I have become a KVPY fellow now. It feels great, and I want more people to feel that greatness.

When I
was preparing for the exam, I found that there were hardly any sources online that supplied helpful and
informative content regarding the scholarship and the exam. So, I decided to contribute some things
from my side and bring a slight change in this trend. Here's my story:

As soon as August approached, the 11
th
class students were abuzz with news of the KVPY application
forms being available, and the registrations beginning. Let me introduce the exam:

Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahana Yojna is an ongoing fellowship program introduced by the Department of
Science and Technology, India, and conducted by IISc Bangalore. It began with an initiative to identify
students with aptitude in basic sciences and to provide them with scholarships for pursuing courses in
the same. In simple words, it aims to reward those who want to become scientists and serve the
country. The selection process is carried out in two stages a written aptitude test and an interview.
Those 11thies who had scored over 80% in 10
th
are eligible to appear.

I started studying in October not very hard core, just revising the old topics and revisiting some stuff
from 9
th
and 10
th
. FIITJEE conducted a few mock tests for the written stage, and I performed well. Going
through 10
th
class Bio seemed nice then, as a break from the monotonous studies of Physics, Chemistry
and Mathematics.

We came to know that we had three big weeks to come, with a test on each Sunday Phase test 2 on
21
st
October, FTRE on 28
th
, and KVPY on 4
th
November. There began my preparations for the phase test.
Eventually, I was able to cope up with the pressure and did well in the first two. Then came the big day,
on 4
th
.

My centre for KVPY aptitude test was Sagar Public School. The paper began at 10, and was a cool ride
throughout. Three hours were a lot of time, and I made full use of them. Completed my paper in two
hours and then went for the questions that I had left. After handing over the OMR sheet, I was happy
with how I had done.

The official answer key came about a week later, and I checked to find that I was getting 81.75 marks
out of 100. That was much more than I had expected, and I was happy with my score.

The wait for the results wasnt too long, as the news of my selection came on 7
th
December. I was
happy, but there was work to be done. Altogether, 1025 students had been selected to appear in the
interview out of 55,000 participants in SA stream (1.86%) and around 300 (0.54%) were going to make it
to the final list.

The interview letter came on 31
st
December. Mine was on 14
th
January, and the reporting time was 2
pm. So, the deadline had been decided, and I had to start preparing in the right manner. There you go!

The journey was very exciting, and tiring. Those were probably the toughest days of my life in Class 11.
Coping up with school work, coaching stuff and interview preparation all at the same time was quite
stressful, but the motivation of success kept me moving on.

We got a lot of help from school too. On our insistence, our English teacher delayed the deadline for a
book review on Pride and Prejudice by a week (especially for us), our Chemistry teacher allowed us
extra time for the Chemistry practical file. Although our physics teacher didnt delay the date for
submission of the physics file, but I took it in my stride and did that work too.

In those fourteen days, I revised all the chapters of Class 11, some Biology from Class 10, and many
other concepts of Class 10 Physics and Chemistry too. I also tried doing the coaching work on time, but I
fell behind in Math.

And then came the 14
th
of January.

I arrived at the centre at around 1.20. I was confident that Id do well, the same way that I had felt
before the NTSE interview.

I was called at around 2.20. I went and sat on the chair outside the interview room (Committee 1). My
heart raced ahead, and I clinched my files, tightly pressing them against my chest. I was waiting for the
bell to be rung, and that would be my cue to go in. I had to wait for about ten minutes. Then, the door
opened, and the previous fellow walked out.

My heart was racing at a phenomenal rate. Then rang the bell. I stood up, adjusted myself, and opened
the door.

As soon as I walked in, I was greeted by a panel of 8-9 people sitting round a parabolic table, and my
chair was placed at its focus. I greeted them, went and sat on the chair, and gave my files to the man
sitting right in front. He spoke in excellent English, So, Nishit. What is your favourite subject? That is,
what would you like to be quizzed on?

I replied confidently, Mathematics. So he directed me to a lady sitting on another corner of the table.
She asked me to stand up and go to the white board. Then she planted her first question, You
have n balls, and n boxes to put them in. What is the probability that exactly one box remains empty?
I was stumped. This was a question of probability, and I had no idea how to go about solving it. It also
involved Permutations and Combinations, so I said promptly, I havent yet studied Permutations and
Combinations, Maam. She replied in a sarcastic manner, Why, wasnt it there in Class 10?
No, Maam. It is in Class 11, and I havent yet studied it. Still, Ill give it a try.
I suddenly jumped to an obvious conclusion. Maam, exactly one box will remain empty implies that n-
2 boxes will have a ball each, and exactly one will have 2 balls.

