Ascentria: Equipping students for success in JEE and NEET

Srinivas Ramineni is on cloud nine. The Dubai student scored an awe-inspiring 99.25 percentile in the 2020 JEE Main – the highest rank in the UAE. That’s not all. The Indian High School student scored 97 per cent in Physics, Chemistry and Maths in the recent CBSE Grade 12 Board exams.

Still relishing the success in Joint Entrance Exam (JEE), he is all praise for his teachers at Ascentria Examinations & Tests Preparation Center. “They have been extremely helpful. I could reach out to them at any time and were always ready to go the extra mile to make me comfortable with the subject,” he says.

Admitting that Ascentria has played a crucial role in helping him with not just JEE but also the CBSE boards and SAT subject tests, he says one of major advantages is the fact that the institute has extremely interactive classes and teachers who have a finger on the pulse of the students’ progress and regularly offer tips to improve. A friendly management who takes proactive steps to ensure class/test timings do not clash with regular school timings are also factors that helped him achieve his brilliant success, he says.

“At the start of Grade 12 itself, Ascentria tutors began encouraging those students keen to pursue JEE to focus on JEE Advanced. They provided us with PACE modules packed with study material that was extremely useful.” Another advantage of Ascentria is the periodic All India Test Series, which helps overseas students “get to know where you stand with respect to the students in India,” he says.

Srinivas is not alone. Param Jani, a CBSE Grade 10 school topper at New Millennium School, Dubai, is grateful for all the help he has been receiving from not just his school teachers but of Ascentria as well. “My tutors at Ascentria pushed me every day to do better and better. I’m thankful to this institute for preparing me rigorously for the JEE from the start of Grade 10,” he says.

For those who came in late, Ascentria is a multi-award winning institute preparing students from Grade 9 to 12 for the extremely competitive JEE and National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET).

Founded in 2013, the centre offers students in the region a level playing field when it comes to competing with students in India. “We have excellently trained and experienced faculty to guide students to success,” says Alka Malik, Managing Director of Ascentria.

Often known as PACE, Ascentria is the international centre of IITians PACE, one of the top ten pan-India institutes in this arena.

Clearly, results speak for themselves: Students from Ascentria are studying at Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and other top Indian engineering and medical colleges apart from globally known institutes such as National University of Singapore, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, among several others.

“Earlier, NRI students here struggled to gain admission in reputed engineering and medical colleges in India mainly due to the absence of the rigorous training required to clear the JEE and NEET exams – billed as two of the toughest entrance exams globally with a success rate of less than 10 per cent,” says Alka. Students in India usually prepare for these exams for a minimum of 2-4 years with specialised, trained faculty.

But that has changed since Ascentria opened doors in Mankhool, Bur Dubai, seven years ago.

“The quality of our teaching was recognised early when one of Dubai’s premium schools invited Ascentria to conduct it’s classes on their premises after school hours, to prepare their students for the JEE/NEET exams. Since then, not only has that association grown, it has expanded to more schools,” says Alka.

GEMS Modern Academy is one such school. “GEMS Modern Academy has been associated with Ascentria since April 2015,” says John Gomes, Vice-Principal of the school. “We are pleased with the quality of support that is provided to our students. Ascentria faculty members are friendly yet professional and deliver the course content with utmost care and proficiency. Parents and students have often praised their sincerity, dedication and commitment.”

So, what sets Ascentria apart?

“Every student is a batch,” says Alka. “The highly qualified faculty meets with the management on a weekly basis to discuss students they may be concerned about and measures are taken to help them. Constant motivation and emotional support is also provided to students.”

The faculty comprises handpicked IIT alumni who ensure students focus on understanding concepts. Class sizes are small so every student gets undivided care and attention allowing teachers to work on pupils’ individual strengths and areas of improvement.

“Noteworthy are the negligible attrition rate of students and low turnover of faculty,” says Alka. Apart from the contact class time, students are encouraged to book additional time with faculty to improve further. Teachers are available at all times for students to reach out via WhatsApp, phone calls or email, apart from individual sessions.

“We are delighted that the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) recognises us as a rare institute in this domain with negligible complaints and the highest customer satisfaction.”

Online education

“Ascentria was one of the first educational institutions in Dubai to migrate to online teaching – even prior to being mandated by the KHDA and before schools started online teaching. The entire team moved to the online platform almost overnight and have constantly evolved with the needs. We are now exploring the possibility of a hybrid model going forward even after normalisation of the situation,” says Alka.

Additionally, we are offering STEPapp, a revolutionary gamified learning platform for Math and Science, developed by PACE India, completely free to all GCC schools and students for 2020-2021.

For more details www.ascentria.net or contact info@ascentria.net or +9714 3525266.

Ascentria’s accomplishments

• 100% success rate in NEET

• 70% success rate in JEE Main

• UAE toppers in various school board exams

• 95% average marks in 2020 Grade 10 board results, 90% students securing over 90% in our subjects

• 93% average marks in 2020 Grade 12 board results, 75% students securing more than 90% in our subjects

• Negligible attrition rate of both students and faculty

• Small batch sizes

• Personalised attention

– Anand Raj OK

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