MIT student Chirag Falor ranks first in JEE Advanced 2020

Pune-based Chirag Falor topped the Joint Entrance Exam-Advanced, results of which were announced on Monday (October 5).

Falor scored 352 out of 396 marks. He said securing a seat in the IITs was the toughest and he had prepared for four years as it is just one exam but with a vast syllabus, while MIT evaluates the candidate on personality and potential and checks how much he or she can leverage from opportunities.

“I used to attend MIT classes online during the night and then prepare for IIT exams in the day,” he said.

Falor topped the prestigious exam after obtaining an all-India rank (AIR) of 12 in JEE-Main.

He had attended the JEE Advanced exam from the IIT Bombay zone.

Falor had got the Bal Shakti Puraskar for 2020 and was praised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the time. The prime minister had said, “Meet my friend Chirag Falor, a Bal Puraskar awardee. Winner of national and international math and science competitions, he represented India in the International Olympiad Award on Astronomy and Astrophysics. Chirag has a bright future ahead and I wish him success.”

Falor further said he would continue with his studies in the United States Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He had secured admission in MIT in March but was pursuing studies online from here due to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown. “I have already attended classes online at MIT and will continue with it,” Falor said after the JEE-Advanced results were declared.

Meanwhile, among women candidates, Kanishka Mittal became the topper with an AIR of 17. Mittal, who obtained 315 marks out of 396 marks, wrote the exam from the IIT Roorkee zone.

Around 1.6 lakh students had registered for the exam and 1.5 lakh appeared for it. Out of the total number of candidates, 43,204 people, including 6,707 girls, have cleared the exam.

Of the total number of candidates who cleared the exam, 6,707 are female and 36,497 are male. The numbers have improved when compared to the previous year.

The number of successful male candidates in 2019 stood at 33,349. The number of women who qualified was just 5,356.