What A Spirit: 80-year-old Engineer Appears For IIT Entrance, Proves Age Is Just A Number
Talking about the questions, Menon added, ¡°I rummaged through what I learnt over 50 years ago.¡±
Age is just a number, the saying goes. And, it is really true for some people. Like, this 80-year-old man who is proving that there is really no age limit when it comes to education.
¡°I rummaged through what I learnt over 50 years ago¡±
An engineer by profession, Nandakumar K. Menon appeared for IIT-Madras entrance exam. He is set to turn 81 in August and he appeared for the entrance exam of the BSc. online course in programming and data science offered by the institute. The exam was held at the premises of an IT firm in Aluva on Sunday.
¡°I was stopped at the gate by security guards and had to convince them that I was a candidate for the entrance exam,¡± he told The Hindu.
TH
After appearing for a four-hour-long entrance exam, Menon talked about how more than 90 per cent of the total 120 candidates at the centre were youth. Talking about the questions, Menon added, ¡°I rummaged through what I learnt over 50 years ago.¡±
How he prepared
In order to prepare for the exam, Menon used to wake up at 5:30 am every day and would study till 10 pm for the exam. Further, he along with his son Sethu Nandakumar, a UAE-based lawyer, attended month-long classes in four subjects.
With an aim to pass the exam, Menon even appeared for weekly exams of all four subjects - Mathematics, Statists, Data processing and English. It was mandatory to score a minimum 50% marks in all the subjects to qualify for the entrance exam.
iit madras
However, Sethu couldn¡¯t qualify, unfortunately. But, he gave a tough fight to other candidates.
His education
Inspired by the celebrated engineer M. Visvesvaraya, Menon always wanted to become an engineer ever since he was in fourth standard. However, faced with financial difficulties, he went on to graduate in mathematics and spent a year in MSc. Statistics.
Shutterstock
Then he graduated from the College of Engineering Trivandrum. Thereafter, Menon dis his post graduation in cryogenic engineering from Syracuse University, US, with a NASA-sponsored scholarship.
He had got the green card that allows a non-U.S. citizen to gain permanent residence in the United States. But he gave up this only to work as an engineer in his motherland.
For more on news and current affairs from around the world please visit Indiatimes News.
Senior Writer at Indiatimes. She writes on Lifestyle, fashion, beauty, astrology and health.
