Four 100s in 10th Boards, Already Done with 11th: How Prime Academy Pune Is Quietly Changing the JEE Topper Playbook

How does a 10th board student score 99.4% with four perfect 100s? By finishing 11th standard early. Inside Prime Academy Pune’s foundation approach used by top IIT rankers.

Pune, 2nd May 2026: Recently, the 10th board results were declared. Students entering the 10th standard naturally want to follow in the footsteps of high scorers. However, a 10th standard score is just the tip of the iceberg in the academic journey these top students have followed. A closer look reveals that a perfect 100% score in 10th boards is often part of a much larger academic landscape. For many top achievers, these stellar marks were not even the primary goal; rather, they were a byproduct of a much deeper intellectual journey.

Picture a group of 10th standard students standing in their school courtyard, trying to calculate the height of the overhead water tank using nothing but a thread, a small tube, and the trigonometry they learned that week. Or a student in the back seat of a family car, calculating the average speed needed to reach Mumbai from Pune before sunset. This is what learning looks like when concepts step out of the textbook. It is also, not coincidentally, what many 100% scorers do almost by instinct.

Simply by memorizing formulas and definitions, students may get good scores in the 10th boards. However, many of the 100% scorers are those who dive deep into concepts without worrying much about board requirements.

Why Top 10th Board Scorers Are Already Studying 11th Standard Concepts

Interestingly, many Science and Mathematics topics from the 11th and 12th standards are already present in the 8th to 10th standard curriculum. A very effective approach is to master these concepts with such depth that a student can comfortably solve 11th and 12th standard problems while still in the 10th standard. Take the concept of Optics, for example. It is taught in both the 10th and 11th standards. A typical 10th standard question might ask: “An object is placed 20 cm in front of a concave mirror of focal length 15 cm. Find the position and nature of the image.” The student plugs values into the mirror formula and reports the answer.

An 11th standard question on the same underlying physics adds a twist. The same concave mirror is now placed at the bottom of a bucket full of water, with the object above the water surface. Suddenly the student has to think about two things at once: light bending as it enters the water (refraction), and then reflecting off the mirror. The mirror formula alone won’t solve it. But the core ideas, namely how light reflects off a surface and how it bends when it enters a denser medium, are both introduced in the 10th standard itself. A student who has truly understood these ideas, rather than memorizing the mirror formula as a standalone trick, can reason through the 11th standard problem in the 10th itself. Eventually, the confidence and control they develop over the topic is far greater than that of other 10th standard students. With simple refinement in writing skills, they can then score effortlessly in the 10th boards.

This philosophy of learning without boundaries is exactly what many 10th board toppers adopt.

Meet the Students Who Finished 11th Before Their 10th Boards

A standout example is Yatharth Janaikar, who scored 99.4% in his 10th boards with four perfect 100s. An online student of Prime Academy from Wardha, Yatharth had already covered a significant portion of the 11th standard syllabus before even appearing for his 10th boards. “My son simply enjoyed the topics by following the lectures at Prime Academy, and gradually we noticed that he was able to handle 11th standard problems as well. As and when required, we had one-on-one discussions with the faculty to customize the targets. Overall, it has been a very satisfying experience, and we are all trying our best to ensure that he does well in his career,” shared Mrs. Namita Janaikar, Proud Yatharth’s mother.

Another notable example is Samyak Kasliwal, who secured multiple perfect scores of 100/100 in his ICSE 10th boards. “Parents must understand the child’s behaviour and support them in the direction that suits them. Simply pushing for marks and comparing with others may not be the right approach. My son has always been keen to understand subjects in depth, and he received strong support from Prime Academy Pune for an effective study plan. Currently, he is focusing on JEE, and as parents, we are supporting him in every possible way,” said Mr. Kasliwal, who himself is an IIT Bombay graduate.

Similarly, Yashaswi Pant achieved a perfect 100/100 in Mathematics and AI in his 10th boards while attending online lectures at Prime Academy Pune. For the Pant family, excellence is a tradition. “In 2025, my elder son, Kushagra Pant, joined IIT Bombay, which motivated my younger son. My elder son received strong support from Prime Academy Pune during his 12th standard. With the younger one, we decided to start a little early, and that helped,” shared Mr. Pant. Following in his elder brother’s footsteps, Yashaswi joined the academy’s online sessions from Dehradun, proving that strong guidance and a focus on fundamentals can bridge any geographical gap.

