Kurji residents were on cloud nine on Thursday. Boy next-door Adwate Kumar made them proud securing 99.99 percentile in Common Admission Test (CAT).

An IIT-Roorkee passout, this was Adwate’s second attempt to “bell the CAT”. And he came out in flying colours.

Visibly satisfied after the CAT results were declared, Adwate said: “I was not very successful last time. But this time, my result is beyond expectations. That is what made me happier.”

Adwate’s mother expected a bit more from him, though.

“I had expected Adwate to secure 100 percentile but he could not. Yet, I am happy with his performance. His hard work has paid off,” said Purnima Srivastava, the mother of Adwate.

After his schooling in Gyan Niketan, Adwate pursued his Plus Two from Ganga International School. Thereafter, he cracked IIT-JEE. He studied pulp and paper engineering in IIT-Roorkee. Now, he wants to join IIM-Ahmedabad and specialise in finance.

Adwate’s success was no cakewalk. He had to work really hard to score high in the CAT.

“I attended coaching classes at an institute in New Delhi for two-and-a-half months. I appeared in mock tests and solved last year’s question papers,” said Adwate, with his sights set on a finance manager’s chair in a top-notch company.

Besides Adwate, Tarun Verma and Vijay Prakash made the state proud securing over 99 percentile in CAT. Having his roots in the state capital, engineering graduate Tarun secured 99.95 percentile. At present, he is working as a junior analyst with JP Morgan in Mumbai.

Vijay, a BCom (Honours), secured 99.03 percentile. He hails from Kahalgaon, around 250km from Patna.

Like Adwate, Vijay also wants to study in IIM-Ahmedabad. But his area of interest is agriculture business management.

For Tarun, the priority is admission to any top IIM. He wants to be in businesses administration.

The engineering graduate sounded like a philosopher after his superb show in the CAT. Tarun said: “I do not think that marks qualify a person. But I am happy about the fact that I have got a good percentile and it opens a few doors for me. I’ll attribute a part of my success to St Michael’s High School, where I studied. Born and brought up in Patna, my first love is my school. Delhi College of Engineering, where I pursued BTech, is also very close to my heart.”

He said: “CAT is basically an aptitude test and one just needs to practise. There is no specific preparations dynamics as such. During the examination, aspirants have to apply your brain.”

When tired of preparations, Tarun used to listen to music. His favourite was Moora from the film Gangs of Wasseypur II.

Cut to Vijay. Hailing from a not-so-well-to-do family of Kahalgaon, he has seen the ups and downs of life from close quarters. He was naturally happy securing over 99 percentile.

“I am extremely happy because I come from a family which has struggled to see me here. My father Surendra Prasad Jaiswal was a poultry farmer. Yet, he ensured quality education to me and my two siblings. I am interested in social service and I am associated with an NGO. I teach spoken English to youths between 18 and 32 years,” said Vijay.

Vijay was one of the approximately 2,100 students who took the CAT in the city. Over 1.91 lakh candidates from across the country appeared in the online test conducted over 21 days from October 11 to November 6 last year.

Engineering graduates continued to outshine others in the results of the CAT. Of the 10 toppers, nine have engineering background, CAT sources said. Eight of these students are from the IITs.