ISCE, ISC results 2018: Pune girl bags second rank in ISC

For Pune girl Ritisha Uday Gupta, who stood second in the Indian School Certificate (ISC) Class 12 exams, it took a while for the results to sink in. “I kept refreshing the page as I couldn’t believe it. Then someone told me I was one of the students ranked second at the national level. It all seemed so unreal,” said the 17-year-old resident of Wakad who scored 99.25 per cent. Gupta is one of 17 students across India ranked second.

Though she has always been a bright student a position among the top rankers of the country is something she hadn’t expected. “I got 89 per cent in my pre-board exams held by the school. So I was really nervous since morning as I was hoping to score above 90 per cent. I used to score well but I started topping the class only after I moved to the ICSE board. Maybe that is because I am now studying subjects I really enjoy,” said Gupta.

A student of Bishops School in Camp, Gupta is a Humanities student who took up subjects like History, Political Science, Economics and Sociology. Though she did her Class 10 from the CBSE board, she said she switched to ICSE board owing to the paucity of a good CBSE school for Class 12 near her residence.

Unlike most students her age who have already made up their mind on what they wish to take up as a career, Gupta isn’t sure yet. She will be applying for a degree in History and hopes to get into Delhi University.

A trained piano player, the teenager had given up her piano classes to prepare for her board exams. “Though I wasn’t one of those students who study for 12 or 14 hours a day I used to ensure that I completed the topic on the day it was taught in school. Since I had afternoon school, there wasn’t any time left for anything else. So it was either studying or reading books, which is my favourite hobby. Actually since I am fond of reading, that’s how I approached studying as well. I read the chapters a couple of times, like one reads any novel or book, until I understood. It may sound weird but I like studying,” she said.

Her father, Uday Gupta, managing director of Mahindra Sanyo Special Steel Ltd, said it was a proud moment for the family. “We were expecting that she will do well but second topper in the country is something else. She is a focused student and doesn’t need a push, she does things on her own,” he said.

Her mother, Dhruba, who is a homemaker, said, “She has always been competitive. She stayed serious and composed and even when she got 89 per cent in her pre-boards, we knew she will score more because the checking in school was very strict. We are very happy with her scores and her hardwork has paid off.”
News Source (Indian Express)