Elon Musk fan and COVID-19 survivor scores 100 percentile in JEE Main 2021

On March 8, the National Testing Agency (NTA) announced the results of the Joint Entrance Examinations (JEE) Main, where about six students scored 100 percentile in the coveted entrance exam. Among them is an ardent fan of TeslaCEO Elon Musk — Ranjim Prabhal Das from Assam — who aspires to be like him one day.

“I follow Elon Musk, and I plan to go to IIT Delhi for higher studies. Otherwise, I'll go to IISc Bengaluru for science graduation,” Ranjim Prabal Das told ANI.

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During the pandemic, the 18-year-old had also tested COVID-19 positive in November last year. However, he didn’t back down because of his illness and continued with his studies once he was feeling better. “When I tested COVID positive, I focussed on healing. Once the fever was down, I got back to studies,” he shared.

Ranjim told The Indian Express that he looked at the pandemic as a boon as the time he saved in travelling to the coaching centre helped him focus more on preparations. Though NCERT books were his base, Ranjim also followed competitive examination books and study materials provided by the Aakash Educational Services Limited (AESL). “I have attempted in total 32 mock tests before the exam to boost my confidence,” the 18-year-old said.

He also said that he read the books of IE Irodov for physics, M S Chouhan and Neeraj Kumar for chemistry, and Ghanshyam Tewani for mathematics.

Ranjim appeared in the afternoon session of the examination that was held on February 25. He told the media that the paper was moderately difficult. Since he had started preparing for the JEE Advanced much earlier, it helped him solve the difficult questions in physics and chemistry.

Apart from Ranjim, the other five toppers are Pravar Kataria from Delhi, Guramrit Singh from Chandigarh, Saket Jha from Rajasthan, Sidhanth Mukherjee from Maharashtra, and Ananth Krishna Kidambi from Gujarat.