Pune Girl Country's ICSE Topper, Didn't Miss IPL During Exams

15-year-old Muskan Pathan has become the country’s topper in this year’s ICSE exams. And an even more spectacular fact is that she did not attend any tuition classes to achieve 99.4% in the exam conducted by the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations. Muskan is accompanied by Bengaluru boy Ashwin Roy, who also scored the same percentage.

Muskan is a big cricket fan and claims that she did not even miss a single IPL match even while her final exams had begun.

"My efforts were just 10-20%, the rest was because of my teachers, parents and friends, without whom this success would not have been possible," said Muskan, a student of Hutchings High School and Junior College, told TOI.

The young girl said that she did not join tuitions as she thought a lot of time will get wasted if she had joined. Instead, she made a timetable for herself in the beginning of the year and followed it religiously. The timetable included studying for 4-5 hours every day and sound sleep.

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Muskan, who hails from a family of 14 doctors, including her mother, wants to study medicine. “My daughter and son take a one-hour break after they return from school before resuming their studies. This habit worked to mould Muskan's study habits which helped her shine," said Shakira Pathan, Muskan’s mother.

On the other hand, her father, Abdulla Pathan, is a happy man after seeing her daughter’s achievement but maintains that the family did not put pressure on Muskan.

"We have always been happy with her scores. It was her desire to top in school after she came first in standard IX. We never expected her to come first in the country," he added.

Apart from family members, even Muskan’s school principal is proud of her student. “Muskan has shown everybody that coaching classes are not a pre-requisite for a good score. For the last two years, students from our school have stood third in the country. They never attended coaching classes. The whole credit goes to our teachers who work hard for the students," said principal of Hutchings High School and Junior College, Rita Katawati.