Ayushi Shah AIR 3 (99.4%)
Ayushi Shah, daughter of Shardul Shah and Roshni Shah has scored 99.4% in CBSE Class 10th Board Examination and shares 3rd position at National level and stood 2nd in the state. Her father is an Instrumentation Engineer and currently working as General Manager at Reliance Industries Limited . Her mother is an Electrical Engineer and a social worker. Ayushi has studied in K.D Ambani Vidyamandir School since childhood. She did not go for any professional tuition classes and has achieved her success by Self studying only. She used to clear her concepts from her teachers in school and her mother used to help her out with her studies. Ayushi is also active in many other co-curricular activities. She stood 1st at National Level in Gyanlab Kidovators Challenge which is a Creativity Olympiad. She is also a trained Bharatnatyam dancer. Ayushi wants to pursue Engineering from IIT and dreams to become a Computer Science Engineer. In this interview with Priya Sarin, this young winner will show you the way to success and help you excel in exams.
In my interaction with students, I have observed that toppers give credit of their success to their teachers and parents. And I have also observed that non-achievers blame their bad performance on their parents and teachers, i.e., on anyone except themselves. Your take?
I know this behaviour of blame game. It is just human nature. But I strongly feel that guidance and support from my teachers and parents are the pillars of my success and not only this time but in future also.
Your friends influence your behaviour. Do you agree? If yes, how do you capitalise on it so that it has a positive effect on your performance? If your answer is no, how do you remain uninfluenced in this connected world?
Yes. I agree that our behaviour is being influenced by the people with whom we are dealing or associated with but important thing is our own core values and attributes. My parents always tell me that every human being is special and each one has something which can help us . The only thing is that we need to look for it.
This has developed a positive attitude in me and has given a strength to ignore unfruitful behaviour of people and also developed a good relation which further helped me to influence people in my favour.
Some students focus on short-term goals and some focus on long-term goals. But achievers usually have their short-term goals aligned with their long-term goals. Any tips for other students on the same?
I believe our long-term goal should be distributed in sub goals and all sub goals must be specific, clear and time bound. For example, to “Try hard” or “Do my best” is less effective than “Let me get more than 90% correct” or “Let me concentrate on beating my own best”
Humans are thinking beings. And as much as we want to, we can not totally avoid negative thoughts. Such emotions are natural and inevitable. Can you suggest some ways about how the not-so-privileged students change their unwanted habits and thought patterns?
I agree that as a human being we can not totally ignore the negative thoughts.
But meditation, yoga , reading good books and open heart discussion with our parents and teachers are the ways to cope up with such situations.
Rural students are high on talent but low on confidence. Can you share any confidence-boosting tips for them?
Here I want to quote one thing. My Dad always tells me that “Confidence can neither be bought from the market nor there is a medicine for it”. The most important thing is that we must believe in ourselves. Cultivating positive attitude and focus on the result will surely increase the self-confidence.
In this highly competitive world, exam stress and anxiety are inevitable. Any tips on how to combat them?
Meditation / yoga has given me more relaxation. Also enough sleep ( at least 7 hrs) helped me to fight against stress and negativity. Apart from it, I have a habit to discuss my feelings, whether happy or sad, with my parents which offloads my stress and makes me relax. Let us prepare for the best and ready to face the worst.
There are two types of students in government and budget schools. One who studies very hard and another who doesn’t like to study at all. But one thing that is common in them is that they feel dissatisfied with their effort to reward ratio. Do you have any effective study tips for them so that they fully reap the benefits of their efforts?
There is no substitution for hard work. We should love ourselves and honour who we are rather than who we should be. In my opinion honest efforts are important and result will automatically follow. One should not get depressed with failures but learning from failure will surely help us to reach success.
What are the most important things that students should focus on while preparing for the boards?
While preparing for boards, one should focus on hard work , self confidence , continuous practice and positive attitude. I thoroughly read my NCERT books through out the year. Solving sample papers in exam friendly atmosphere helped me a lot along with referring toppers’ answer key issued by CBSE in all the subjects.
Many students tend to sacrifice on their sleep and hobbies for exams. Did you do so? If yes, did it help? If not, what would you advise other students on the same?
No. I feel that one should take enough sleep which would help to fight against stress. No need to sacrifice the hobbies but yes we need to cut short the time spend behind it. For that I would suggest to everyone to improve upon time management. Let’s list out and segregate our daily activities in important and less important. So if we do micro planning, we can avoid many unfruitful activities and get the enough time for sleep and hobbies.
In general happy people are healthy people, and healthy people are happy people. And happy and healthy people have a better shot at success. Do you agree? Why?
Yes I do agree. I believe in famous slogan of our Ayurveda that “ Life ( Ayu) is combination of body, senses, mind and reincarnating soul. Healthiness causes happiness and happiness will keep the stress and tension away. In simple words “Health is wealth”.
Little things make a big difference. Can you share some simple study techniques and tips that you followed?
Improve the answer paper writing skills and presentation by writing the answers point wise, underlining the important key words and good handwriting.
Understanding the concept is much more effective than rote learning the things.
Solving sample papers in exam friendly atmosphere will help a lot along with referring toppers’ answer key issued by CBSE in all the subjects.
Albert Einstein famously said that his curiosity is his real talent. As kids, humans are naturally curious and that is how we pick up skills like walking and talking. But sadly as we grow old, we lose this skill. But an all-rounder like you can surely share some tips on how to remain curious and keep learning new things?
Try to develop thought process that whatever we are seeing is not an end. It means horizon is not the end of world but there is something beyond that so lets walk forward. Always try to see the other side of the coin.
Are you the master of your gadgets or their slave? In this digital age, how do you practise self-control when it comes to distractions?
I am master of my gadgets. Here I want to clarify the concept which is misunderstood widely and making us slaves of gadgets. Many students believe that surfing internet / social media is good things to do for short break in study. They are misunderstanding that it will make us fresh or rejuvenate. But actually it is consuming our mind and cultivating many unnecessary thoughts in our minds which leads to distraction during study time. So, I feel that lets have walk in open space / gardens which actually, gives feeling of freshness and increases the concentration.
Students of government and budget school do not have adequate resources and facilities. Can you share some simple self-study techniques and tips for them?
Now we are living in the era of internet. During recent years, modernisation of mobile network has significantly reduced the mobile data cost which has catalysed the India’s digital revolution. Now almost everything is available in digital world. Access and affordability to online courses / videos / blogs has changed the information system manifold. Here one should be cautious enough to avoid addiction. No need to run after costly reference books since NCERT is the main guide.
~ Priya Sarin
priya[at]thestudentsdigest.com
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