Saturday 20 / April / 2024
Muscat: An alumnus of Indian School Muscat who completed her class XII board exams this year has been named the science stream topper after her marks were increased following a re-evaluation of her papers.
The re-evaluation of her exam papers saw Sri Varsha receive a total score of 96.6 per cent, up from the 93.6 per cent that she had initially received. The increased percentage helped her become the science stream topper, in addition to being ranked second overall.
Having expected a far higher percentage than the one she initially received, it was her teachers and parents who advised her to apply for a re-evaluation. She now studies at the SSN University in Chennai, which has a tie-up with Carnegie Mellon University in the United States, where she aims to continue her studies.
“Just to clarify, I wasn’t placed anywhere in the list of toppers at the start,” she told Times of Oman.
“I was just the subject topper in mathematics. I was unaware of the fact that the board results were going to be released since I was spending the week at my aunt’s. However, when I got to know about my peers’ results, I was quite confident that I would get somewhere close to 97 per cent. I was truly devastated when I discovered that I had got just 93.6 per cent.”
“However, my parents and my English teacher, Mrs. Monica Lobo backed me when I most needed them and encouraged to apply for re-evaluation. The process is time consuming, of course, there being three steps, namely reverification, receiving the photocopy of your answer scripts and finally reevaluation. It took approximately a month for the process to get over and for me to get the marks that I deserved,” she added.
As part of the process, Varsha needed to write to the Central Board of Secondary Education and tell them how many marks she felt she’d not received in the papers of those subjects that needed re-evaluation. The board would only then re-examine those papers and provide the result to her.
“The results were uploaded on the CBSE website,” she recalled. “I had applied for an increase of 16 marks in English and had received 15. My joy on seeing this was beyond words. All I needed then was the confirmation from the school that I had topped the science stream which didn’t take very long to reach my ears. Upon receipt of the CBSE re-evaluation letter to myself and to the school, the senior vice principal Mr. Eskalin Gonsalves informed me that I had become the ISM Science Stream topper and congratulated me.
“I was really excited and I’m happy that the hard work has finally paid off though there was a little delay,” she added.
“I also learnt how to take it forward and challenge in life when unexpected things happen. Better late than never. I am happy I got what I deserved. I have been receiving academic merit awards continuously right from Grade V. In class 11 I was the science stream topper with 97 per cent,” Varsha said.
Although she is now at SSN University, Varsha initially planned to attend India’s renowned National Institute of Technology. Despite having received a full SAT score, she was unable to secure a position in her favoured institute because she did not meet the age requirements for foreign students. She has plans to complete her undergraduate studies in India before moving to the States for her masters.
“I got a perfect score of 2,400 in my SAT subject tests,” she explained. “My board marks were also fair enough. I was allotted a place to study computer science engineering in NIT Calicut. But I couldn’t get my preferred NIT just because of the age criteria, so I continued with my other option of joining Shiv Nadar University, which is the most preferred institution in the South. I competed with local state board and CBSE board students and was allotted my seat purely on the basis of merit. That’s one of the main reasons I chose SSN as they have a tie up with Carnegie Mellon, one of the top universities in the States.”
