Pune: Practising sports has become a new trend during board examinations and students involved in sports have reiterated that sports in fact helped them in increasing their concentration in academics.
Aryan Panse of Sanskruti School and a national table tennis player scored 91.4 per cent in the CBSE boards. “Table tennis enabled me to grasp things quickly. It helped me gain skills like learning faster and staying calm under pressure. These qualities primarily helped me during the board exam. Since I would often miss school because of tournaments, it was a challenge to study in a short time,” said Panse, who has been playing for the past eight years. He started playing competitions since 2012.
Panse played along with three team mates for Maharashtra in the under-18 National Championship in Ajmer and under-15 National Championship in Siliguri. The team won bronze at both events. To balance academics and sports, Panse chose to play state-level matches only during Std X. “During exams, I had reduced playing but I used to go for one or two sessions during gaps in between papers,” said Panse.
Siddhant Jaju of The Orchid School, who obtained 92.6 per cent, is a district-level cricketer. He has been playing cricket for seven years.
“Cricket helped me in gaining focus and better concentration. I had to compromise a lot on my leisure time to keep a balance between sports and academics. During my free time, I completed my homework and in lunch time, I used to approach teachers for queries. I played a ZP tournament just before my board exam. I had reduced my playing hours but didn’t stop it. It worked as a recreation and re-energised me during exams,” said Jaju, who wants to pursue a career in cricket. He also wants to become an engineer and aspires to keep balancing cricket and engineering.
