It was a punishing schedule for her in the past two years

Vachana Shree Patil, who stood third in the State with 171 out of 180 marks in the CET medical stream, has had a punishing schedule in the last two years.

“For II PU, you revise your portions for one year. But for the CET, you need to study all the books that were prescribed for two years. In that way, it is more difficult,” she said.

Ms. Patil said that she spent around five to six hours studying, apart from college hours that stretched to 12 hours.

Her typical day started at 4 a.m. “I never got up on my own. My mother woke me up,” she says.

She studied up to 7 a.m. Then she went to college at 8 a.m. Though college ended at 5 p.m., she kept studying in the library.

She came back and studied up to 10 p.m. when she slept.

“Other than a light meal at 5.30 p.m., I hardly ate anything,” she said. She has been following this diet for some years, for no particular reason. When asked if she was very calorie conscious, she smiled and denied it. “Many people are asking me how I got 100 marks in three subjects. Scoring a hundred in examinations is no big deal actually,” she says. “Work hard, analyse your weaknesses objectively and revise without getting bored, you could score cent percent marks in all subjects,” she said. “PU examination is more about facing a test than having academic understanding of the subjects. You have to plan your studies with the examination in mind. You have to revise your syllabus and solve old question papers. All your studies and revision takes the form of a question answer session. It is good if you have equally hard working friends as they inspire you,” she said. She gives credit to the Shaheen College that cultivated in her a culture of hard work.

She has been a bright student all through. She grew up in Ballari and joined Nalanda high schooland passed SSLC with 96 per cent. She got 98.33 per cent in PUC and stood seventh in the State.