However, as in the HSC (science) results declared last week, no city school was represented in the State merit list.

Arpit Jain, a Shreyas Vidyalay student with a total of 513 marks (85.5 per cent) topped the city. He lagged behind the State topper by five per cent. The top 10 positions in the city were shared by 18 students, 15 of them girls, mostly students of the Convent of Jesus and Mary.

As many as 9,431 students appeared for the examinations from Vadodara city; 6,943 cleared the examinations. Another 4,517 students appeared from Vadodara district, 3,557 students of whom cleared the examinations. Thus the total pass percentage in the city was 73.62 and 78.74 in the district.

The results of the neighbouring districts varied between 60 per cent and 70 per cent. While the pass percentage at Bharuch was 62.19, the Panchmahals results were 79.69 per cent.

Of the three sections of the city, Sayajigunj, as in the HSC science examination, was the most successful with 77.92 per cent. Mandvi followed with 70.63 per cent, while Raopura had a 70.47 pass percentage.While a Shreyas Vidyalay student topped the city list, other schools which did well for themselves were Basil, CJM and Alembic Vidyalay. CJM recorded 100 per cent results, while Alembic recorded 98 per cent whereas thefoundation course had a pass percentage of 85.95. In general stream, of the 1,21,963 students who took the examination 8,820 secured distinctions.Amreli district had the highest pass percentage of 97.33 per cent. It incidentally has had a history of maximum number of cheating cases. According to the board officials steps are being taken to control it as the figures seem quite unrealistic.

Commenting on the record high in the overall results, R. Tevatia, chairperson, Gujarat Higher Secondary Board, said: ``It is because the syllabus has stabilised. The exams have become more predictable.'' According to her the coaching classes -- which are otherwise illegal contribute to this.

The board will be taking steps to bring about a change in the exam-oriented system. The measures which are being discussed are multiple set of question papers and inviting experts from other centres to interact with teachers here to prepare a blueprint for the exams.