Students ace exams despite learning disorders, ailments

For twins Rajat and Rohit (names changed), Monday brought a pleasant surprise. The brothers scored an identical cumulative grade point average (CGPA) of 9.2 (above 90%) in the Class 10 Central Board for Secondary Education (CBSE) exams.

For twins Rajat and Rohit (names changed), Monday brought a pleasant surprise. The brothers scored an identical cumulative grade point average (CGPA) of 9.2 (above 90%) in the Class 10 Central Board for Secondary Education (CBSE) exams.

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For the boys’ mother, Niyati Malhotra (name changed), the results were a vindication of the duo’s hard work. When they were in Class 6, the twins were diagnosed with dyslexia and attention deficiency disorder.

The learning disorder resulted in the boys misspelling words and reversing digits while writing a number. “I enrolled them for a special occupational and remedial course at a counseling centre in Andheri where they were taught various remedial therapies because of which they were able to write faster and overcome their problems,” said Malhotra. Rohit said that he would spend extra time in breaking down all the study material given by the school into small points. This made it easier for him to remember voluminous data. He said that he did not expect more than 70% and gives credit to teachers at his Andheri school and special tutors. “My teachers always encouraged me. They always told me that everyone makes mistake and I was no different. It’s because of this encouragement and my own will power that I was able to score well,” said Rohit.

Several other city students also beat the odds and did well in the exam. Shebin Varghese, 16, had lost out on crucial time of study leave just two weeks before her exam as she got chicken pox. She was on heavy medication, which made her feel drowsy all the time.

“I felt drowsy and tired. I was unable to sit continuously for three hours to write the paper and didn’t fare well because I was tensed whether I would be able to write all the papers,” said Shebin, a student of Arya Gurukul, Kalyan, who has scored a CGPA of 6.4 (more than 60%). “This result was unexpected. I had told my daughter to just give the exam and not bother about the results. I am extremely happy with her score,” said Shebin’s father, TC Varghese.