Mumbai: IIT Joint Entrance Examination (Advanced) topper Sarvesh Mehtani has a message for the students: dream big. “First I set the goal and then worked towards it. Since then, there had been no looking back,” said the Bhavan Vidhyalaya School student from Panchkula in Haryana, while addressing aspirants of the exam, in Mumbai on Monday.
10.7 lakh students
Sarvesh, the son of an income tax officer, beat close to 10.7 lakh students to bag the first position in JEE (Advanced), results of which were announced on Sunday. He, however, had started his preparations with the aim to be among the top 10. “There will always be a point where others will know more than you do. Do not let it affect you. Go to that person and learn what they know.”
Sarvesh, who will take up B.Tech in computer science at IIT Bombay, was accompanied by Aakash Waikar, all India rank 7, and Manthan Jindal, all India rank 32. When asked about what motivated him to keep studying, he said, “Whenever I felt like procrastinating, especially in the last few months, all I thought about was the amount of hard work I had put in all these years. I certainly did not want it to go waste. I used to think about the end results and how happy it would make me.”
Many of the aspirants gathered wanted to know the strategy behind the toppers retaining huge amounts of information. To this, Aakash said, “It is essential to devote an hour to revision daily. Apart from that, one can maintain a diary and make a note of whatever they find difficult to remember, and read it before bedtime.” Aakash, an army officer’s son, studied in the same school as that of Sarvesh. Like his classmate, he too plans to pursue B.Tech in computer science at IIT Bombay.
Manthan said, “When you clear all your doubts, you never forget the concept. So get rid of whatever big or small queries you have before proceeding to a new topic.”
Mahesh Shetty, chairman and managing director of Mahesh Tutorials, which had 4,000 students, including Sarvesh, Aakash, and Manthan, appearing for the exam, said, “I urge these intelligent children to look beyond the plethora of ranks and marks. It is indeed a great achievement, but the real achievement will be in the future when they use their capabilities for the greater good of society. IIT is just the start, there is much more.”
Sarvesh and Aakash said they had stayed away from the social media for the last couple of years. “I had not used my smartphone for the last two years. I cannot stay focused while using a smartphone, but those who can, should continue to use WhatsApp and Facebook. I had not been able to pursue my hobbies much in the last two years. I also cut down on hanging out with friends,” said Sarvesh.
Asked how many hours he devoted to studies daily, Sarvesh said, “In addition to the school hours and the private coaching classes, I used to study for five-six hours. On a holiday, I would study for 8-10 hours.”
Sarvesh , for whom Infosys co-founder N. R. Narayana Murthy is an idol, was also inspired by the Aamir Khan-starrer 3 idiots .
