Upasana Nandi, a student of Smt. Sulochanadevi Singhania School, Thane, Mumbai has earned the All India Rank 1 and even though she is sharing the spot with 17 other students, her family is busy with celebrations. “My semester 1 results were very good so part of me was hoping I would be able to get a good result, but I didn’t expect it to be this good,” she told The Indian Express. Upasana had lost two points (one in English and Physics each) in her first semester and had scored 368 out of 370.
Even though her first term result of ISC 2022 was not as perfect as semester 2, Upasana is quite content with the way CISCE has divided the weightage of the two terms. “I mean, it worked great for me so I am very happy with this weightage distribution,” she laughed.
While she is happy with her score, Upasana is more focused on her next steps. “At this point, I am just getting ready for the next step, which is college admissions,” she said, while adding that she wants to pursue something “along the lines of Microbiology and Biotechnology because that interests me a lot”. She is hoping to get admission in St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai.
Upasana is one out of many who had to go through the struggle and chaos of online and offline classes. When the Covid pandemic took over the world and schools shifted to online classes, Upasana and her parents were a little relieved as she was saving on the commute time.
“Her school is approximately 21kms away from where we stay, so Covid helped us in that case. And I didn’t have to push her to study because she realised very quickly how to manage and utilise her extra time, so it worked in her favour,” Upasana’s mother, Indrani Nandi, told the Indian Express.
While online classes helped her save time, Upasana believes that the offline classes and offline exams work better for her. An ardent fan of ‘class decorum’, she believes that the environment plays a huge role and helps her concentrate better.
“Even though we were under prepared and we were out of practice when it came to writing offline exams, I prefer those because that serious environment helps me concentrate. In online exams, I was stressing too much about getting the camera set right, making sure I am visible, and hoping the internet and power backup don’t fail, and more. I stress too much anyhow, and that used to trigger it more,” she said laughingly.
Revathi Srinivasan, Principal of Smt. Sulochanadevi Singhania School congratulated Upasana and added that her school has two more children in the top three ranks. “I believe the important thing is that these students are not just good in academics but are working on their personalities and other things too. These students have a very good maturity level, and I think that helps them in academics,” she told The Indian Express, while adding that the three toppers told her personally that they wished the pandemic hadn’t taken away their memory-building years.
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