Achievements
Managing academic rigour with consistency & support
Three students from Apeejay School, Noida, shared how Class XI was about challenges and lessons learnt
Class XI marks a significant academic shift, especially for students in the science stream. It demands greater focus, consistent effort, and a balanced approach to manage school studies alongside competitive exam preparation. Meet three such students – Ashwika Tandon (89.6%), Kunj Gupta (84.8%), and Dhairrya Meennahalli Palleda (83.4%) of Class XI-E, academic session 2024-25, from Apeejay School, Noida.
In a candid interview, they share how they navigated Class XI to come out as winners.
Ashwika, who is pursuing Science (Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics), said that her key to success was consistency. “I used to dedicate around two hours daily to each subject, so it would total about six hours a day. Furthermore, after my Class X Boards, I took a break of ten days, and from April 1, I had already completed four chapters from each subject. That early start gave me a boost and kept me going,” she shared.
To navigate the jump from Class X to XI, the school teachers also guided and mentored her, which made a big difference, she added.
Kunj said that coming into Class XI was quite challenging. “Studying for both JEE and school was challenging for me. So, I focused on school lessons and textbook concepts, mainly by strengthening my basics. I mainly focused on the NCERT books. For instance, in Math, most of the paper came directly from the NCERT. But for Physics and Chemistry, I did use reference books, especially for numericals. The theory part in the NCERT was sufficient, but the extra practice with numericals helped,” he explained.
The teachers at school, he said, were helpful. “I could ask them questions from any chapter, even from those that were not part of the school syllabus anymore. They still helped me with the deleted chapters, which was great,” he stated.
Dhairrya, who has taken PCM with Physical Education as his additional subject, shared, “I’m preparing for the engineering entrance exam, JEE. I thought I still had another year to prepare seriously, so I didn’t focus much on schoolwork. But I was regular in school and attended all the classes,” he said and added that the teachers were extra supportive.
“My Physics teacher was also my class teacher. She constantly reminded us that there’s a big leap from Class X to XI, and her guidance proved to be advantageous. Her guidance proved to be advantageous,” Dhairrya said.
