IIT-JEE: The Make Or Break Test That Decides Gen Zenith or Gen Zilch

For a record 1,80,422 teenagers awaiting the IIT-JEE Advanced results, June 1 is not merely another date on the calendar — it is judgment day. Some approach it with calm confidence; for many others, however, the wait means sleepless nights, gnawing anxiety and primal terror.

By evening, a freshly minted pantheon of Gen Z superheroes will have arrived. Donning coaching institutes' T-shirts, their dazed faces will be plastered all over the city billboards; flashbulbs, cameras, interviews, swarming journalists, swooning relatives, laughter and laddoos — the winners, as always, will take it all.

A nation overawed by near-mythical percentile scores shall scarcely spare a thought for the lakhs, privately grieving over the harsh verdict: that they have been measured, ranked and rejected. That before actually stepping into adulthood, they have been cast off by a ruthless sorting machine. And that this snap judgment cuts deeper than they would ever care to admit.

As temperatures soar across north India, so too may despair among the despondent. In extreme cases, it spirals into tragedy. In March 2025, a Supreme Court bench of Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice R Mahadevan, alarmed at the raging “suicide epidemic”, warned that 'relentless academic pressure, coupled with brutal competition for limited seats in premier institutions, places a terrifying burden on students' mental health, reducing life to “a mere series of tests”. Three different benches of the apex court took cognisance of the same following this. (NCRB data show a 64.9% spike in student suicide over the last decade, and Uttar Pradesh now records the second-highest number of student suicides after Maharashtra.) The court has since framed a 15-point extensive guideline to address and tackle the growing mental health crisis.

Yet, despite lofty promises of holistic education and multidisciplinary learning, the prevailing climate remains brutally singular: compete, survive, become a topper. “Both parents and students are under immense pressure to stay ahead in the race,” says academician Professor Rakesh Chandra. “And ‘success’ almost automatically translates into science and mathematics, even though the National Education Policy advocates broader educational choices.” Thus, JEE and NEET remain coveted gateways while the humanities continue to be viewed as second-tier pursuits.

To many parents, these tests are their children’s passport to prosperity and social elevation, says Dr Poonam Devdutt, psychiatrist and counsellor with the CISCO helpline. “At times, the child becomes a mere vessel for their unfulfilled ambitions, though young shoulders are seldom equipped to bear the crushing burden of inherited dreams,” says Devdutt.

The result? “An NCERT survey found that 11% of teenagers suffer from anxiety disorders, 14% display severe emotional distress and 43% report frequent mood swings. Not every child wishes to become an engineer, doctor or civil servant,” says Lucknow-based psychiatrist Ambareen Abdullah, who advocates aptitude testing before students are funnelled into high-stakes competitive exams.

“Ultimately, the crisis boils down to the size of the pie. Over 15 lakh students appeared for JEE Main this year for a tiny number of IIT seats. Barely 1% will make the cut. The rest will either settle for lesser-known colleges or confront uncertainty,” points out Chandra.

'Unfortunately, in a society that confuses potential with percentile and human worth with a test score, acceptance often comes at a stiff price — the quiet burial of millions of ordinary dreams,' he added.

(Writer is a senior journalist)