Bhavya Shah
Bhavya Shah
SCORE: 93.4%
Gopi Birla Memorial School, Walkeshwar
Five years ago, Bhavya Shah, a student of Gopi Birla Memorial School in Walkeshwar, lost his eyesight. Today, he aspires to be an engineer. Having scored 93.4 per cent in CBSE Class X exams, he wants to study engineering in the US. The 16-year-old had once contemplated joining a special school after losing his eyesight to weak retina, but decided to stay on to remain competitive.
“I use something called ‘Screen-reader’ on my laptop to help me study my textbooks and my notes, among other things. Apart from that my mother also narrated my notes to me. I would study late into the night and mostly before exams I wouldn’t sleep,” said Shah.
An avid debater, he participates extensively in Model United Nations and seminars. “I try to see that I score the required marks for my school exams, and once that is done I participate in extra-curriculars. Similarly during my prelims, I participated in a hack-a-thon in Hyderabad midway during my exams because I knew I was on schedule for my boards overall,” he said.
Aryan Sharma
Aryan Sharma
SCORE: 84%
Ryan International School, Kandivali
Aryan Sharma had initially struggled when he could not understand Maths problems or ended up making frequent spelling errors. It was only when he was diagnosed with learning disability that things started to improve. In the Class X board exams, in which he was assigned a writer, Sharma has scored an 84 per cent. “My hardwork has borne fruit,” he said. The aspiring engineer added, “I had trouble in the beginning. I had a bad handwriting, calculation errors and trouble learning things. But I would keep solving hundreds of math sums and try to understand things without mugging up. So, in the end it became fine. My mother also helped me a lot.”