Om Prakash Behera has achieved the perfect NTA score of 100 in the JEE Main January 2025 session, the results of which were released on February 11. The topper does not own a phone, citing distractions as a major concern. His daily routine consists of eight to nine hours of self-study. His ultimate goal is to pursue a BTech from the computer science and engineering branch of IIT Bombay.
Prakash’s approach to learning was centred around self-analysis and improvement. “After every test, I would analyse my mistakes and work on not repeating them in the next test,” he explains.
Originally, a resident of Bhubaneswar, Odisha, the 17-year-old passed his Class 10 with 92 per cent marks. He enjoys reading novels in his free time. He also used to play with his friends and check his parents’ mobile before having lunch or dinner. Although he likes science subjects, topics in biology did not interest him much and therefore, he chose to take JEE and be in the technological field.
His mother, Smita Rani Behera, a college lecturer, left her job to care for him in Kota, while his father, Kamalkant Behera, is an officer at the Odisha Administrative Services.
Om Prakash credits his success to the guidance of his teachers at his coaching institute – Allen Career Institute. For JEE Main, he focused primarily on the NCERT syllabus.
His father says the hard work of his teachers helped him score 100 NTA score. “I feel the level of questions asked in competitive exams like JEE Main and JEE Advanced requires strong analytical skills and therefore the guidance of teachers plays an indispensable role,” he added.
Om Prakash has also bagged the first rank in the Junior Mathematics Olympiad, Odisha in 2021.
This year, as many as 14 students have obtained NTA score of 100 in paper 1 (BE/ BTech). Among the 14, the most, as many as five, are from Rajasthan alone, two each from Delhi (NCT) and Uttar Pradesh and one each from Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Telangana. The National Testing Agency (NTA) is yet to announce the JEE Main paper 2 (BArch and BPlanning) result.