Prachi Kumari Khaitan and Shashank Shekhar, the first and second toppers of the All India Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) class tenth in the State capital seek to crack the JEE and join the IIT.
Prachi of St Francis School at Harmu had been the first topper in her school. "I never like the second position," said Prachi who felt that the city topper position was beyond her imaginations. Daughter of a local insurance agent, Prachi had studied regularly with full concentration in a joint family. As of now, she wants to focus only on her 11th and 12th classes’ studies and then appear for the engineering entrance exams.
Madhavi Singh, the All India Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) class tenth topper of 2012 inspired Shashank Shekhar of St Xavier’s School who bagged the city topper's position with 97.6 per cent this year.
“I thought if a girl from Dhanbad can become the national topper, I, too, can accomplish myself as a topper at least in my school but surprisingly I am the state capital topper,” said Shashank.
His mother quit her teaching job from KB Academy one year back just to make him feel that his parents are always there to boost his confidence. On Friday, when the result of ICSE class tenth and Indian School Certificate (ISC) class twelfth results were declared, Shekhar felt that this date is his independence day.
“I aim to crack the JEE in future and study in any of the top IITs and for this I will take Physics, Chemistry and Maths as major science subjects in class eleventh,” said Shashank Shekhar.
Sharing his preparation strategy for this matriculation exam, he said, “I never stretched out throughout the year especially while studying. This ‘cool’ concept helped me in attending two parties a day before the exams started,” Shashank said.
His love for Mathematics made him score full marks in this subject. As hobby, this cute looking boy enjoys playing computer games like FIFA and God of War. This past time too has paid off and he scored full marks in the subject of computer as well.
When asked which school he wants to join, Shashank smiled and said, "That is a controversial question."
On the other hand, his businessman father has not exactly planned for which school they would admit their genius son. Inspite of being a studious boy, Shashank has remained on first positions in his school co-curricular activities including debate, extempore, elocution and quiz.
His friends quote him as a 'good companion'. Prachi on the other land loves reading suspense and horror novels besides painting.