ICSE results: Pune girl tops, with 3 others from UP

Celebrations were seen across ICSE schools in the city with most students performing spectacularly well in the finals.

Hargun Kaur Matharu, the ICSE topper from Pune, wants to pursue coding. (Photo credits: Special arrangement)

5 min readPuneJul 19, 2022 06:53 PM IST First published on: Jul 18, 2022 at 11:08 AM IST

Shouts of hurray went up as Sujata Mallick Kumar, principal of St Mary’s School, announced, “all-India merit rank 1” to the teachers glued to the office computer for results of the Class X, ICSE examinations.

While the faculty could barely contain their excitement, someone dialled the residence of Hargun Kaur Matharu, the girl who topped not just the school but is tied for the top position with three other students from Uttar Pradesh at 99.8 per cent.

“I was hoping for it but I didn’t think it would actually happen. In terms of preparation, I think the most important thing is to follow the topic being taught in class. I didn’t take any coaching. In fact, I never had a schedule, I would study as much as I wanted,” said Matharu who is preparing for JEE and is interested in robotics.

Similar celebrations were seen across ICSE schools in the city with most students performing spectacularly well in the finals.

Among the national merit holders is another student of St Mary’s School — Shivani Deo — who ranked second along with 33 others from across the nation. “I relied on classroom lectures and my teachers completely and a lot of credit goes to them as well. Also, I believe a fair balance is needed so I would take part in athletic competitions regularly and kept myself fit through regular exercise. As far as hobbies go, I like reading and writing.”

Principal Sujata Mallick Kumar said that of 205 girls and boys, 92 students secured above 95 in English and best of four subjects.

Chandrika Banerjee, principal of Vidya Pratishthan’s Magarpatta City Public School, said 74 of 120 students scored above 90 per cent and school topper Bhargava Kollapalle was ranked 3rd in all-India merit list.

“I had got 99.5 per cent in semester 1, so I was expecting a good result. I didn’t go for any coaching as I have always believed in self study. I am not very studious and I can’t study for a long time. I used to study for only about 2 to 3 hours everyday. The teachers mentored us well on how to handle exam pressure, especially since we had last-minute notice that we will have two semesters and written exams. The school really helped us get accustomed to the subjective style of questions,” said Kollapalle who is also an IIT aspirant.

Monica Thadaney, director, Caelum High School where 21 of 41 students scored above 90 per cent and Harsh Shah emerged as school topper with 98 per cent, said, “This is our third year of results, first two years were Covid batches where the first batch took half exams and the second batch none, so these results make us very happy.”

Across the three campuses of Vibgyor Group of Schools, the excitement was high as students scored in the 90-plus club.

Kavita Sahay Kerawalla, vice-chairperson, Vibgyor Group of Schools, recalled how the previous year was challenging for everyone, especially for the students. “They struggled to get reacclimatised to offline classrooms and exams but they put their best foot forward, and did an excellent job,” she said.

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At the school’s Balewadi camp, 66 of 123 students scored above 90 per cent and Siddhant Barve emerged as the school topper with 99 per cent marks. At the Magarpatta campus, where 82 students appeared, Deethi Gandhi with 98.33 per cent was the school topper while at the NIBM campus, 102 of 178 students scored above 90 per cent. Aditi Rahul Sawant emerged as the school topper with 99 per cent, while her twin brother Dhruv Rahul Sawant shared the second rank with Navya Bhavana Kommuri at 98.8 per cent.

Rita Katawati, Principal at Hutchings High School and Junior College, said besides one student who was absent for exams, all 252 students who appeared cleared and 104 scored above 90 per cent. School headboy Ameya Surve topped with 99.2 per cent.

“I had a strict schedule of 6-7 hours’ study and followed it stringently since I was the head boy and had many other responsibilities lined up. I believe in consistency and also that studies shouldn’t get affected because of my co-curricular activities,” he said.

Devendra Kumar, Principal of Pawar Public School, said that it had been a year of uncertainty with the online mode, but the students did well.

Two students, Preena Sengupta and Divyajyoti Naskar, stood first in the school scoring 98.6 per cent, he said.

Across all three branches of The Bishops School, results were very good. While Aadi Gahotra with 99.2 per cent was the topper of the Kalyani Nagar branch, Parth Lahoti, who also scored 99.2 per cent, topped the Camp branch while two students, Tanishq Sahu and Tanushkumar Yadav with 99.2 per cent, topped the Undri branch.

The Academy School (TAS), Pune, recorded 100 per cent results and of the total 88 students from Dr Mar Theophilus School, Dhanori, who appeared for the exams, 20 scored above 90 per cent and Sasidhar Venkata Neti was the topper with 96.6 per cent. At Spicer Higher Secondary School, all 337 students passed and Kalpesh Karnawat emerged the topper with 97.7 percent. (With inputs from Sakshi Rathi)