Party time for city toppers

Nasreen Jaleel, 18, is still trying to cope with her 15 minutes of fame after scoring 97.6% in her Class 12 CBSE board exam this year.

Nasreen Jaleel, 18, is still trying to cope with her 15 minutes of fame after scoring 97.6% in her Class 12 CBSE board exam this year.

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“It feels amazing to be treated like a celebrity after working so hard throughout the year,” said Jaleel, a science student of Kendriya Vidyalaya, IIT-Powai. “However, this is only going to give me temporary respite because my IIT-JEE exam results are going to be declared on Wednesday,” she said, adding that she was planning to celebrate at home with her parents.

Many CBSE students such as Jaleel have been focusing on two sets of exams and are awaiting the results of their competitive entrance tests. However, principals said that this did not affect their board exam performances.

“Preparing for competitive exam does not affect the students’ board exam preparations, many excel in both,” said Rakesh Joshi, principal, Apeejay School, Nerul.

The Bhargava household too was bustling with excitement as Shreya Bhargava, 17, scored 97.4% in the commerce stream. “I was always regular with my academics, but not once had I imagined that I could be one of the highest scorers,” said Bhargava, a student of RN Podar School, Santacruz. “I can easily get into a premier college of my choice to pursue an undergraduate course in economics,” claimed Bhargava, adding that she was glad that she had no “entrance exam results to worry about”.

This year, very few city students appeared for the CBSE board exam from the humanities stream as only a handful of schools provided the option. For Neeti Bhatt, 17, scoring 99% in both, psychology and sociology has given her enough reasons to rejoice. “I have always followed the ‘bit-by-bit’ approach while dealing with theoretical subjects that has eventually paid off,” said Bhatt, a student of RN Podar School, who scored 96.4% in the humanities stream.

“My law entrance exam results are the only scores that will eventually matter because the CBSE scores are not considered during the admissions,” she said.