Seven students shared the top spots in the tricity in four streams of Class 12, results of which were declared by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) here on Saturday. With 98.2%, Haneesh Aggarwal of Delhi Public School, Chandigarh, and Deepak Tiwari of Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 37, stood first in non-medical.
The top spot in humanities (or arts) was shared by two girls from Bhavan Vidyalaya, Sector 27, Chandigarh — Anushka and Sonakshi Bhushan with 98%.
In commerce, Hitasha Sharma from Carmel Convent School, Sector 9, Chandigarh, and Mehak Sharma from GMSSS-16 topped with 97.4%. Not far behind was Ishita, from Chandigarh’s Shishu Niketan Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 22, who emerged as the medical stream topper with 97%.
Haneesh, a resident of Sector 8, Panchkula, had also topped the tricity in Joint Entrance Examination or JEE (Mains) for top engineering colleges of the country, results of which had come out last month. Busy preparing for JEE (Advanced) that is to take place on Sunday, Haneesh said, “I don’t take stress.” His mother Neenu Aggarwal said, “We have little contribution in his success as Haneesh believed in studying independently. We are very proud of him.” Haneesh’s father, an engineer, said he never pressured him to pursue the same stream. “Focus is all that matters,” Haneesh said, adding, “One can top competitive exams and the boards without going to dummy schools (that allow students preparing for entrance exams to skip classes).”
Deepak, the non-medical topper, also bucked a trend as he is from a government school. His father, a lab technician, said he did not know how to react to his son’s score. “We come from a very humble background and this is a very big achievement,” the father said. Mehak, the other topped from a government school, said balance between studies and extra-curricular activities held key. She said she would pursue her passion for singing along with academics in future too.
