The Central Board of Secondary Education had announced its much anticipated Class XII examination results on Monday. The announcement was, in a way, a surprise, almost everyone had expected it to be announced two days later. However, this did not mean that students and parents (and the nosy next-door neighbour) were any less excited.
As the ritual goes, the topper was praised. Some of them even managed to score 500 upon 500. But what about the ones who did not manage to score anywhere near the 90 per cent mark? This time, the internet had their back.
While a mark sheet was looked upon as something shameful, the good samaritans decided to wear it on their sleeves this time! They formed a virtual shield to tell these students that their Class XII marks do not really stop them from achieving great things in life.
IAS officer Nitin Sangwan on Tuesday tweeted the picture of his Class XII mark sheet. He was no topper. In fact, he had scored 24 marks in Chemistry, at a time when on needed 23 marks to pass. "In my 12th exams, I got 24 marks in Chemistry — just 1 mark above passing marks. But that didn't decide what I wanted from my life," he tweeted. "Don't bog down kids with the burden of marks. Life is much more than board results. Let results be an opportunity for introspection & not for criticism," reads the tweet.
Actor Sushant Singh had a 31-year-old memory to share. He tweeted, "1989- I scored 74.5% in 12th Grade, CBSE. PCM stream. Couldn’t even get BA (Pass) in DU, somehow managed to get English Literature in KMC after clearing the written test. Graduated with 2nd division. These are just Marks, they don’t define who you are!! March on my young friends."
Twitter user Namrata Joshi took it a step ahead to start a 'bad marksheet club'. The tweets their are indeed heartening. "Got 77.14 per cent in SSC (Maharashtra State Board) spent the next 5 years confused, gutted, listless and went further down in the dumps as the years progressed and ended up graduating thinking I have no career, no intellect, no future," tweeted another Twitter user Vasan Bala. Another user tweeted, "86 in 10th, 70 in 12th. Multiple ATKTs in engineering. I once had to give all four maths paper in one go. Passing them all is still my biggest achievement."
So here's the takeaway. Did not score in 90s? Flunked a paper? Fret not. Your life doesn't end there. Better things await you.
