ICSE 2019 topper Manhar switches to CBSE for class 11

The 16-year-old added, “Since I will be preparing for national-level competitive exams, I thought it would be better to study in a CBSE-affiliated school since almost all competitive exams are based in CBSE syllabus and NCERT books.”

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The Punjabi lad currently is studying at Delhi Public School (DPS), RK Puram and residing in a hostel. He said that he had to leave his parents and hometown in search of better quality education.

“I looked for humanities-based schools in Punjab as well but in my hometown, humanities is looked at as a stream for low aiming students. I wanted to study from the best since I have an interest in law, political science, philosophy, et al,” he said.

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He is an avid reader and loves to spend on philosophical books. “I started reading my mothers’ philosophy books from an early age,” said Manhar who also writes English poetry in his free time.

In his ICSE exam, he has secured 98 in English, 99 in Hindi and 96 in Punjabi while in rest all of the subjects including mathematics, science, sociology and physical education he has secured 100 marks each. Since the best of four subjects and English are counted, his total is 498 out of 500 marks.

Manhar with his family.

He holds the top spot in the ICSE exam with Mumbai’s Juhi Rupesh Kajaria. Both the students secured 99.60 per cent marks.

The sixteen-year-old topper did not expect to top the exam. “When I read the interview of last year’s topper, I realised these are a different category of students. I could never achieve such a feat. I never used reference books for my studies and dedicated only limited hours. I used to sleep by 10 pm daily. What worked in my favour was that whatever I studied, I did it with full sincerity and focus,” he said.