ISC

Shreya Jaipuria

Aggregate (best four): 98%

School: Our Lady Queen of the Missions

Age: 18

Stays at: BJ 5

Marksheet: Accounts 100, economics 98, English 97, Hindi 97, commerce 97, mathematics 95

Preparation time: I had tutors only for math and accounts. My school teachers are so helpful that I did not need much external help otherwise. Our economics teacher (Mohua Banerjee) must have worked harder than we did. I was consistent in my studies so I did not need to work extra hard during the six week study break. Since I was preparing simultaneously for CLAT, I studied eight to 10 hours a day. Both math and accountancy are application-based subjects so I had to keep time for both every day. Also I studied a poem or a story in Hindi or English daily. I knew that since English was a compulsory paper, even if I scored full marks in all other subjects, a below-par score in English would pull my aggregate down.

Initial reaction: I wasn’t expecting so much in English. In fact, I checked the UID number twice to ensure whether those marks in accountancy and English were mine. I could work out the percentage mentally, but still did it on a calculator to be doubly sure. No, there was no celebration. My CLAT exam was coming up the day after. The results are on May 23. 

Future plans: I want to be a lawyer. I will be the first in my family to be one. 

Extra-curricular interests: I love watching crime-related shows on TV, especially Suits. I am also a Game of Thrones fan. Another show I follow on Netflix is Daredevils. 

On the election: I turned 18 in February and had applied for the voter card a month in advance. But when I went in March, the officials were so busy that they asked me to come after the elections. So I could not vote this time. 

Last word: There is a huge backlog of cases in India. As Chief Justice T.S. Thakur has said, we need more judges to fill vacancies. The collegium versus National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) issue needs to be resolved for appointments to be made. We also need to consider the (the-then) Chief Justice R.M. Lodha’s recommendation for less holidays for courts to put the system back on track.

By the way, give me a break from the court room scenes in the average Hindi film. The Sunny Deol-style tarikh pe tarikh (from the film Damini) type scenes are simply overdone!

ICSE

Medha Gangopadhyay

Aggregate: 98.6%. Ranked second in Bengal.

School: St Joan’s School

Age: Will turn 17 on Saturday.

Stays in: Karunamoyee, A 7/3

Family: Parents,  grandmother, younger brother. My brother studies in Class VIII in the same school and is confident of beating me in math in his Board exam. 

Marksheet: Computer science 100, mathematics 99, English 99, history-civics-geography, science 97, Bengali 97

Preparation: I studied for seven-eight hours. In our school, we start the Class X syllabus mid-way through Class IX, so we have ample time to revise. I had tutors in physics, chemistry and math. My father is a scientist at Bose Institute and my mother teaches botany at a Baranagar college. They helped me a lot. The teachers in our school are also very sincere, right from our principal.

Moment of reckoning: I have topped in school all along from Class I and had expected around 95-96%. This was beyond my dreams. My dida was so tense that she came over from her BL Block home to see the results with us. But at 3pm, the net started hanging and it was my aunt from Cleveland who called and gave us the news. She had woken up at 5.30am US time to check my results. There was no celebration as the next day we had a class test. Yes, our classes have already started.

Future plans: I want to become a doctor or do research. I am studying bioscience. I prefer biology over computer science. And it keeps the option of taking the medical entrance tests open. I am so glad this scrapping of WBJEE at the last moment did not happen to us. At least we would have two years to prepare.

Hobbies/ interests: My biggest passion in Bharatanatyam. I attend a dance school near City Centre. I am learning how to play the sitar for 12 years now. I also attend drawing classes. I was once a student of Rekha Chitram too but I have continued with Rita Sinha, a dida from next door who has been coaching me since I was two and half. 

Ansika Kundu

Aggregate: 98%

School: St. Joan’s School

Stays in: IA 262

Age: 16 years

Marksheet (Best five): Computer science 100, mathematics 99, science 98, history-civics-geography 97, English 96

Preparation: The regular tests helped in school. Even during the study leave, I never studied more than six-seven hours. I had tutors for English and physics. I appeared for some preparatory tests at a coaching institute to get an idea  of where I stood. The school exams are too tough to compare with the Board exams. My favourite subject is math. I hate geography and history. National movements are so boring. The Mughal age was better but that period is not in our Class X syllabus. 

Future plans: I am studying science in the same school with computer science as sixth subject. I want to study astro physics. My initial plan was aeronautical engineering but my spectacles got in the way. 

Hobbies/ interests: I have a lot of interest in space. I like areas where there is a lot left to know. I used to watch National Geographic Channel which fuelled this interest. I also love ghost stories and films as anything can happen in them.
Romances are slow. The only spooky film that scared me a bit was The Exorcist. I am on Whatsapp, not Facebook. Even for Whatsapp, I take internet data packs only during vacations. Social media is a distraction. Music is a part of my life.
Currently I am loving some songs in Azhar and Airlift.

Sudeshna Banerjee 

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