CBSE topper Raksha Gopal is a trained musician!

Noida girl Raksha Gopal has emerged as the topper in the Class XII CBSE examination with an eye-popping 99.6 per cent, just two marks away from the perfect score.

However, academics is not the only sphere Gopal excels in, she is learning French these days and has completed five levels in electric keyboard from a Delhi-based institute affiliated with Trinity College of Music, London.
A student of Amity International School, Noida, 17-year- old Gopal says she had worked hard but not aimed to be the topper. "I did work hard and had a focused approach for all the subjects but had not imagined or aimed to score the top rank," she told PTI.

With the perfect score in three subjects - English core, Political Science and Economics - she aims to pursue Political Science Honours. "Lady Shri Ram College, Miranda House or Jesus and Mary College are on my wish list," she said. Her father, Gopal Srinivasan (52), who works as chief finance officer in Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation, says he never put any pressure on Raksha to perform.

Chandigarh's Bhoomi Sawant, a science student, scored 99.4 per cent marks to emerge as the all-India second topper and Mannat Luthra and Aditya Jain jointly bagged the third rank with 99.2 per cent in commerce. Sawant, a student of DAV School in Sector 8, scored 100 in physics, chemistry, mathematics and computer science and 97 in English.

Union HRD minister Prakash Javadekar also congratulated the four toppers over their performance. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) today announced class XII results recording a dip of over 1 per cent in pass percentage since last year.