Nagpur: The top rank in the CBSE Class 10 board exam from the city has been likely shared by five students who scored identical 98.8% marks. Another thing common among these students — Rishit Agrawal, Samruddhi Manthapurwar, Sonakshi Nagdeve, Dhruv Nath and Aaradhya Pokale — was consistency in their studies.This year, CBSE conducted the Class 10 board exam in two phases, first in Feb-March, and an optional improvement examination in May. Under the board’s ‘best-of-two’ policy, students’ higher score from either phase was considered for the final result.Rishit, a student of Bhavan’s, Sri Krishna Nagar, credited his success to a steady study routine. “I studied for one to two hours every day and increased the tempo after the preliminary examinations. Solving sample papers gave me confidence,” he said.For him, Social Science was the most challenging subject because of the extensive memorisation involved. Satisfied with his Phase 1 performance, Rishit chose not to appear for the improvement examination. He acknowledged the constant support of his parents and coaching teachers.Bhavan’s Ashti student Samruddhi aspires to crack the JEE and pursue engineering. “I focused more on regular revision than spending long hours studying. I made it a point to practise Mathematics for at least an hour every day,” she said. She scored 94% in Mathematics.Her mother, a homemaker, and father, a businessman, constantly supported her. Samruddhi is open to joining her family business after completing her degree.For Sonakshi from DPS Kamptee, success came through conceptual learning and disciplined self-study. She began preparing immediately after completing Class 9, relying primarily on NCERT textbooks, previous years’ question papers and the official CBSE question bank. “Coaching only helped clarify difficult topics, while most of my preparation was through self-study,” she said.With both her parents being engineers and her elder sibling pursuing engineering at VNIT, Sonakshi now aims to crack JEE.While Bhavan’s BVM, Ashti, student Dhruv found SST the toughest subject, he managed it with the right approach. Dhruv is preparing for JEE, driven by his long-standing interest in computer science and inspired by his elder brother, who is also an engineer.Dhruv gradually increased his study time to around four hours daily, later pushing it to seven hours a day before the exam.For Aaradhya, another Bhavan’s BVM, Ashti, student, the preparation started from the very first day itself. “As soon as one topic was completed, I revised it regularly. Whenever I faced any difficulty, my teachers cleared the doubts immediately. I am now preparing for JEE. My father works in an insurance company but two of my cousins are engineers,” said Aardhya.The second rank, with 98.6%, was shared by Brijesh Punyani (CPS, WN), Dimpi Mandhalkar (DPS, Kamptee Road), Shreyansh Das (Bhavan’s BVM, Ashti) and Srujan Kankal (DPS, MIHAN).The third position, with 98.4%, was jointly shared by Pawaki Ranjan (Bhavan’s BVM, Ashti), Tiya Chakole (DPS, Kamptee Road) and Varenya Devdhar (CPS, Amravati Road Bypass).
