Kota, Rajasthan: Keeping away from social media before exams and focussing on self-study was the key to success for Ved Lahoti who topped the IIT entrance exam JEE-Advanced securing the highest ever marks.

A resident of Indore in Madhya Pradesh, Lahoti was enrolled in one of the several coaching centres in Rajasthan's Kota – a hub for competitive examination preparation.

Talking to PTI here, Lahoti said, "I devoted three to four hours for self-study daily and scored 332-340 in routine tests regularly. So, I was confident.

"Since the paper was a bit easy as compared to the test papers, I succeeded," he said.

Lahoti from the Delhi zone topped the IIT entrance exam JEE-Advanced securing 355 out of 360 marks, the highest ever. The previous highest was 352 in 2022.

Lahoti said he kept himself away from social media while preparing for the exam for the last two years in Kota.

"I scored very low in one of the routine tests but I did not get disappointed and instead focused on my weak aspects," he said in response to a query.

Lahoti's father Yogesh Lahoti said he was proud of his son's performance which was no less than a miracle.

"It is just like a miracle that my son has scored the highest ever marks in the history of JEE-Advanced. I was expecting this as my son has been very talented since childhood and that's why we named his Ved after Ved Vyas," Yogesh Lahoti, an engineer in a private company told PTI.

Maharshi Ved Vyas is credited for classifying the holy Hindu scripture Veda into four categories.

A total of 1,80,200 candidates appeared in both papers in IIT-JEE Advanced, of which 48,248, including 7,964 females, have qualified.

JEE-Main, which is the admission test for engineering colleges across the country, is the qualifying exam for JEE-Advanced. The exam was conducted on May 26.

The Joint Seat Allocation (JoSAA) counselling will begin on Monday.