Each year, Avanti prepares its students for one of India's most competitive exams. Even with thorough preparation, some students perform well; others, having given their best, do not get the result they hoped for and decide to spend a year retaking the exam.

This is one such story: Manish's story of second chances.

In 2024, Manish's father, the family's only earner, who worked at a factory in their hometown of Begumpur producing transformer sheets, had a serious motorcycle accident that left him with a spinal injury and unable to return to work for a time. With the family's main source of income suddenly gone, Manish's mother cared for her husband as he recovered, while also working long hours as a hospital attendant to keep the household going.

Manish was then in Class 12, balancing his studies with duties at home: looking after his injured father, his elderly grandmother, and his younger sister. Without a mobile phone, his JEE preparation was also held back. Since he had already joined Avanti's coaching and test-prep programme in his final year of school, Avanti gave him a mobile phone, which let him continue preparing at a critical point in his academic life. Even so, the difficulties compounded and disrupted his preparation, and he scored the 37.12 percentile in his first JEE Main.

Manish decided to try again, this time inspired by his family and his Avanti teachers. Through the Avanti Voucher Support (G13) programme, he received continuous guidance, had his progress assessed and given feedback, and was offered strategies for improving his subject knowledge and revision, along with test series support and time-management advice from his mentors. Over those months, he attended the offline tests on Sundays, used the online resources and study material Avanti had provided the year before, and stayed committed to a timetable.

Manish achieved a 97.14 percentile in his latest JEE Main, which won him a place at one of India's well-known engineering colleges: the Computer Science department at Delhi Technological University.

He credits his success to his family's support and to the dedicated mentors at Avanti who stood by him. "All my mentors at Avanti have been very supportive; their advice has helped me to remain confident and focused on my aim," he recalls. His journey shows how much determination it takes to stay positive and hold on to one's dreams, however distant they may seem, and it reminds us that some delays are only intermediate steps.