Ludhiana, April 5
Two city students have qualified Zonal Informatic Olympiad conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), the results of which have now been displayed on the Internet.
Of the over 600 students from affiliated schools of the northern region who appeared for the written test on February 12 at DAV Public School, Chandigarh, just eight students have been able to qualify. The lucky eight include Aayush Munjal, plus two non-medical student from Sacred Heart Convent Senior Secondary School at Sarabha Nagar, and Saurav Gupta, plus two non-medical student from Kundan Vidya Mandir and a resident of Jagroan.
Since this was the first time that the CBSE had conducted the olympiad test in informatics, both the students said that they had not prepared for it. They said that they had been given a sample paper by the board, but this too did not conform to the pattern of the paper that they had been actually told to attempt. They said that they were given 75 marks paper with five fill-in-the-blank type questions, each further divided into three parts. The questions were meant to test the IQ of students and were to be solved analytically.
Both the selected candidates said that they felt that they were fortunate enough to have qualified and were now thinking of preparing well for the final round of test that will be based on the questions pertaining to IT only. Both of them said that their only problem was finding time for preparation as they were also busy taking coaching for admission to IIT and other engineering colleges.
Interestingly, both the students were not in the city today. Talking over his mobile phone from New Delhi where he had gone to attend his brother’s marriage, Aayush said that he was much excited to see the results. He said that he was interested in becoming a software engineer from his childhood. His elder sister, a computer engineer, further inspired him to chose the line. He said that he was in Class I when his father, Mr Mahesh Munjal, Managing Director of Majestic Auto Ltd, got him a computer at home. He said that he learnt programming by self-interest but in school, Ms Mona Thapar, his teacher, inspired him to take go on further and take the test.
Aayush said that the preliminary round of the test was held in his school in which students from various schools of the city had participated. He was among 17 students selected from the city for the zonal test to be conducted at Chandigarh, he said.
Saurav too was away to Chandigarh for taking coaching from an institute. Talking to Ludhiana Tribune over the phone, he said that he was much elated over his success. He said that he was now waiting for an intimation from the board about the final round of the test to be held by the end of this month.
