Rohtak, May 15 -- Deepika, a student of Adarsh Senior Secondary School in Miran, Bhiwani, on Thursday topped the Haryana Board of School Education (HBSE) Class 10 examinations with a near-perfect score of 499 out of 500. Four students shared the second position, all securing 498 marks: Ronak of BSM Senior Secondary School (Bigowa, Charkhi Dadri), Khushi of NCVM High School (Putthi Saman, Hisar), Antu of Swami Vivekanand Senior Secondary School (Kheri Jalab, Hisar), and Deepanshu of Balaji Senior Secondary School (Bhungarka, Mahendergarh). Deepanshu was the only boy among the second-place finishers. The third position, with 497 marks, was shared by 11 students: Kavyansh of Government Senior Secondary School, Saharpur Turk, Sonepat; Diksha of Tagore Senior Secondary School, Mangali; Sakshi and Komal of Shree Balbir Singh Senior Secondary School, Madha, Hisar; Aarju of Pink City High School, Bisla, Fatehabad; Mansi of Aaryavart Senior Secondary School, Deoban, Kaithal; Aashu of Holy Senior Secondary School, Siwani Mandi, Bhiwani; Manuraj of Modern Shiksha Sadan, Dehra, Panipat; Gita of Government Girls High School, Sudana, Rohtak; Mahak of Arya High School, Mandholi Kalan, Bhiwani; and Vansh Dev of Maharishi Dayanand Public School, Narwana, Jind. Among the third-place achievers, eight were girls and three were boys. Deepika, who secured the top position with 99.8%, has three sisters and is the second-eldest among them. According to her family, she is the first child in the family to secure the top position in any examination. Her father, Rajkumar, works as a clerk and drives a van at the school where she studies. Speaking about her future plans, Deepika said she aspires to become an engineer and intends to pursue a BTech after completing Class 12. Deepika's sister, Ritika, also scored 483 out of 500 in the same grade. Ronak, one of the four second-toppers with 498 marks, is the youngest among her three sisters and one brother. Her father, Jagmal Singh, is a small farmer, and her mother, Kamla, is a housewife. Ronak mentioned that she studied for 7-8 hours daily and never took tuition. Meanwhile, Kavyansh who bagged third position along with 11 others by scoring 497 marks out of 500, wants to become an engineer. Kavyansh's mother, Monika, is a PGT Teacher and his father, Vikas, is a businessman. Kavyansh also focused on five to six hours of self-study. Despite a dip in the pass percentage compared to last year, girls still dominated the merit list and overall statistics, recording a pass percentage of 91.64% compared to 87.69% for boys-a gap of 3.95 percentage points. Last year, the pass percentage was 94.06% for girls and 91.07% for boys. The overall pass percentage remained 89.60%, the lowest in the past two years, as the pass percentage in 2025 was 92.49% and in 2024 it was 95.22%. Of the 2,76,640 regular students who appeared, 2,47,860 passed, while 6,201 candidates were placed in the "essential repeat" category. Rural students outperformed their urban counterparts, maintaining a pass rate of 90.25% against 87.94% in urban areas. Last year, the performance of schools in urban areas was 92.83% against 92.35% in rural areas. Similarly, private schools fared significantly better than government schools, recording a 92.45% success rate against 87.23%. The pass percentage in Sanskrit Vyakaran (Aarsh Padhdti Gurukul) stood at just 84.21%, the lowest among all subjects and marginally below the 85% recorded in mathematics (basics). Sanskrit Sahitya also saw a notable 13.5% failure rate. In contrast, the Paramparagat Sanskrit stream of Vyakaran performed better at 92.31%, while mathematics (standard) stood at 92.66%. With a 98.93% pass percentage, the performance of students in Punjabi remains better than in other languages, as Hindi and English recorded nearly identical results of 95.93% and 95.97%, respectively. Interestingly, several vocational subjects-agriculture, animal husbandry, music, dance, private security, media and entertainment, plumbing, power, and construction-achieved a perfect 100% pass rate. With a pass percentage of 96.01%, Charkhi Dadri district emerged as the top-performing district in the state, while Nuh remained at the bottom. The pass percentage in Nuh district again remained the worst in the state with only 68.98% of students passing the exam, a 4.92% decline compared to last year's 73.90%....