Patna: With an All India Rank (AIR) of 471 in Joint Entrance Examination (Advanced)-2025, city resident Gyan Prakash on Monday became the second topper in the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Guwahati zone, under which Bihar falls. A total of 2,743 candidates cleared the exam — the result of which was announced by IIT-Kanpur — in the Guwahati zone, encompassing the northeastern region, some regions of West Bengal and Bihar.Close on heels is Arjun Verma, who hails from Nalanda district. He has come fourth in the IIT-Guwahati zone with an AIR 529 in his very first attempt only. Arjun, who devoted eight-10 hours to studies over the last two years, said he took the help of a coaching institute, reference books and solved sample papers regularly to understand the concepts.“Preparing for both Class XII board exams and the engineering entrance test was quite challenging, but my hard work has paid off. Chemistry was initially difficult for me. I didn’t feel like studying it. But over time, with the help of my teachers — Saurabh sir, Ranjan sir and Batulda Sir — I started liking the subject. Chemistry requires more memorisation and effort compared to maths and physics. It takes time and isn’t very conceptual,” he said, adding he wants to study computer science and engineering.Born to Manish Kumar Verma, a political activist, and Rashmi, Arjun said his preferred institute is IIT-Bombay, but it all depends on the ranking. “My second and third choices are IIT-Kharagpur and Guwahati respectively,” said Arjun, who completed his Class XII this year with 90% score, and Class X from Delhi Public School, Danapur Cantt, in 2023, with 93% marks.Arjun’s mother was full of joy: “It feels great. Maintaining a study timetable for two years is not easy, especially alongside plus two. He sat for JEE (Main) exam in January, when he got 99.94 percentile,” she said.Among the Bihar natives, however, Arnav Kumar — who hails from Samastipur district but lives with his parents in Rajasthan, secured an AIR 25 from Delhi zone. Born to IITian Ajit and Neha Singh, he did his schooling at DPS-Kota and DPS-Bhopal, and prepared for engineering in Kota. By securing 100 percentile in JEE (Mains) in his first attempt, he was among the 14 students from across the country who had ranked 1. A wave of joy has swept the Samastipur, soon after the news reached his native Raja Jan village in Mohiuddinagar block, which burst in celebrations.On the other hand, Pratik Chauhan, son of Santosh Kumar Singh and welfare officer Ranjita Singh, also brought laurels to Samastipur district by securing 764 rank in JEE (Advanced).Sushant (AIR 819), Shivam (AIR 985) and Ojus Mishra (AIR 1,379) are among other top scorers from state.Carmel High School ISC topper Aashi Ashmita got 1,502 rank. “I am happy with my result. I scored 99.98 percentile in JEE (Main). My dream college is IIT-Bombay, and I would opt for computer science. I want to study AI and data science. My ultimate goal is to become a civil servant,” she said.