While most of us barely juggle friendships and the freedom of independent study in college; Mridul Agarwal made history at the tender age of 18. Not only did he secure India rank (AIR) 1 in the JEE Advanced 2021, but he achieved the highest-ever percentile in the IIT entrance test by scoring 348 marks (96 per cent), reports IE.
“My hard work has paid off,” Mridul exclaims. However, he adds that his life wasn’t centered only on work. He confessed that he never misses a friend’s birthday and is “always up for a party”.
He reveals that whenever he’d feel blue, he’d go for long drives with his parents, go bowling or play table tennis with his pals. The boy credits his success to his father, Pradeep Agarwal and his mother Pooja as they “never pressurised him to choose a career path”.
Opening up about his admirable feat he says, “Consistency has helped me in achieving this. Self-motivation is the key. Teachers, parents and friends can motivate you but no one can do it 24X7. I focused on debugging the problems in my preparation strategy instead of beating myself up for every mistake.”
“Initially, I used to spend time on social media and other OTT platforms but then I realised that a lot of time is being wasted. Then I decided to leave all of this keeping my future in mind. Such challenges are being faced by every student, but we have to cope up with them and move forward,” he said, reports TOI.
Agarwal plans to pursue BTech in Computer Science Engineering (CSE) at IIT Bombay and subsequently to migrate to USA for his master’s degree.
“For master’s degree, I would try to get admission in MIT or Stanford. Since IITs are the best in the country, my goal is to get into the best university in the world for a master’s degree,” Mridul declares.
He adds that he aims to return home after completing his education to contribute to India’s technological development.