In the fiercely competitive Kerala Engineering Architecture and Medical (KEAM) entrance examination, a group of exceptional students, including P Devanand from Madaram in Chandanakkavu, Alappuzha, have cracked the code to success. Devanand, who secured the first rank in the state, was confident of securing a top rand, but acing it came as a surprise.

Devanand is the eldest son of Padmakumar P, a research officer with the Economic and Statistics Department in Pathanamthitta, and Manju P R, a teacher at NSS Higher Secondary School in Thadiyoor, Pathanamthitta.

Expressing his delight at the achievement, Devanand said, “after checking the answer key, I was expecting to be among the top ten, and I was pleasantly surprised to secure the first rank.” This accomplishment is especially sweet for Devanand, who also ranked 682nd in JEE Main and is set to join the Mechanical Engineering program at IIT Kharagpur on July 27.

In addition to his stellar KEAM score of 591.61 out of 600, Devanand also secured the 3165th rank in JEE Advanced, first rank in the Amrita All India Entrance Examination, and 14th rank in the CUSAT All India Entrance. His younger brother, Devanath, is a class 9 student at Placid Vidyavihar in Changanassery.

Devanand completed his schooling at Bright Land and SDV Schools in Alappuzha, and Placid Vidyavihar in Changanassery.

Higher Education Minister R Bindu personally called Devanand to congratulate him on his achievement. “You have secured the first rank; are you happy now?” she asked. “ Yes, I am very happy,” he replied.

Hafiz Rehman, son of Dr. Abdur Rehman of Ponnyar Elikottil in Perinthalmanna and Shahina, secured the second rank. Abdur Rehman now practices as a paediatrician in Qatar. The third rank was secured by Allen Johny Anil, son of Anil Johny (Civil Engineer) of Vellayil Kuttikkandathil in Ranni and Leena Anil of Njannungalpadi Kalayil in Pathanamthitta.

Jorden Joy, who secured the fourth rank, is the son of Kottambath Joy George, a manager with the KSFE Thankamani branch, and Tincy Devassia, a teacher at Vaikom St Little Theresa's HSS. The family is settled in TV Puram, Vaikom.

Interestingly, the first four rank holders scored the same mark in the entrance examination: 591.6145 out of 600. According to K Sudheer, Entrance Examination Commissioner, the ranks were decided based on who scored the highest mark in Mathematics.

58,340 students qualify

As many as 52,500 candidates made it to the KEAM rank list. Announcing the results, Higher Education Minister R. Bindu stated that 58,340 candidates were qualified in the exam, which was held online for the first time. The rank list was prepared by excluding those who did not earn the requisite qualification in the plus two examinations or failed to furnish their marks. The rank list includes 24,646 girls and 27,854 boys.

Compared to last year, the number of students who qualified this year has risen by 4,261, while those included in the rank list increased by 2,829.

Among the top 100 ranks, there are 87 boys and 13 girls. Of these, 75 appeared for the examination for the first time, while the remaining 25 were appearing for the second time.

In the rank list, the highest number of students belonged to the Ernakulam district with 6,565 students. The district also had the highest number of students in the first 1,000 ranks, with 170. Among the first 5,000 ranks, 2,034 students completed plus two in the Kerala syllabus (out of 36,390), 2,785 from CBSE (out of 14,541), and 162 from the ICSE syllabus (out of 1,079).

Meanwhile, the result for the Pharmacy examination will be declared next week. The admission procedures for engineering courses will begin upon receiving direction from the All India Council for Technical Education. The results of the Architecture entrance exam are also due to be released soon.