'I couldn't clear JEE Mains and my parents won't talk to me'
I didn't get a good score in JEE Mains. Will I ever be successful in life?"
"My parents are not talking to me because I couldn't clear JEE Mains. How will they show their face to their friends?"
"I studied only for eight hours. My friends studied for 16 hours a day."
These are some of the actual questions that student helplines have received after the JEE Mains results were declared on 27 April this year.
Clearing the two-tiered JEE exam (Mains and Advanced) along with scoring well in the Class 12 examination is no child's play. And yet, this is what 17-year-olds in India are required to do in order to make it to an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT).
"The JEE exam is associated with pride and success. If you are an IITian, you are considered to be successful in life," says Richa Singh, an IIT Guwahati alumna.
"I was also in Kota and can relate to what aspirants are going through. There is an extreme competition to get into the IITs or into good medical colleges. Aspirants get up at 4AM, study till 12PM. Life has no other meaning," she adds.
Singh is now the founder of YourDost, an initiative to help students and aspirants overcome depression.
While the race to join IITs seems to claim a number of lives every year - with five student suicides this year alone - it is important to note that these institutes rank poorly in the list of world's best universities.
