No social media before exams, music for relaxation: CBSE topper Hansika Shukla's success mantra

Ghaziabad's Hansika Shukla, who has topped the CBSE class 12 examination with 499 marks has only one regret — scoring 99 in English. Shukla who has scored 100 each in history, political science, psychology and Hindustani vocals, says she followed a no social media policy ahead of examinations.

"I am on cloud nine as I had not expected this kind of result but now I feel it would have been perfect to get one more mark and have 100 in English. I regret that now," Shukla said. While her mother is an associate professor at a college in Ghaziabad, her father works as a secretary in the Rajya Sabha.

Student of DPS Ghaziabad, Shukla said, "Whenever I wanted to relax I listened to music but I followed a no social media policy because it is a huge distraction. I never took any tuition but followed a disciplined routine on my own and cleared my concepts in the school itself."

Sharing similar marks with her is Muzaffarnagar's Karishma Arora who chose dance over music to relax during her free time. "I am not much of a sports person. I like to dance when I am free and want to relax," Arora said. Coincidentally, both the toppers want to pursue psychology honours for their undergraduate studies.

While Shukla will be preparing for the Indian Foreign Services exam after her graduation, Arora said she likes to set short term goals and hasn't thought about her future plans yet. Girls outshone boys yet again in the class 12 examination, results of which were announced by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Thursday.

Rishikesh's Gaurangi Chawala, Raebareli's Aishwarya and Bhavya from Jind bagged the second rank, scoring 498 out of 500 marks. While Veeraj Jindal and Mehak Talwar from Delhi are among the 18 students to rank third in the exams.

Among others bagging the third rank are Ayushi Upadhyay (Lucknow), Rubani Cheema (Haryana), Vanshika Bhagat (Meerut), Parth Saini (Solan), Ananya Goel (Meerut), Dishank Jindal (Chandigarh), Divya Agarwal (Meerut), Shreya Pandey (Haldwani), Garima Sharma (Noida), Piyush Kumar Jha (Dehradun), Ibadat Singh Bakshi (Noida), Tisha Gupta (Rajasthan) and G Khartik Balaji from Chennai.

Ghaziabad's Aishna Jain, Arpit Maheshwari and Pragya Kharkwal, have also bagged the third rank with 497 out of 500 marks.