S. Aruna, who has secured 972 out of 1,000 marks, suffers from a hearing impairment since her birth. She is exempt from the two English language papers. She is a student of CSI Girls Higher Secondary School at Uppilipalayam, where she has been studying since Class III in Tamil medium.
She was motivated to excel in the Plus Two board examinations after she got the State third rank in her Class X board examinations.
The younger daughter of a postal worker here, she is now keen on pursuing the B.Com. course.
Although she might not pursue Chartered Accountancy, which requires proficiency in English, she hopes to assist her elder sister, S. Aishwarya who is pursuing C.A. and has often helped her out.
Despite her high marks, she says her study hours were limited to around two-and-a-half hours per day, split equally among the morning and evening hours.
Her father C. Singaravelan, who works as a Sub-Post Master at Sukrawarpet, began coaching her on a daily basis from January to March on several subjects to ensure she got high marks. Aruna also credits her success to the cooperation of her friends and teachers at the school where she studied.
In order to overcome her English language problems, she is now taking classes on Basic English with Deaf Leaders, a non-Governmental organisation (NGO) working for the welfare of people with hearing impairment in Coimbatore.
Besides centums in Business Mathematics and Accountancy, she got 197 in commerce, 190 in economics and 185 in Tamil.
