JEE (Main) Session 1: Students reflect on success and the road ahead

The results of JEE Main 2026 Session 1 were announced on February 16, ending weeks of anticipation for over 13 lakh engineering aspirants across the country. For many students, this exam marks the first major milestone on the path to some of India’s most sought-after engineering institutes.

Among the successful candidates were several students from Apeejay Education who delivered strong performances and secured impressive scores. Here is a closer look at their journey, preparation strategies, and what they plan to aim for next. Meet Keshav Goyal (99.63), Talin Tayal (99.45), Rituparna Debnath (99.39), and Kartik Gupta (99.31) from Apeejay School, Pitampura.

In a candid interview, they share their journey.

Keshav felt happy with the way he performed, although he now has higher expectations for the upcoming exam. “This result reflects my preparation so far, but my main focus has always been JEE Advanced, so I am now concentrating fully on preparing for it. I plan to give my complete effort to improve further and perform even better in the next stage of the exam,” he said.

Looking ahead, his goal is to secure admission to IIT Delhi. “I want to achieve the best rank possible so that I can get a good branch there. If that does not work out, I am confident that my JEE Main result will still allow me to secure a good option in colleges like DTU or NSUT in Delhi. However, my primary aim remains getting into IIT Delhi,” he shared.

Talin, who was happy with his result, shared that it felt good to see the outcome of the effort he had put into his preparation. “I am now preparing for JEE Advanced and plan to appear for it. My preparation has mostly involved studying for JEE alongside my Boards. Since the core PCM subjects overlap, I focused mainly on strengthening my preparation for JEE Mains while continuing my board exam studies,” he shared.

Going forward, he would like to pursue a BTech in either Computer Science Engineering or Data Science. These are the fields that interest him the most, and he hopes to continue building his career in this direction.

Sharing a similar sentiment, Rituparna said that she would have been happy with a better result. “My main aim now is JEE Advanced and BITSAT, and I hope I can secure a strong result that allows me to pursue Computer Science Engineering at a top IIT or at BITS Pilani,” she said.

Her study approach has always focused on concept clarity first. “I spent dedicated time understanding a topic thoroughly before moving on to practice. Once I felt confident about the fundamentals, I solved previous years’ questions and other practice problems to strengthen those concepts and improve my application skills,” she shared.

It was rewarding to see that the effort Kartik put in over the last two years paid off. “At the same time, I see this result as only a step in the journey rather than the final goal, so I am trying to stay focused and keep improving for the next stage,” he said.

 Right now, his main focus is on preparing for JEE Advanced. He is revising key concepts and solving higher-level problems to strengthen his preparation. “Along with this, I am working on improving accuracy and maintaining consistency in practice. My study approach has centred on building strong conceptual understanding and solving a wide range of questions. Whenever I make mistakes in tests or practice papers, I carefully analyse them to avoid repeating them. Balancing Boards and JEE was sometimes challenging, but focusing on NCERT for Boards while continuing JEE practice helped me manage both effectively,” he shared.