A New Town girl has topped nationally in biotechnology in the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (Gate) exam. Her certificate describes her rank as 1 out of 9,348 candidates who appeared in the paper across the country.
Sayantika Ghosh, a student of Heritage Institute of Technology, has scored a perfect 1,000 in her subject. Her marks normalised for multi-session papers out of 100 using a complex formula, using the mean of marks of the top 0.1 per cent students, came to a highly creditable 80. Seated in their CB Block apartment, overlooking the block park, near Axis Mall, mother Jhimli Ghosh says: “She was happy with her performance after writing the test but of course no one expected this.” Sayantika nods in agreement. “I checked the rank and the roll number on the website twice.”
A student of Salt Lake Point School, Sayantika liked biology since Class XII. So once she passed out of school, with 92.25 per cent in ISC she did not hesitate to pick biotechnology as her B. Tech major in college.
The soft-spoken girl says classes in college prepared the base for her. “But I had to study the same text books in greater depth as the questions are based on details.”
The GATE examination took place on February 3. She had started preparations six months in advance. “Initially I would set aside two to three hours for GATE studies on returning from college. In the weekends, I would study six to seven hours for GATE and another two hours for college lessons. I would be up late as well. The last one month I focused completely on GATE,” said the girl, who would listen to music in between studies. Songs like Aashayein from the film Iqbal and the Lakshya title track kept her motivated. She would also watch YouTube videos posted by toppers of other years.
It helped that the GATE examination centre was close by. “It was at TCS Gitabitan, the Tata Consultancy Services office, just 10 minutes away,” she smiles. “Staying in New Town also helped in studying since the area is much quieter.” The family still spends a lot of time at the family seat in Muchibazar, near Ultadanga, where her uncle’s family stays but stayed put in New Town when she was in preparation mode.
Though college is not over yet — she is in fourth year with the final semester left till June — she has started weighing her MTech options. “I will either do PhD and go into teaching or go for research.” Her top priority is IISc Bangalore for which the admission interview will take place in April. Her second preference is IIT Bombay, which requires entrants to clear both a written test and an interview.
Though her father took her to 6 Ballygunge Place in Eco Suite for a treat, Sayantika is in no mood to celebrate yet. “The battle is not over. Let’s see where I get through,” says the former student of Alekhine Chess Club, with her mind focused on the next move.
