Mumbai (The Hindu): The ranks announced in the Joint Entrance Examination-JEE (Advanced) to the country’s premier Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) were far less than expected this year thanks to an easy paper being set, students said on Sunday.

While results announced on Sunday brought a smile to many faces, students said they had expected to do better. The comparatively easy paper this year is said to have led to more high-scoring candidates. As a result, even small differences in marks brought about big differences in ranks.

Andheri resident Shivanshu Gupta, who scored an All India ranking of 1,453, said, “There was only a difference of nine marks between me and a friend, but his rank was 2034.” Mohit Sardana, director in Mumbai for FIITJEE Institute which had 132 students appearing, said, “Students expecting to feature in the top 500 through the rank predicting mechanism were ranked 1,000 and below.” The rank predicting mechanism uses a set of algorithms analysing all answers from across institutes to rank students.

Arjun Bhardwaj, who secured an all-India rank of 20 with 320/366 marks, was the Mumbai city topper. Mr. Bharadwaj who cut down on playing cricket, his favourite sport, and gave up his smartphone to keep distractions at bay, said, “I have always been a science fanatic. It was my dream to get into IIT. I started preparating from Class IX, studying up to eight hours a day. It was a hard journey.” His father Parmanand, a Indian Navy officer, said nervousness kicked in after the exam. “The paper was far easier than his expectation,” he said.

Other high scorers were Sravya Devulapalli, who topped Navi Mumbai in the girls category with an all-India rank of 595, and Anish Kulkarni who topped Thane district with a rank of 752.

Ms. Devulapalli overcame her inhibitions to write the exam. “I started preparing only in Class XI, much later than most. I felt so intimidated by everybody around. I slowly climbed up the ladder. I am really happy with my performance,” she said. Her mother Saroja added, “We had a rule at home: no one talks about marks and ranks to ensure she doesn’t feel pressurised.”

Mr. Kulkarni, the Thane topper, went through a perianal abscess removal surgery on May 13, days before the exam of May 21. “I was taking a lot of antibiotics and painkillers, which made me drowsy. I am really happy with the results,” he said.

After the first round JEE mains, 1,59,540 candidates were shortlisted for the JEE Advanced, of which 50,455 made it to the rank list across all categories to get an IIT seat. From IIT Bombay zone, 9,893 students qualified of which two made it to the top 10. The zone was the second-best in performance, after IIT Madras zone, from which 10,240 candidates qualified.