Media Release
Mangaluru, Feb 18: CFAL’s top 5 averaged 99.91 percentile in JEE Main 2026 with every student scoring above 99 in all three individual subjects.
All five are also Science Olympiad National Top 1% achievers.
What makes these five extraordinary
In JEE Main 2025, approximately 14.75 lac candidates appeared. Scoring in the 99.8th percentile or above places a student among the top ~2,950 in the entire country. Having five such students from a single institution of 200 in a Tier-2 city is statistically remarkable. But the numbers only tell part of the story.
The TOP 5 at a glance
Average percentile: 99.91
All 15 individual subject scores are above 99th percentile
All 5 are also NSE Olympiad National/State Top 1% achievers
Two of the five have been shortlisted for INAO 2026 (International Astronomy Olympiad).
Cross-subject consistency is the hallmark
What separates these five from typical toppers is not a single peak score in one subject. Every one of them scored above the 99th percentile in all three subjects. This depth across Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics simultaneously reflects students who genuinely understand science at a fundamental level, not students who have been drilled to maximize marks in one area.
Olympiad + JEE excellence is exceedingly rare
All five of these students also featured in CFAL’s NSE 2025 Olympiad results, with National Top 1% rankings in Astronomy, Chemistry, and Physics. The Olympiad tests conceptual depth and scientific reasoning in ways that JEE does not. When the same students excel in both, it signals an education that develops the mind, not just exam technique.
They are 2.3% of their batch but represent a 99.8+ concentration that large coaching centres with thousands of students rarely achieve.This is the power of small-batch, depth-first education.
Meet the Top Five
A Aditya Rao
Aditya’s 99.96 percentile places him among approximately the top 600 students in the entire country. What is most striking is the consistency: all three subjects above 99.8. This is not a spike in one area; this is mastery across the board. His dual appearance in the Olympiad State Top 1% in both Chemistry and Physics confirms this is genuine scientific depth, not exam strategy.
Rishon Fernandes
A 99.99 percentile in Chemistry means Rishon’s Chemistry score was higher than 99.99% of all candidates in the country-among the very highest Chemistry scores nationally. Combined with 99.87 in Physics, this is a student with exceptional command of the physical sciences.
Mrinal D Bhat
Mrinal is perhaps the most complete student profile in this cohort. National Top 1% in Astronomy, State Top 1% in both Chemistry and Physics, shortlisted to represent India at the International Astronomy Olympiad and a 99.90 JEE percentile with all three subjects above 99.6. This convergence of Olympiad and JEE excellence across multiple disciplines is extraordinarily rare in Indian education.
Abhhi Sannayya
Abhhi’s 99.93 in Chemistry and 99.77 in Physics demonstrate a student who thinks with precision across disciplines. His National Top 1% in the Astronomy Olympiad, a subject that demands knowledge of physics, mathematics, and observational science simultaneously, reveals an intellectual breadth that goes far beyond JEE preparation.
Lauren Marian Patrao
Lauren’s 99.94 in Mathematics is the highest individual subject score among all five toppers, placing him among roughly the top 900 Maths scorers in the country. His participation across three Olympiad subjects (Astronomy, Chemistry, Physics) speaks to an unusually broad scientific curiosity. This is a student who doesn’t just prepare for exams; he engages with science in all its dimensions.
Five students. one pattern
Every one of them scored 99+ in all three subjects. Every one of them also excelled in Science Olympiads. The outcomes reflect a depth-oriented learning environment.
The institution behind the Five
These five students did not emerge from a coaching factory of thousands. They came from CFAL (Centre for Advanced Learning)- an institution of 200 students in Mangaluru, Karnataka. CFAL does not operate on scale. It operates on depth.
Founded in 2004, CFAL’s philosophy is anchored in TLC values: Be Your Best, Passion & Excellence, Wisdom & Compassion, Purpose & Meaning. Small batch sizes mean every student is known. The curriculum emphasizes conceptual understanding over formulaic drilling. And the results: Olympiad and JEE excellence from the same students, year after year, confirm that this approach works.
These five are not isolated outliers. They sit at the top of a cohort where 10 students crossed the 99.5th percentile (doubled from last year), 18 crossed the 99th, and 46 scored above the 97th. Every performance tier grew year-on-year. This is a system that is compounding.
The fact that all five toppers are also Science Olympiad achievers is the strongest signal of what CFAL does differently. Coaching factories can produce JEE toppers. Producing students who simultaneously excel in Olympiads, which test a fundamentally different kind of scientific thinking, requires something more than coaching. It requires education.
"Coaching optimizes for a test. Education optimizes the mind. When you optimize your mind, the test takes care of itself. We are not building a coaching centre. We are building an institution combining academic excellence with character formation," said Vijay Moras, director, CFAL, congratulating the achievers.