While students from the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh and Telangana dominated the Joint Entrance Test (Main) 2018 topper's list, those from Tamil Nadu were notably absent from the top 20.

Aniswar Srinivatsa Krishnan, a CBSE student from Chennai secured the 21st rank, scoring 335 of 360 in the national-level test for admission to NITs, IIITs, centrally-funded technical institutes and other leading private educational institutions. Those seeking admission in IITs must clear the next level of tests, JEE (Advanced).

Another city CBSE student R Raghu Raman from Adyar secured the 27th rank at the national level and stood second in Tamil Nadu.