Harshita said that they visited laboratories of Hindu College and Rajdhani College as part of their preparationMonths of preparation paid off for Harshita and Satyam — the two 17-year-olds from South West Delhi — who bagged medals at an international science olympiad held in Moscow earlier this month.
The teenagers are students of class XII at Rajkiya Pratibha Vikas Vidyalaya (RPVV) in Dwarka and won bronze medals in chemistry at the Fourth International Olympiad of Metropolises in Moscow.
A team of eight students from six different RPVVs had boarded a flight to Moscow on August 31. However, Harshit said, their journey had begun several months ago in April when they gave their first screening test for the competition in their respective schools.
“We went through three levels of screening before the final selection and began preparation around one-and-a-half months before the competition. The teachers who had gone for the Olympiad last year had told us how to prepare for the practical and theory sections, and we practised for an hour after classes every alternate day,” said Satyam.
He said that the practice required for the competition was different from what they followed in schools for exams. “In our schools, we are required to learn a concept and then apply it to answer questions. For a competition like an olympiad, the practical aspect is far more closely tied to learning,” he said.
Harshita said that they visited laboratories of Hindu College and Rajdhani College as part of their preparation: “We got to see the equipment which we don’t have in schools.”
On Monday, Delhi Education Minister Manish Sisodia said that the government would set up training cells to train students for competitions of this nature, and that students between 14 and 18 years will be selected to undergo this training.