Very good. Theres your starting point. Go ahead.

I had no idea how to go ahead.

I wrote some gibberish on the board, and she soon realised that I knew no further, and changed the
question. The next question was even trickier.

Prove that 2.101001000100001... is an irrational number.

I pointed out that it is a non-repeating, non-terminating decimal number, so it is irrational. She agreed,
but asked for more explanation. I further explained that it cant be expressed in the form p/q, to which
she agreed again. She asked for more explanation, but now I knew no other method.

She hinted at Binomial Theorems use, but I had no idea how Binomial Theorem could be used here. So I
gave up. She asked two or three easy questions then, which I answered promptly (why pi is irrational?)
and then came the turn of the man who had originally addressed me to start his questioning in physics.

He asked me to write the formula for electrostatic force acting between two point charges q1 and q2,
separated by distance r. I wrote that, realising that probably these guys were hell bent on taking my
head off then and there. Electrostatics is a topic of 12
th
class, so if he asked me any further on this, I
would be blasted. But what came next was a surprise. He asked me to write the force between two
point masses and then compare the two equations that I had written. I did so, saying that both involve
r
2
in the denominator. He asked me to further compare the dependence on mass of the bodies. I did that
too, and the person was quite satisfied.

Now came the turn of the Chemistry professor. He asked me what catenation is. That was easy. He
asked me why carbon exhibits a higher property of catenation than silicon. I started searching my mind
for likely reasons. I soon found one, and I said that carbon has a smaller size, so it can bond better. He
said, Yeah. But there are other more important contributing factors too.
I listed out a couple more factors (IE, Electronegativity) but he was not convinced. He told me to go to
the basics of chemical bonding. I went there (inside my brain, of course), and started off on atomic
orbitals. He corrected my pronunciation there, telling me that it was aur-b-eye-tals and not aur-be-tals.

I was getting humiliated by the second, but I kept thinking on, and told him how bonding takes place.
Finally, he said,

Youve reached there. Which orbitals take part in bonding in carbon?
I replied, p
Is it just p?
No, Sir. Its the 2p orbitals.
and in silicon?

I got it. I explained that silicon-silicon bonds require bonding between 3p orbitals, and that bonding
releases less energy as compared to 2p orbital bonding, as these are farther from the nucleus and
bigger.

He then asked me the solubility order of alkaline earth metal sulphates. This was the first question that I
was truly sure about, and I answered correctly. Finally, the bio teacher asked me an easy question as to
when the growth of cells is harmful for us.

The interview concluded, and I moved out. I wasnt very satisfied with the way events had unfolded. I
had been good in Chemistry and Bio, and not very good in my mentioned favourite subjects. I had my
fingers crossed from then on.

Many events happened from then to the day we received the results. Firstly, school exams drew nearer,
and studies for the same heated up. I and Shashwat used to discuss at length as to our chances of
making it through in the KVPY. I must say, I fancied my chances, but I was prepared for the worst. I had
day-dreamed many times about the day that the results will be declared online. I would open the list,
then Id click on the Find button of Chrome, and enter my name. And there, my name would be, with a
decent rank.

On 29
th
of March, Friday, I was revising some stuff as the Reshuffling Test 1 was to happen the next day.
At 11.15, I got a message from Pandey Sir, in which he asked about my KVPY result. I replied that it
hadnt been declared.

He sent another message, saying that the results are out.

I switched a PC on, my heartbeats racing very quickly. Unfortunately, the net stopped working the
moment I clicked on the link for the list of the selected students.

Then I grabbed my laptop and connected to a different modem through Wi-Fi. This one worked. I
opened the first list, hoping that my name would be there. When it opened, I didnt do what I had
always dreamt about.

I didnt search for my name.

It somehow occurred to my brain that my name must be in the screenshot that was visible. I started
reading down from AIR 1. In a few seconds, my intuition had been proven right.

I dialled my dads phone number, and I told him excitedly, Dad, KVPY ka result aa gaya. Meri All India
Rank 18 aai hai!

Yes, that was true. I was not able to believe it myself, but that was the fact. I was jumping in the air. I
told my mum then, and then checked for my friends.






My Final Score:
Application Number: 1331296
Seat No. : A0820376
Name: Nishit Asnani
All India Rank (General Merit): 18
Marks in Aptitude Test (/100): 81.75 (75% = 61.31)
Marks in Interview (/100): 69.14 (25% = 17.29)
Total Marks: 78.60