.

The 17-year-old had several ups and downs during his journey of two years in Kota, however, what kept him going was the support and motivation from his mother. While the journey was tough for Ishan, it was equally tough for his mother. “It was scary when I used to hear the unfortunate news of students’ suicides in Kota. It was shattering because these were teenagers of my son’s age who lost their lives in this process. I also had doubts about whether my son was happy or not, but I trusted him and our relationship. We discussed every issue daily. I gave him enough time to relax when he wanted, and never stopped him from recreational activities such as watching Harry Potter or Masterchef Australia,” she said.

In his free time, Ishaan made sure he spent his time engaging in his activities which helped enhance his skills. “I was not on any social media platforms except YouTube, which I used to pass the time.  I used several other recreational activities to relax,” he said. While singing helped him relax his mental health, he played chess to exercise his logical thinking and played badminton to work on his mental and physical strength.

Ishan is planning to appear for the second session of JEE Main 2024 in April as a practice for JEE Advanced 2024, which is scheduled to be held on May 26 by IIT Madras. “This time the JEE Main syllabus was reduced. My advice to those who are appearing for the April session is to ensure you prepare for JEE Advanced instead of Main so that you are ready for those topics too that have been removed from the Main exam. Also, focus on NCERT books as they are your best guide,” he concluded.