Mohali, May 15 -- Girls secured the top three positions in the Class-12 Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) exams, with the first position-holder, Harsirat Kaur of Sarvhitkari Senior Secondary Vidya Mandir School, Barnala, scoring a perfect 500 out of 500 in the medical stream. The results were declared on Wednesday. The second position went to Manveer Kaur of SS Memorial Senior Secondary Public School, Kassoana (Ferozepur), who scored 498 out of 500 (99.6%) in the medical stream. The third position went to Arsh of Sri Tara Chand Vidya Mandir Senior Secondary School, Mansa, who also scored 498 out of 500 (99.6%) in the humanities stream. Since both Manveer and Arsh secured 99.60%, the younger candidate, Manveer, was awarded the second position. The overall pass percentage, which stood at 91%, dropped by 2% compared to last year. Last year, the overall pass percentage was 93.04%. Girls once again outshone boys, with a pass percentage of 94.32% compared to 88.08% for boys. In all, 2,65,388 students had appeared for the exam, out of which 2,41,506 passed, 17,844 were placed in the compartment category, and 5,950 students failed. The result has been uploaded on the PSEB's official website, www.pseb.ac.in, and on www.indiaresults.com. As many as 290 students made it to the merit list, out of which 55 were from schools in Ludhiana and 31 from Hoshiarpur. Malerkotla was the only district with no student in the merit list. PSEB chairperson Amarpal Singh attributed the drop in pass percentage to stricter evaluation this year. "Keeping with the trend, girls have once again outperformed boys. Interestingly, the pass percentage in rural schools stood at 91.20%, which is slightly higher than that of urban schools at 90.74%," he added. Amritsar district topped the state with a pass percentage of 96.29%, followed by Gurdaspur at 95.84%. Pathankot secured the third position with 94.21%. Barnala district ranked last with a pass percentage of 86.07%....