By securing a phenomenal 495 marks out of 500, Sana Fayaz topped the merit lists in the recently declared results of class 10th. Ibrahim Wani reports.
Sana Fayaz is jubilant. She has just scored a phenomenal ninety nine percent marks in the recently declared matriculation results. In doing so, she secured the first position in the merit list.
“This success is a combination of many factors,” she says.
Among these factors she counts God’s help as the most important. This is followed by her teacher’s encouragement, and parental support. “Though my parents used to remain busy with their work, they helped me a lot in their spare time,” she says.
Her father Prof Fayaz Ahmed Mir teaches civil engineering at National Institute of Technology (NIT) and her mother Prof Safiya Khalil, is a chemistry lecturer at Government Degree College For Women, M A Road. Sana counts her own sincere effort and hard work as the last factor.
“I started preparation from the very start, from the first day of the class,” says Sana who put in 4-5 hours of studies daily.
“I went through everything that would be taught every day at school or at tuitions,” says Sana. This, according to her is very important for full understanding of whatever is taught.
A student of the Presentation Convent School, Sana also credits the “healthy environment” at her school for her achievement.
“The atmosphere at our school is very healthy. It makes us excel. The teachers are dedicated to students and friends are always ready with a helping hand.”
Sana also feels that her privation tuition classes played an important role. “In Kashmir we spend a lot of time at home due to the winter break, so private tuitions come handy. The tuitions give the students much needed guidance. But care should be taken that tuition classes do not become places for other activities. Going to the tuitions just for the craze or for the sake of it is useless,” she says.
For Sana, proper understanding of a subject is the basic thing. She says that mere cramming of the study material will not suffice.
“I take notes from various sources, be it school, tuitions, friends,or reference books like Pradip’s etc. Then I study these keenly, take out the most important points, and write them in my own way,” she says. This coupled with focus and determination forms her basic study plan.
She also uses the internet from time to time to aid her studies. But here she is quick to add a word of caution.
“We should not let internet become a distraction to our studies. We need to employ it just for constructive purposes.”
“I do not believe that studying just when exams are about to approach is a good practise. It has to be a persistent effort throughout the year,” she says adding that examination preparations are meant for just revisions.
For her matriculation examination, Sana put in 10-12 hours of study daily.
But Sana is not just a workaholic. She takes out time for her family too. “We have to be balanced. I take out time for my family and other activities too,” she says. Sana loves reading fiction based
novels. She counts Agatha Christie’s novels as her favourites. Besides these, she loves books by Dale Carnegie like ‘How to win friends and influence people.’
“These books teach you how to face life.”
Sana has some words of advice for students. “Have faith in yourself and God. This is very important for you to achieve anything,” she says. “And dare to dream. There is no limit to what you can achieve.”
Facts and figures
65.9 % pass percentage. Out of the total of 56358 candidates who appeared for the exam, 33093 were declared to have passed.
Girls bag top 3 positions. Sana Shafiq from Woodland House School Shivpora, Parul Khushu from Presentation Convent School and Nisheet Zehbi from Mallinson
Girls School bagged second position, securing 491 marks each. The third position went to Rimhsa Jan of Baramulla Public School who secured 490 marks.
There was a clean sweep by girls. Out of 150 students figuring in the merit list, 90 are girls.
For the first time grading system was introduced by the BOSE in the examination.
There are 9-Grades for the students as per their percentage in the exams. The students, who secured above 90 percent marks, were allotted A-1 Grade while A-2
Grade candidates fall in the category of 80-89 per cent. Similarly was the case for B1 (70-79), B2 (60-69), C1 (50-59), C2 (40-49) so on till E2.
872 students have fetched marks in the range of 90 to 99 percent (A-1 grade).
4197 students have secured marks between 80 to 90 percent (A-2 grade).
The Government-run schools have failed to bag any position in the top ten list.
