When seven-year-old Sushma Verma appeared in the Uttar Pradesh Board High School Examination, which began on Monday, she became the youngest one to take the test in the country.
Daughter of a labourer, Sushma could become the youngest matriculate in the country if she got through the examination when the results would be declared in June next.
Sushma, a student of St Meera's Inter College in the state capital, is confident of getting through with flying colours. Even her classmates and teachers also echo similar sentiment.
"There is no doubt that she will clear the exam," said Anita Ratra, principal of the college.
"My score in the first paper will be about 75 per cent", Sushma said confidently.
"We were worried about her writing as we thought writing for three hours continuously would be too arduous for her tiny hands and fingers. We discovered this problem last year when she took her class IX exam," said Vinod Kumar, the manager of the school.
"She could score only 61 per cent in that test because of this problem. So this year we gave her a lot of practice to write for three hours at a stretch. She wrote the full exam," he said.
And the media attention has also not distracted little Sushma who is completely engrossed with her preparations, the teachers said.
Excellence at such a tender age appears to be common in Sushma's family. Her brother Shailendra cleared class XII examination at the age of 11 and soon after he also cleared the Scholastic Aptitude Test and TOFEL and secured admission in a US university but could not go there owing to monetary problems.
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