My JEE Story

The Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) is known as one of India’s toughest academic battles a test not just of knowledge, but of discipline, consistency, and mental strength. Looking back, the journey changed me in more ways than I ever expected. In this blog, I want to take you through my story every twist, every mistake, every moment of hope and how it shaped who I am today.

The Beginning: The Day Everything Changed

April 20, 2021 the Maharashtra government officially announced the cancellation of the Class 10 SSC board exams because of COVID-19.

For many, it was a relief. For me, it was the spark. With boards gone and uncertainty all around, I told my parents, almost impulsively, “I want to aim for IIT.”

I had no idea how big that dream really was. But sometimes dreams choose you before you understand their weight. So I did what every confused aspirant does I opened YouTube. Vedantu JEE, free lectures, syllabus breakdowns, strategy videos… a whole new world opened up.

The First Detour: The Toppr Incident

One afternoon, my father received a call from a counselor at Toppr. A few hours later, two people arrived at our home. What followed was the most dramatic sales pitch I had ever seen stories of struggle, missed opportunities, “middle-class dreams,” and the fear of losing out.

He ended with one line that stuck with us: “Give your son the resources I never had. Don’t let him miss his chance.”

My parents looked at me. I looked at them. And just like that, we bought the course for ₹50,000. I joined the online classes. But nothing clicked. Teachers kept changing. There was nobody to talk to, no doubt support, no motivation. YouTube felt more personal than this course we paid so much for.

A Turning Point: The Bakliwal Entrance

Around May, one of my father’s friends told him bluntly: “Toppr se IIT nahi hoga. Join a real coaching.” He recommended Bakliwal Tutorials, one of Pune’s most renowned JEE institutions. I took the entrance exam, and by some miracle, I cleared it.

But the fees were sky-high. It was the kind of amount that makes a middle-class family sit down together and calculate their future twice. My parents decided to take a chance not on IIT, not on coaching, but on me. That trust became my fuel. I joined Bakliwal.

11th Grade: The Rise… and the Mistake

Classes were still online because of COVID, but this time everything felt different. Teachers were amazing. Peers were motivating. Telegram groups buzzed with doubts, discussions, and late-night panic messages. I enjoyed learning really enjoyed it.

But slowly, distractions crept in. I started skipping chemistry lectures. I told myself, “Chemistry is easy, I’ll manage.” That was the biggest academic mistake of my life. I didn’t realize the price I would pay later.

12th Grade: Reality Hits Hard

Offline classes started. New notebooks. New hope. But the hunger was gone. Organic chemistry? I missed almost half the lectures. Inorganic looked like an alien language. Physics and Maths were somewhere in between.

Weekly tests delivered the harsh truth: 4 marks in Chemistry. One time, -2. I wasn’t just bad at chemistry I was terrified of it.

JEE Main 1st Attempt

January approached. Panic set in. I quickly revised basics of chemistry whatever I could and gave the first attempt.

The result? 90 percentile.

• Physics: 97
• Maths: 60
• Chemistry: 38

Enough for nothing. No good college. No CSE seat anywhere. Boards came and went in February. Life moved on.

12th Board Exam: A Magic

Amidst all the JEE chaos, something unexpected happened, I managed to score 75.5% in my 12th board exams. I know it’s not an extraordinary number, but considering the circumstances, it feels like a real achievement. I was so focused on JEE preparation that I barely studied for my HSC board exams, I honestly only revised for a couple of days before the papers.

And people often say that HSC Class 12 is tougher than CBSE Class 12. Many of my school friends had fully dedicated their time to board preparation, attended special coaching for it, and weren’t juggling entrance exam prep yet they scored around 60–70%. So, looking at all that, scoring 75.5% felt nothing short of magic for me.

JEE Main 2nd Attempt: A Small Redemption

I changed my approach. Instead of fearing chemistry, I attempted more questions. Even if mistakes happened, at least I would score something. And it worked. In the second attempt, I got 94.3 percentile a big jump in Maths and Chemistry. But still not enough for a good B.Tech CSE college.

• Physics: 94
• Maths: 89
• Chemistry: 92

JEE Advanced

I’ll be honest I was NOT prepared for Advanced. But I went anyway. Surprisingly, I loved the questions. The level of thought behind them was beautiful. Even though I solved only a few, the paper taught me more in three hours than some lectures taught in months. I didn’t qualify, but it didn’t feel like failure it felt like a lesson.

Drop?

I wanted to take a drop and tried convincing my parents. They refused. So we started exploring colleges in Pune COEP, PICT, VIT. All great colleges, all out of reach with my rank. My CET score was 95.8 percentile yet again stuck in the “frustrating middle.”

Then came MIT WPU

A private college with high fees ₹3.5 lakh per year but good placements, that’s what they claimed. There was a scholarship, but it needed 95 percentile in JEE or 96 in CET. I missed both by just a little every single time.

Eventually, we decided to take a student loan and I joined MIT WPU. What happened next? Well, that story deserves its own blog. Let’s just say it turned out to be the biggest mistake of my life.

To be continued…

Thank you for reading. In the next blog, I’ll share what went wrong in my college life, what I learned, and how it changed my future goals.