Kolkata girl bags 8th rank, aspires to become doctor

Kolkata: Abantika Roy, a student of Ramkrishna Sarada Mission Sister Nivedita Girls’ School, has made the City of Joy proud by securing the 8th rank in the Madhyamik 2025 examination. Scoring 688 out of 700 (98.29 per cent), she is the only student from the city to feature in the top ten merit list, making her Kolkata’s highest scorer this year.

“I had hoped for a good score, but this exceeded my expectations. I was in tears when I heard the news,” said an elated Abantika. She now plans to pursue pure science in Higher Secondary and aspires to become a doctor. Unlike many toppers, Abantika did not stick to long study hours. “I never studied for more than 10 hours a day,” she said, crediting her mother for helping her maintain a disciplined yet balanced study schedule. “There’s no substitute for reading textbooks thoroughly,” she added.

A lover of music, literature and fiction, Abantika is an avid reader of Satyajit Ray and continued reading until the day before her exams. Celebrations began at home with sweets and later she visited her school to collect her mark sheet. Her mother, Munmun Roy, said: “We’ve always encouraged her to study with love and interest and never pressured her. We’ll continue to support her in whichever path she chooses in the future.”

Commenting on only one Kolkata student making it to the merit list, WBBSE president Ramanuj Ganguly said: “I believe students in Kolkata perform so well across the board that the overall strength and results matter more to them than securing individual ranks.”

Despite limited representation in the merit list, Kolkata recorded an impressive overall pass percentage of 92.30 per cent, ranking third among districts. Of the 23,227 candidates, 10,817 were boys and 12,410 girls. The male pass rate stood at 93.07 per cent and the female at 91.64 per cent.