All these students have been giving tough competition even to their seniors at Prime Academy Pune. There are many more such students following a similar roadmap, one that often leads to institutions like the IITs through a remarkably stress-free journey.

“Instead of chasing marks, if a student learns the logic behind the concepts, their curious mind does the rest of the job,” says Lalit Kumar, CMD of Prime Academy Pune. He believes that such students don’t need an external push because they find the “fun element” in their studies, connecting classroom theories to daily life. If the same set of teachers guides them throughout the course, the teachers develop a better understanding of students’ behavioural patterns, and that helps a lot in bridging the gap between what a student knows and what science dictates. Notably, Prime Academy Pune, headquartered in Pune’s Sadashiv Peth, has had the same core faculty team of IIT graduates for almost 16 years now.

The Strategic Advantage of Early JEE Preparation

This depth-first approach also opens up a significant strategic advantage. While schools are bound by protocols that prevent moving ahead of the standard curriculum, private coaching environments like Prime Academy have no such constraints. Students with the capacity to learn faster are encouraged to complete their JEE preparation one or two years ahead of schedule. Mustafa Chasmai (AIR 91) and Mayank Singh (AIR 108) are cases in point. Both joined Prime Academy well before the 11th standard and were ready to clear the JEE a year or two before their official attempt, using the remaining time for deeper revision, mock tests, and refining problem-solving speed. This pattern is common among top IIT rankers: the actual JEE attempt is less a final sprint and more a confirmation of work that was already complete.

What Parents Should Look for in a JEE Foundation Course

Ultimately, a high score in the 10th grade is a clear signal of hard work and dedication. However, for those looking toward the JEE and beyond, it is the analytical clarity and the courage to look beneath the surface that truly makes the difference. Parents wanting to offer their children this kind of head start often turn to JEE foundation programs at well-established coaching institutes, particularly those where the faculty has stayed together long enough to truly know each student as an individual. By fostering this ecosystem, many good private coaching classes ensure that for their students, a 100% score is not just a target, but an inevitable result of a mind that has learned how to think. After all, when a student learns to think, the marksheet takes care of itself.

Frequently Asked Questions

When should a student start JEE preparation?

Many of India’s top JEE rankers begin their JEE foundation course as early as the 8th or 9th standard. The advantage is not just early syllabus completion but deep conceptual mastery, which allows students to comfortably solve 11th and 12th standard problems while still in the 10th. Mustafa Chasmai (AIR 91) and Mayank Singh (AIR 108), both alumni of Prime Academy Pune, joined the academy well before the 11th standard and were ready to clear the JEE a year or two before their official attempt.

Can a 10th standard student really finish the 11th standard syllabus early?

Yes. Yatharth Janaikar, an online student of Prime Academy from Wardha, scored 99.4% in his 10th boards with four perfect 100s while having already covered a significant portion of the 11th standard syllabus. The approach works because many concepts in the 11th standard are extensions of ideas first introduced in the 8th to 10th standard curriculum, and a student who has truly understood the foundations can build on them naturally.

Does early JEE preparation hurt 10th board performance?

Quite the opposite. Students who go deep into concepts for JEE preparation typically find 10th board questions easier, since most board questions are simpler applications of those same fundamentals. With light refinement of writing skills, scoring 100/100 in 10th boards becomes a byproduct of strong conceptual learning rather than a separate goal.

What should parents look for in a JEE foundation course?

A stable faculty team that stays with the student through the years, individual attention rather than batch-driven teaching, and the freedom to move ahead of the standard school curriculum. At Prime Academy Pune, the core IIT-graduate faculty has remained almost unchanged for nearly 16 years, allowing teachers to know each student’s learning pattern and customize targets accordingly.

Is online coaching as effective as in-person coaching for JEE foundation?

Yes, when the academy and student both commit to it. Yashaswi Pant attended Prime Academy Pune’s online sessions from Dehradun and scored 100/100 in Mathematics and AI in his 10th boards. Yatharth Janaikar did the same from Wardha. Strong guidance and a focus on fundamentals can bridge any geographical gap.