Why I built this — in Sumit's own words
I was a reasonably strong student through school — olympiad medals, sports, a genuine curiosity about the world. But when I moved to Grade 11, something broke down. I was the first person in my entire family to study science at that level. There was no one at home I could ask when physics felt alien. So I turned to my teachers. The answer I got, consistently, was: "We don't have time to break down every concept. We have a huge syllabus to cover. Just memorise." I felt completely disconnected — not because I wasn't trying, but because no one had the time to meet me where I was.
I thought the solution was a better coaching institute. I enrolled in one of the top ones for my NEET preparation. More than a hundred students in one classroom. Teachers with targets — cover X topics in Y hours. The students who came to revise sat at the front and answered questions. I sat in the middle and felt like the material was in a language I hadn't been taught to read. I left that period believing the problem was me.
It wasn't. And somewhere in Grade 12, I made a decision I didn't fully understand at the time: there should be a system that actually pauses when a student asks a doubt. That waits. That doesn't rush past a child struggling to pronounce a new term in Grade 11 because the syllabus needs to be covered by Thursday.
What I didn't know then was that teaching had always been part of my personality. In our joint family setup, I was always the eldest — the one younger siblings and cousins came to when they were stuck. I was the natural doubt-solver before I knew that's what I was. During the COVID lockdown in 2021, stuck in my village in Bihar, I started a temporary school for the underprivileged children of the farmers in our area — personal finances, limited resources, more than 200 students and 15 teachers by the end of it. A son of an auto-driver from that group recently scored 83% in his Grade 12 boards. I think about that result more than most of the ones that followed.
My first online student came from Begusarai, Bihar — a student in a village with no access to mentorship, preparing for his boards entirely on his own. I immediately recognised him. We started with Physics for Grade 11. Within a month, his father had asked me to take Chemistry and Biology as well. That gave me the first version of the confidence I now carry.
In 2022, a parent from Doha reached out — 48 days before their child's NEET examination. The student was struggling with Grade 11 foundational concepts. These are concepts that normally take months to build properly. I taught him every single day until the exam. By God's grace and his own tremendous effort, he cracked NEET and earned a seat in Tamil Nadu. That was the moment I knew. Then one student after another. One city after another. Today, four years later, Impetus Learning has mentored more than 200 students across India and internationally — multiple NEET selections, JEE top percentiles, school toppers, and one Goa state topper.
In 2024, a family from Bangalore approached me with a request I hadn't expected. Their twin daughters were national-level squash players who had been home-schooled through the NIOS curriculum since Grade 8. NIOS was entirely new to me. I researched the syllabus, understood the exam patterns, and started slowly — breaking every single concept down to its most basic form. Both daughters cleared Grade 11 and Grade 12 with strong results.
"No child should feel 11th Science is a nightmare" — Sumit Jha, Founder, Impetus Learning
Then they began their undergraduate degree in physiotherapy. In their first year, they struggled with Biochemistry. The family came back. I was honest with them: Biochemistry at university level was outside my expertise. It would take real time for me to learn it properly before I could teach it well. They said: we know. We still want you.
So I learned Biochemistry. Properly. And applied the same principle I always do — break every concept down, connect it to what the student already knows, and don't move forward until it genuinely clicks. When they told me they understood it better from me than from their university professors, I wasn't proud of the comparison. I was simply relieved that the approach worked — regardless of the subject, regardless of the level.
I spent years thinking I was the problem. That I wasn't focused enough, or naturally gifted enough, to understand what my teachers were explaining. It took building Impetus Learning — and watching student after student finally understand what other institutions had failed to make clear — to see what had actually been happening.
"The child was never weak. The system was broken." — Sumit Jha, Founder, Impetus Learning
Every student who arrives at Impetus Learning with low marks, low confidence, or low hope is — in my experience — a capable young person who has been let down by a system that was not designed to see them. No child is born a topper. No child is born a failure. If you can reach the spectrum of their understanding, every child will improve. My own students give me that conviction every single year.
I am 26. Impetus Learning is five years old. I am not the most academically decorated person you will meet. I did not graduate from an IIT or an AIIMS. What I have is eight years of watching students who were told they couldn't — do. And a conviction, built from every single one of those students, that the right mentor changes everything.
Last year, I also opened an offline institute in Makhla, Uttarpara — the locality where I grew up and where I still live. A tier-2 town, where I know firsthand what it means to need guidance and have no way of reaching it. The offline institute exists for exactly the same reason Impetus Learning exists: because no child should have to feel the way I felt in Grade 11.
If you are reading this page because your child is struggling — I want you to know that I have been exactly where they are. And I want to show you what is possible when someone actually takes the time to understand them.