India, June 25 -- For Ranchi's Avni Kejriwal, scoring a perfect 500/500 after the recent re-evaluation of her Class XII CBSE board exam sheet was not the result of a year spent buried in textbooks. Instead, she credits maintaining interests beyond academics that helped her stay motivated.

"The biggest secret to my scores is that I ensured to keep my the world outside of books alive. My last year leading up to the Boards was not 24 hours of studying or living life in my books. There was no punishing, excessive grind. When studying, my world stopped there and I made sure there were no distractions. But, when not studying, I refused to let the pressure of boards isolate me. Playing athletics, badminton and basketball, I used to spend a lot ...