As the CBSE Class 12 results came out on Saturday afternoon, 17-year-old Meghna Srivastava of Noida started getting screenshots from friends informing her of a happy news - she had topped the exam in which over 11 lakh students appeared, scoring 499 out of 500.
Born and brought up in Noida, Meghna told IANS that it never occurred to her that she would top the examination. "My parents and I were shocked and surprised."
As her levels of shock came down by a notch towards evening, she said that being consistent was the key to her success.
"I like baking and I used to watch a lot of TV," said the student from Noida's Step By Step School. "I used to watch mostly English shows -- 'The Office', 'Breaking Bad'... Anything on TV", she added, terming Netflix "one of her favourite pastimes".
She also liked to listen to music and read non-fiction, but her hobbies did not mean that she was not serious about her studies.
"I had no particular style of studying and I never counted the number of hours I studied, but I must have studied around seven-eight hours a day," said Meghna, a humanities student, stressing that she was consistent, stable and relaxed.
"You have to be consistent so that you do not panic at the last minute," she said.
The 17-year-old, who loves to study psychology, said that she has got into the University of British Columbia in Canada, and would be starting there in August.
--IANS
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