Why Telugu States Slipped In JEE Ranks

Experts noted that students are performing well, but such changes are normal in national entrances exams where results cannot be predicted. But the top 10 count of the Telugu states is slowly coming down.

This year the Telugu states have had to settle with Arnav Singh’s ninth rank and Vadlamudi Lokesh’s 10th rank. In 2024, Hyderabad student Bhogalapalli Sandesh had secured the third rank. For 2023, Vavilala Chidvilas Reddy secured first rank and Polu Sai Lohith Reddy secured second rank Vangapalli Sai Siddhartha secured fourth in 2022 JEE Advanced.

According to Krishna Chaitanya Kasula, expert in JEE and NEET teaching, “Earlier, the early coaching was confined to united Andhra Pradesh. But now people in every state are following this model, making it a pan-India competition. As the cost of coaching has fallen due to competition between the top institutions, hiring top faculty has become tough for the institutes.”

He said many students rely on specific material for their exam preparation. If the questions in the exam paper are different or more conceptual, they are struggling to solve them. Students have to put extra effort for IPE and leave the JEE preparation.”

“Our students are strong in maths, but the questions are very difficult. Questions from chemistry are easy, but we do not have a good faculty. Other states, on the other hand, are performing well in chemistry and balancing it with maths, scoring top ranks,” he explained.

“The drop in top ranks secured by Telugu students could be because of the intense competition from those in other states. Since the JEE is based on NCERT syllabus, students from CBSE board focus mainly on competitive exams and have only class 12 exams, which give them a distinct advantage,” said V. Kishore, an IIT Trainer at TGSWREIS.

V. Ajay Reddy, who secured Rank 19 in JEE Advanced-2025, said, “State books that the Telugu Akademi publishes are referred to only for Eapcet. For the JEE Main, students focus on study material given by the institute, which covers the more extensive lines of NCERT.” He said that he did not pay any great attention to Intermediate, focusing only on JEE syllabus.

“These years we can also observe that there might be a fall in craze for these exams as parents are also not forcing the children to pursue only one particular course, and students preferring diversified courses,” said Ramana Vudithyala, Principal Government Junior College. “The state board curriculum is aligned with the NCERT syllabus, but with greater focus on maths.”

V. Kumar, national coordinator of exams from a private institute, said, “These changes in ranks are common in national entrance exams, where even a difference of one mark can change a student’s rank. Students prefer studying NCERT even though the state syllabus is similar except for maths and biology.”

He said Telangana should also follow the NCERT as Andhra Pradesh is doing, and reduce the burden on students.