The ICSE results came as a pleasant surprise for several students as the outcome exceeded their expectations.
When St Joseph's Convent High School student Prashansa checked her result on the Internet on Monday, she was on cloud nine. The marks - 95 per cent - exceeded her expectation - 80 per cent.
Visibly happy, Prashansa thanked her parents and teachers for the unexpected "result". "All my teachers were cooperative and encouraging. They all congratulated me for scoring more than their expectations. My parents also boosted my moral," she said.
Not just Prashansa, several others performed better in the board exam than in school tests. Yashi Khanna, the topper of Rose Bud School, was on the top of the world scoring 92.4 per cent. "I always tried hard to score well in my exams but got average marks. I did not fare too well even in my pre-boards and did not expect more than 85 per cent. But after seeing my result, I was more than satisfied. My parents always supported me and my principal encouraged me to improve. I never thought I would be the topper of my school. I am feeling great right now," said Yashi.
The results of both the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education and Indian School Certificate were declared by the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations at 11.30am on Monday. Minutes after the results were declared, Akshat Sinha of St Paul's High School found he not only topped his school but the entire city scoring 98.2 per cent in the ICSE exam.
Akshat told The Telegraph that he studied 12 hours a day before the exam. "I did not expect that I will be the topper in my school, forget topping the city. The credit of my success goes to my teachers, who always helped me to work hard and told me that there was no alternative to hard work," he added.
Born to senior executive of a telecom company Rajiv Ranjan and schoolteacher Soni Sinha, Akshat wants to pursue commerce in Intermediate to accomplish his dream of becoming a charted accountant.
Three students - Rahul Chandra of St Paul's High School, Nishtha of Mt Carmel High School and Harsh Raj of Don Bosco Academy - jointly emerged second in the city scoring 98 per cent in the Class X examination. Shubham Kumar of St Paul's High School and Zain Zafar of International School shared the third position with 97.8 per cent.
Anand Prakash, the principal of St Paul's High School, said: "It's a big achievement that students from our school figured in the top three positions in the city, but the overall results could have been even better."
Albert Abraham, the vice-principal of St Xavier's High School, said: "I am pleased with the results. The students scored better than last year. Our school's motto is not to produce toppers but to give first-class education to the students having economically weaker background. I am happy that all the students passed and my best wishes are always with them."
