Assam’s Sneha Pareekh has obtained an All India Rank 1 in JEE Main 2022 – the engineering entrance exam. She has not only obtained 100 percentile but has got 300 marks out of 300. She was the only female to have topped in the session 1 results and thus did not appear for session 2 exams. Now, preparing for the IIT entrance JEE Advanced, the 18-year-old believes that girls can ace any stream if only they believe in themselves. Among 24 students who have got the rank 1 in JEE Main, only two are females.
Talking about fewer females acing the engineering entrance exam, she said, “there are fewer girls in coaching classes. It is not about the potential of girls. If the number of girls taking STEM and coaching classes for JEE is the same as that of boys, then you would see more girls obtaining ranks in the entrance exams.” Advising her peers she said, “if a girl has a passion for a subject, she should follow it. It never crossed my mind that I should stay back only because the classes for engineering were full of boys or the jobs are more male-oriented.”
An aspirant of computer science engineering, Pareekh said, “I was young when Google was introduced to us. It sparked my interest in computers and have been wanting to study science since then. I wanted to know how the internet works, and what is the science behind it. ”
She is the first in her family to take science. Her elder sister is a BCom student and mother a house wife and her father a businessman.
Pareekh lives with her family in Guwahati, however, her hometown is in Rajasthan. She claims that mathematics was her favorite subject, however, she calls herself relatively ‘weak’ in physics. Nonetheless, she had obtained full marks in the subject too. She has studied at Allen Coaching center in Guwahati.
While preparing, she claims to have started studying at 4 am every morning. Before starting her day, she used to revise everything that was taught a day before and then attend regular classes till 12:30. She also focused on self-study and used to stay at the coaching center to complete assignments and study deeper for new concepts. She claims not to have referred to any extra books and relied on NCERTs and notes provided by her teachers.
Since she found physics to be tougher, she devoted more time to the subject. For Chemistry she claims, to not have left any ‘backlog’ and studied the chapters along with the classes as she believes the subject had more cramming to do.
She also used to take a lot of mock tests which included topic-wise and subject-wise papers as well as full-length exams. “Whenever I got fewer marks in my mock tests, I would share my feelings with my family. They always motivated me and supported me. I used to analyze my exams and work on my mistakes.”
She, however, claims that maintaining a healthy balance is also important during exam preparation. “One can easily get exhausted. It is important not to force oneself. One has to listen to one’s body for sustainable preparation. Do take breaks. Do things that refresh you but refrain from activities that are draining. I used to stay away from social media as it can start as a loop and one can go on for hours and hours on it. For me, music and family time did the trick.”
For her preparations, she has left many family functions and friends’ birthday parties. No getting the top rank she said, “I am getting call from same people congratulating me who once made fun of me for not being outdoorsy. My efforts have paid.”
The JEE topper is also a KVPY scholar. Now preparing for JEE Advanced, she aims at taking a seat in IIT Bombay’s computer science course. For JEE Advanced her strategy is to revise and take mock tests.