UP Boy Cracks JEE At 15, Becomes One Of The Youngest To Enter IIT

Firozabad: At first glance, 15-year-old Abhay Agrawal looks like any other 10th grader, but what sets him apart is the fact that he has already cleared IIT-JEE (Advanced) and secured admission in mechanical engineering. The young boy from Uttar Pradesh's Firozabad has qualified for IIT admission with an all-India rank of 2,467. He jumped initial classes and completed Class 12 before his contemporaries at school. His feat has now reserved him a seat at Indian Institute of Technology (Banaras Hindu University).

Abhay comes from a modest family. Mukesh, his father, an arts graduate, works as a pump attendant at Firozabad Nagar Nigam, and his mother, Ekta, is a Class 12 passout. But for the family, education is a priority. They did everything possible to provide the best education to both Abhay and his elder brother, who is also studying to be an engineer. They encouraged the brothers to focus but never set any targets. And now their perseverance has paid off. 

"My parents got me enrolled at a coaching class in the city Some people discouraged me but that motivated me to study harder," Abhay told news agency ANI.

Unlike his classmates, he stayed away from social media and other distractions while preparing for the competition. He scored 87.2% in Class 12 from CBSE board and 85.63% in Class 10 from Uttar Pradesh Board.

Earlier in 2013, a 13-year-old student from Bihar became the youngest in the country to crack the IIT-JEE entrance examination. He was also the youngest to crack the test the previous year, but had reappeared for the exam to improve his all India ranking.

Before him, Delhi boy Sahal Kaushik cracked the IIT-JEE test in 2010 when he was just 14. His all-India rank stood at 33. He was the youngest to enter IIT-Kanpur campus. 

The IITs offer admission to undergraduate courses on the basis of JEE-Advanced, while JEE-Mains is for admission to National Institutes of Technology (NITs), Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs), Centrally Funded Technical Institutes (CFTIs). Only those selected in JEE Mains are eligible for appearing in JEE Advanced.