Girls once again did better than the boys in the Mumbai region with 89.63 per cent of the 96,167 girl candidates being successful while the figure was 81.60 per cent for the 1,10,456 boys. Overall, in the Mumbai region (Pune, Nagpur, Aurangabad, Mumbai, Kolhapur, Amravati, Nashik and Latur) 1,76,321 of the 2,03,323 students were successful, registering a pass percentage of 85.33 or 2.94 points more than last year.

Pass percentages of students in all the subjects have significantly increased with 89.71 per cent of science candidates, 83.25 per cent of commerce candidates and 83.82 per cent of arts candidates having cleared the exam. The oral exams were assessed by the college while the board conducted the 80 marks written exams. This year, the old syllabus and new syllabus exams were held simultaneously and 33.78 per cent of old syllabus candidates passed the exam. Only 37 cases of exam malpractices were reported this year, the lowest in the past four years.

State topper
Latur girl Kalyani Joshi scored a whopping 99 per cent — the highest in the history of the HSC exams. Kalyani is a student of Mahatma Gandhi college, Ahmedpur, which has also given the state its second ranker in Hrishikesh Joshi who scored 98.

Kalyani said, “I had studied hard but 99 per cent came as a surprise to me.” Kalyani scored 100 on 100 in Chemistry and Maths, 200 out of 200 in Computer Science, 99 on 100 in Physics, and 95 out of 100 in English. Kalyani plans to pursue engineering. Her father works in the PWD department in Nanded.

Overall toppers, Mumbai region
Two city girls have topped the HSC exams in the Mumbai region. Priyanka Jain from Atomic Energy College in Tarapur scored 96.5 per cent and Shruti Bhonsale from Swami Vivekanad College, Chembur, came second with 96.17 per cent in the science stream.

Saturday morning was a bit unusual for 17-year-old Priyanka. She was waiting for her HSC results when someone from her colony informed her that she had topped the city by scoring 96.5 percent. “At first, I couldn’t believe it myself. I felt nervous and I broke down in happiness,” says this soft spoken teenager. “But I never expected that I would top.”

Priyanka has topped not just the city, but also the entire science stream. She scored 199 in Electronics and 98 in both Maths and Physics.

She gives the credit of her success to her parents who she said constantly encouraged her. She did not join any coaching class, but relied on her college and her consistent hard work. “Regular hard work of 5-6 years and immense support from college helped me a lot,” she says. But her main source of inspiration was her elder brother Tushar who topped the Thane district by scoring 93.83 percent in HSC exam 2004—he is now pursuing his engineering degree.