Playing badminton, avoiding smartphone was key to JEE 2019 topper's success

Hard work, staying off social media, using a basic phone and playing badminton to de-stress spelt success for Kartikey Chandresh Gupta, the topper of the JEE (Advanced) 2019, results of which were declared Friday.

Gupta, who hails from Ballarpur in Maharashtra, came first in the Common Rank List (CRL) of JEE (Advanced) 2019. He obtained 346, out of 372 marks.

He had scored 93.69 per cent in the Class 12 exams of the Maharashtra State Board.

Gupta comes from a family of engineers. His father is an engineer and is working in a paper production company and his elder brother has completed his BTech in computer science and is also working.

"He had been staying in Mumbai for the last two years in the coaching institute's hostel. After classes, he used to dedicate six to seven hours for self-study," Poonam, Kartikey Chandresh Gupta's mother, told PTI.

Poonam said the family was confident about him coming in the top 10 or top five rank holders since he had done well in the exam.

"When the answer key was uploaded and he checked the answers, he found that he had given correct answers to most of the questions. He had attempted every question. There were many students who had complained about the paper being very tough and the mathematics section being lengthy, but he fared well in that section," she said.

Gupta scored 121 in mathematics, 113 in physics and 112 in chemistry.

Kartikey says when he was going to Mumbai, his parents had handed him a smartphone but he refused to take it and instead, settled for a basic Nokia phone.

"My parents had given me a smartphone but I told them I do not need it. I was away from social media for two years. Whenever my parents would call, I would speak to them. Even other students in the hostel desisted from using smartphones and used basic phones," he said.

Asked about his de-stress mantra, he said dinnertime conversations with friends were the best part of his hostel life and did the trick for him.

"We ensured that we had dinner together and after dinner, we used to go out for a walk. We also used to play badminton and table tennis to shake of the stress of studying for long hours," he said.

Poonam said the high marks were a result of her son's "cool attitude" and the fact that he did not take too much pressure.

Gupta how has his sights set on IIT-bombay and wants to pursue computer science from the premiere institute.

The results of JEE (Advanced), 2019 were announced by the Indian Institute of Technology-Roorkee on Friday.

Of the total 1,61,319 candidates who appeared in both papers one and two of the exam, 38,705 have cleared the test.