MUMBAI, May 14 -- Maharashtra recorded a pass percentage of 90.68% in the Class 12 board examinations and 96.61% in the Class 10 boards held by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). The results were announced on Tuesday. A total of 1,17,531 students registered for the Class 10 exams, of which 1,17,237 students appeared. The number of students who passed were 1,13,257. The pass percentage for girls and boys stood at 97.34% and 96.06% respectively. In the Class 12 exams, 34,874 students registered, of which 34,703 appeared and 31,468 passed. The pass percentage for girls and boys stood at 92.75% and 88.89% respectively. The examination was conducted in 322 centres for the students of 561 schools across Maharashtra. Over 20% of students scored more than 90% in both examinations. Rajeev Kumar Garg, city coordinator for CBSE schools, said the overall result was impressive despite changing the question pattern from memorisation to competitiveness. "CBSE also changed the teaching methodology and trained teachers this year," he said. "These changes can be seen in the results." Garg added that an analysis showed that the children had also performed very well in skill subjects. "In conformity with the National Education Policy, CBSE initiated skill subjects like IT, introduction to financial markets and AI," he said. "In the last few years, children have been responding enthusiastically to these subjects." Students from Delhi Public school (DPS), Nerul, emerged among the high scorers in Mumbai. Aishwarya Sinha, a humanities student, who scored 98.6% in Class 12, is now preparing for the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) to study history. Inspired by her father, she decided to pursue humanities after Class 10 in which she scored 98%. "My father is the Inspector-General in Konkan Railway," she said. "He was the first in our family to choose humanities as a career option, and I followed suit." Another high scorer from DPS, Shreshth Agarwal, who scored 98.8% in the science stream, said, "Throughout Class 11 and 12, I consistently practised by solving multiple question papers. I dedicated at least 4-5 hours daily to study, which helped me score 99.8 percentile in the JEE mains as well." Agarwal hopes to pursue a career in computer science. Nysa D'Cunha from R N Podar School, Santacruz, who scored 99% in the commerce stream, said she had focused on concept-based study. "Every day I used to compile notes on a single page which helped me revise the subject at the last minute," she said. "I love economics and want to pursue a career in it. I am appearing for CUET to get admission to a central university." Anurag Jena from New Horizon Public School, Airoli, attributed his 99.4% in the Class 10 boards to his hard work and teachers' and parents' dedication. "I am preparing for JEE to study engineering," he said. "After that, I have decided to pursue an MBA and become a marketing professional."...