Hundreds of Indian school pupils have received grade 12 exam results that in many cases will determine whether or not they secure a place at university.
As in previous years, girls have outperformed boys in the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) exams.
There were many impressive individual performances with some averaging well over 90 per cent across the five subjects they took.
For some parents the success of their children has come at a cost, since large numbers of youngsters have been receiving additional private tuition that typically costs Dh250 for each subject per month.
The CBSE asked schools to ensure counsellors were available to pupils if they were feeling under pressure .
More than 4,000 grade 10 and grade 12 pupils at Indian schools in the UAE took the exams during March.
The grade 12 results were posted on the internet on Friday morning, while the grade 10 results are expected later this month.
One of the most successful pupils was Lavina Phulwani, 17, from Our Own English High School in Dubai. She scored 94.8 per cent overall.
“I was shocked, but I am really happy,” she said. “I was fearing disappointment and wasn’t expecting to do this well – I wanted to get about 92 per cent.
“I wanted good results and so I worked hard. I never went out and there was no television and no online. It was study, study, study.”
For the five months leading up to the exams, Lavina had twice-weekly private lessons in economics. These helped her to score 98 per cent in this paper.
“The tutor was amazing. It was impossible not to understand,” she said.
Lavina plans to apply to the American University in Dubai and eventually wants to work in marketing.
Other students are looking to return to their native India for university, with some hoping to secure places at universities in the United States.
Admissions tutors will use the CBSE results to determine whether to offer places to students.
Subjects offered to pupils in the different streams varied, but typically science pupils took exams in English, physics, chemistry and mathematics, plus either IT or biology.
In the commerce stream, common compulsory subjects were English, accounting, business studies and economics, plus one of mathematics, IT and sociology.
Among the other outstanding students this year was Jincy James of Our Own English High School, in Dubai, who scored 94.2 per cent in the science stream, and Suchita Bhadkamkar, of Delhi Private School, Sharjah, who averaged 92.2 per cent, also in the science stream.
Hadeefa Begum, 18, from the New Indian Model School, Dubai, was also pleased. A science stream pupil, she averaged 84.6 per cent, putting her in second place in her school behind Jasmin Majeed on 89 per cent.
“I didn’t have any extra tuition so I feel very proud that without it I could do this much,” said Hadeefa, who hopes to study biotechnology in Chennai, India.
Not everyone wa ecstatic, however.
Mohammed Mudassir, another pupil at New Indian Model School in Dubai, averaged 83.8 per cent and said: “I’m just satisfied, not so happy with it because my results were mixed. My maths was not so good. I could have got more.”
At Abu Dhabi Indian School, the principal Vijay Mathu said he was pleased with the results achieved by the 246 students in grade 12 at the school who took the exams.
The school’s head girl, Kodapanakkal Rabia Ibrahim, scored an average of 93.4 per cent across five subjects, while Zahid Mohammad Aslam got 100 per cent in his mathematics examination.
“I am happy. These are excellent, outstanding results. Students and teachers have worked very hard,” Mr Mathu said.