Mumbai applicant gets 99.99 percentile as his birthday gift

Two candidates have topped the Maharashtra State Common Entrance Test (MH-CET) for admissions to Master of Business Administration (MBA) or Master of Management Studies (MMS) programmes.

Patrick D’Souza and Prapti Shanbhag have scored 164 out of 200, giving them a 99.99 percentile in the examination.

Over 1.02 lakh students appeared for the exam this year, almost 4,000 more than last year. Fifteen candidates have scored 99.99 percentile in the exam, which was held on March 9 and 10 this year.

“Even though the exam seemed tougher compared to last year, the marks seem similar. However, with more students appearing for the test, it’s sure to affect the cut-offs at the top institutes because there hasn’t been a visible rise in the intake capacity of institutes,” said 43-year-old D’Souza, who trains MH-CET candidates in Mumbai. This was his tenth attempt at MH-CET and third time bagging the first rank.

Though results were announced on the state CET cell website late on Saturday night, some students who were unaware of the announcement got hold of their marks only by Sunday morning.

For 25-year-old Nikhil Shetty from Mumbai, one of the 99.99 percentile scorers, the result turned out to be the best gift on his birthday.

“This was my third attempt at CET and I’ve scored the best marks which will help me get through to Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies [JBIMS]. My birthday celebrations have doubled because of the results,” said Nikhil, who works in a consultancy firm.

Fifteen other students scored zero out of 200.

“Since the only eligibility criteria for MBA/MMS admissions is to ensure they’ve scored 50% and above in graduation and appeared for MH-CET, many students with very low marks also apply for admissions. Most, however, don’t get seats because of their performance in CET,” said an official from the Directorate of Technical Education, the admission conducting authority.