Gurugram boy only student in Haryana to get perfect score in JEE-Main

GURUGRAM: Eighteen-year-old Sarthak Maheshwari turned away from his study corner for the first time in six months. He was celebrating his perfect score in JEE Main, the results for which were declared on Monday.
Maheshwari is among the 14 candidates across the country – and the only one in Haryana – to score a 100% percentile in the competitive exam.
It wasn’t easy. The Class 12 student of DPS-Sushant Lok, Maheshwari started coaching classes four years back. But it was only in Class 11 that he became serious about cracking the exam, he told TOI. “Joining coaching classes early helped me develop some discipline by the time I had to appear for the exam. I had a peer group that was not on social media platforms. We had very different discussions,” he said.
Maheshwari said Covid disruptions made things difficult, but also gave him a breather from running between school and coaching classes. The two-term board exams held during the pandemic in that pattern were demanding but also a blessing in disguise.
“Of course, online classes can never ever match offline classes. But I had an additional 3 to 4 hours every day to study. The objective assessment in term 1 of the boards came as a good practice for me,” he said.
The 18-year-old, who is the son of two software engineers, said he would be fulfilling his parents’ dream if he cleared JEE Advanced, his next aim. The parents couldn’t study in IITs. “My preference is to get into IIT Bombay and take up computer science. The second option is mathematics and computing branch at IIT Delhi,” he said.