Dhanya Bharath from Bangalore has secured first rank in the State-level National Talent Search Examination (NTSE) conducted in November, 2013.

More than 50,000 students from Karnataka wrote the NTSE Stage I State-level exam and 235 have qualified.

Speaking to Deccan Herald, Dhanya, a 10th standard student from Sri Vidya Mandir Educational Society, Malleswaram said: “It came as a pleasant surprise. I scored 111 marks out of 140. There were three subjects – MAT mental ability test, SAT (scholastic ability test) and English language skills test, which was a qualifying subject.”

Another student Adithya M Niranjan from Mysore, who missed the first rank by just two marks, said: “I secured third rank in the State and took up coaching classes at the BASE coaching institute. I expected to be in the top five and it did happen,” said the student of Lions Sevaniketan School, Mysore. 

NTSE is a national-level scholarship programme conducted by NCERT for class 10 students. The NTSE Stage II exam National level will be held in May.