No! Toppers are never born with a lot of intelligence. It all depends on the amount of time and effort he or she devotes in order to improve himself or herself to achieve a specific target in his or her life.

That is what Sagnik Sen, who has done Siliguri proud by securing the third position among the successful candidates at the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education examinations in West Bengal this year, has emphatically proved.

Sagnik, who never stood first in class since he was in class-IV, secured 99.20 per cent IN the ICSE examinations, the results of which were declared late last evening.

I never secured the first position in my class after class-III and would either finish as third or fourth in my class.

But a year before the ICSE examinations, I resolved to break the previous record of my school, which was 98.6 per cent and prepared for the examinations accordingly.

I was hoping for a very good result but never expected to be a state topper.
I dedicate my success to my parents, friends, family members and school teachers, especially because I never had any private tutors and I depended completely on my lessons in school,” said the student of St Michael’s School in Siliguri.

Sagnik said that though he missed physical classes like millions of students across the globe during lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it helped him to fully concentrate on his studies.

“I love quizzing and swimming but since I had to stop pursuing these hobbies due to the lockdown, I could fully focus on my studies,” said the 16- year-old resident of Rabindranagar in Siliguri, who is currently pursuing his higher secondary studies at the Lord Buddha Public School in Kota, Rajasthan.

Sagnik, whose father, Dr Sankha Sen is a renowned physician of north Bengal and whose mother Dr Sreyasi Sen is a pediatrician, said he wanted to become a software engineer.

Some other students of St Michael’s School also topped the list with Kaushal Jain securing 99 percent and standing in the second position in Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts, the school said today.

“Anubhav Ghosh, David Alan Sinha, Shah Emanul Haque and Keshar More, with 98.8 %, stood 3rd in District Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri,” a school official said, adding that 170 students had appeared in the ICSE exams this year, and that all of them cleared the examination.

While 136 students scored 90% and above, 30 students scored 80% and above, four students scored 70% and above, in the school that recorded the ICSE batch average at 93.0 percent.