Delhi
The student of class 12 has scored 96 percent in the class 12 CBSE examinations, earning her a top spot in the special category in Delhi.
Updated : May 27, 2015, 04:51 PM IST
Scoring a high rank in the CBSE board exams is a feat in itself. But is it just a game of intelligent quotient (IQ) or also creativity and out-of-the-box thinking that makes some students set benchmarks for others?
18-year-old Nehmat Mongia is like any other student her age, who loves to hang out with friends, watch movies and travel. While she scored 96 percent in the class 12 CBSE examinations, earning her a top spot in the special category in Delhi, not many know that she defeated dyslexia, a learning disability, to score a perfect 100 in Geography.
Nehmat scored 479 marks out of 500 with 99 in Painting, 95 in History and Psychology and 90 in English. From a 70 percent in class 11 to a 96 percent now. How did she manage to do it?
Nehmat speaking with iamin said, “I didn’t like studying and reading notes at all. I would be repulsed by the reading material, which in 12 grade is so vast. I just tuned my life is such a way that the topics I studied were always at the back of my mind.”
Making stories
Spilling the beans on her success, Nehmat said that she would makes stories out of topics she learnt. “I would come home and tell my grand mom stories about what I had learned in the day. She listened to me patiently each day. Sometimes I would also imagine that I am the teacher and I would teach myself by explaining the concepts.”
Visual imagery
She also took great interest in visualizing almost everything she studied. “I would dream about topics in history, about architecture. I would imagine how buildings were made. For Geography, I made my own charts and tables with colourful markers. I drew pictures and redrew them without looking at the course material.”
Catching problems early on
It also helped that she was diagnosed with dyslexia early on when she was in class 3. She received special attention at Learning Matters, is an American institute that caters to children with special needs. “There was a teacher called Mrs Nath who taught me the ability to learn. Since then I have never felt even for a second that there was something wrong with me. My school, Modern Barakhamba was also very supportive towards my learning and academic goals."
Repeat Repeat Repeat!
Repeated tests and writing made it easier for her memory to retain what she had learnt. “I would give repeated tests which my teacher Avantika would take every second day. I wrote a lot and must have written the notes for one chapter at least 5 times. That helped me more because I felt that if I didn’t write what I have learnt, I would forget it the next day.” she said.
Nehmat expressed that since being academically strong was a real challenge, she didn’t want it to be a weak point of her life. That's why she studied equally hard and put in almost 10 hours of dedicated effort everyday. Unlike other students with great scores who are aiming to be a doctors or engineers, with her strong visual skills, Nehmat has always wanted to be a painter. She plans to pursue fine arts from the top institution in the country.
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