Mumbai students top international board exams

Two students from Mumbai emerged world toppers in the International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) exams held in November 2008 and June 2009. Farah H. Chitalwala reports.

Two students from Mumbai emerged world toppers in the International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) exams held in November 2008 and June 2009.

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While Neil Satra (16) from Dhirubhai Ambani International School (DAIS) topped in mathematics in the IGCSE Class 10 exam, Mahesh Agrawal (16) topped in business studies.

Each year 15 lakh students across the world appear for IGCSE exams, 20,000 are from India. This is the first time that Cambridge International Examination (CIE), the body that conducts the exam, has declared subject toppers at the IGCSE level. “In 2009, 38 per cent of Indian students got high grades,” said Ian Chambers, CIE’s South Asia manager. “Indian students now rank five per cent above the rest of the world in overall performance.”

On Monday, Agrawal was ecstatic. “Business studies is my favourite subject,” he said. He is now doing Class 11 under the International Baccalaureate and wants to pursue a double degree in business and engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, USA.

Satra, who topped a high-level maths paper, feels his success is a step ahead in doing an undergrad programme abroad. “I want to do nano-technology at Oxford, MIT or Stanford,” he said.