Identical twins, identical scores (285) in JEE Main | India News
MUMBAI/JAIPUR: In a city crammed with touts and tight schedules, brothers Mahroof Ahmed Khan and Masroor Ahmed Khan in Kota stand out for an almost uncanny symmetry. The twins, who share the same shoe size and spectacle strength, have studied together, examined together, sat in the same JEE Main (Session-I) 2026 shift, and walked away with identical marks till the final tally – 285 out of 300; An NTA score of 99.998.Under NTA rules, candidates must declare whether they are twins while filling the form for the same competitive examination. Such candidates are forced to appear in the same shift to ensure the integrity of exams like JEE and NEET. Their story started in Bhubaneswar, Odisha and shifted to Kota in 2023 like many other JEE journeys.At Kota Academy, the twins turned every exam into a personal competitionKnown for cracking Olympiad exams, the twin brothers hoped the city’s coaching ecosystem would sharpen them for the bigger tests ahead and turned the friendly rivalry into a full-time study tool.“The twins came here sharing not just classrooms and notes, but an entire rhythm of preparation. Born on May 7, 2008, they’ve walked parallel lines for as long as they can remember – same school, same coaching, same ambition,” said Amit Ahuja, career counselor, Allen Career Institute. Behind this effort was a decision that reshaped the family’s life.Their mother, Dr Zeenat Begum, a gynecologist who had been working for the Odisha government since the 1990s, put her career on hold to move to Kota with her sons. For three years, she managed their routines, meals, health and morale, becoming a calm constant in a high-pressure environment.Zeenat said the move to quotas was initially meant to be temporary. “Both of them were selected for the International Science Olympiad in 2023, and we came to Kota in March that year, thinking we would stay for a few months until we were ready for the Olympiad exams. But after a few weeks, both said they liked the environment and study methods here and decided to take up coaching for JEE,” she said. “When they decided to pursue a career in engineering and prepare for JEE in Kota, I quit my job because I thought that if they made a career, I too could resume my work. But it is important to support them at this stage,” Zeenat said.At the academy, the twins found their competitive edge not in outdoing others, but in pushing each other. If one slips, the other steps in – dissecting mistakes, revising ideas and resetting goals.At home, competition was strictly internal. Their mother said the twins only competed as a preparation technique, calling each other their “friend” and “mirror.” “They would study and take tests together and compare their scores with each other and with their previous attempts. This helped them identify their weaknesses and they worked to improve them. This mutual competition is their biggest strength,” says Zeenat.
