First rank holder is a computer wizard, mathematics buff

Ashwin Rao, a student of St Paul’s English School, is on cloud nine.

Flanked by his parents and grandparents, he cannot stop smiling for a second. With a score of 99.4%, he has surpassed last year’s topper Abhineet Parichha from Odisha. Ashwin has company for first rank, sharing it Pune’s Muskan Abdullah Pathan.

His father Dwarka Rao feels it was the hard work put and a little luck that helped Ashwin achieve the feat.

“We were expecting 96 to 98%, but it was basically his expectations that he needed to meet. He never attended tuitions and was very focused about his exams. Various school activities helped, as it gave him some time off,” said Rao, who works with automotive giant Fiat-Chrysler.

Ashwin says he gave time to all subjects, but focused on the subjects he liked. “Computer Science and Maths are my favourite subjects, so I spent a lot of time on them. I like Computer Science so much that I even wrote a java program for tic-tac-toe during my holidays.”

His mother Lakshmi Rao said Ashwin holds a red belt in Kung-fu and feels he is naturally gifted to handle studies and extracurricular activities with equal aplomb. “He exceeded all expectations and we are on top of the moon.” ‘

History and Geography are the subjects he dislikes the most and would study them just a day or two before the paper.  Ashwin said, “I didn’t study much after the second preparatory exams as I had studied everything and there was no pressure from my parents. I had my space and could prepare the way I wanted.” He wants to pursue engineering.

Susan Roy, principal of St Paul’s, is ecstatic the school’s results have seen an increase of almost 5% to 92% this year.

“There are a few strategies we worked on, we divided each class into three groups, the toppers, average students and people who needed help. We gave more importance to the toppers, because we knew we had potential rank holders.”

“There was never a free period, teachers worked round the clock. They taught all nine periods and took extra classes till 4:30 pm.”

Susan said, “Ashwin was a topper in ninth grade as well, but used to make a few silly mistakes. So, we used to correct him once in a while. The self-evaluation exam we conducted before the boards helped the students know where they stood.”