Straight answers.
Including the uncomfortable ones. If your question isn't here, ask it and we'll add it.
About us
What is Mapank, in one sentence?
An independent guidance service that helps JEE and NEET students and their families turn an exam result into a college decision — paid by the family, never by a college.
Are you a coaching institute?
No — keep studying wherever you already study. Our work starts when the result comes out, plus the administrative side of applications beforehand that coaching tends to skip: windows, documents, eligibility fine print and the deadlines that catch people out.
How do I know you're any different from an admission agent?
Check who pays us. Our income comes from students and families, and the full price list is on one page where you can see it. Beyond that, judge us as you'd judge anyone new — by whether the free material here is actually useful, and by whether we tell you things that cost us money to say, like when a drop year beats the seat you've been offered.
Are you affiliated with NTA, JoSAA, CSAB or MCC?
No, and nor is anyone else offering you guidance. Seat allotment is decided entirely inside those bodies — so if someone hints they have influence there, that's your signal to walk away.
What we do and don't do
Can you guarantee me a college or a branch?
What you'll get is a well-reasoned probability, the historical data behind it, and a straight answer about where the uncertainty sits. A guarantee isn't available from anyone — seat allotment depends on how lakhs of other candidates fill their choices, which nobody knows in advance. Treat an offered guarantee as a sign you're being sold something.
Will you fill my application or counselling form for me?
You fill it, with us walking you through it field by field. That way your login stays yours and every entry is one you saw and approved. Handing credentials to a third party is a real risk, and one wrong field entered by someone else can cost a year.
Do you cover state counselling, CUET or other exams?
Right now our focus is JEE and NEET, including the state-level and private options that follow from those results. We'd rather be genuinely good at two exams than shallow across ten. State CET and CUET may come later.
I didn't qualify. Is there any point talking to you?
This is the situation we most want to work on. There are real options — GFTIs, state quota, credible private institutions, and for NEET students BDS, AYUSH, nursing and paramedical routes — alongside some expensive traps that are marketed hard at exactly this moment. Telling those apart is most of the value.
Should I take a drop year?
Sometimes yes, often no, and it turns on things a website can't know: how much of your gap is actually fixable, what the first attempt cost you emotionally, and what the alternative on the table really is. Be wary of anyone who answers this quickly.
Our fee is identical whatever you decide, so we've no reason to push you either way.
Money
What do you charge?
Full price list is on the how we make money page. Everything on this website and on our public channels is free.
Could a college pay you to recommend it?
It's the one thing we've built the business to make impossible. Our income comes from families only — no commissions, referral fees, marketing payments, sponsorships or gifts, in cash or in kind. We earn the same amount whichever college you join, and the same amount if you join none, so the advice can't bend. If that ever changes we'll say so on that page, prominently and dated.
Data and privacy
Will you sell or share my details?
No. We don't sell contact details to colleges, coaching institutes, or anyone else, and we don't run "sponsored" outreach. See the privacy policy.
I'm under 18. Can I use this?
You can read everything on this site freely. For anything involving your personal details or a paid session, we need a parent or guardian involved — that's both the law under India's data protection rules and, given that they're usually the ones paying and worrying, the sensible way to do it anyway.
Should I share my exam portal login with you?
No — not with us and not with anyone. We will never ask for it. Any consultant, agent or "helper" who does is putting you at serious risk, whatever their reason.