CREST Achiever - Aashika Singh

What's one or two achievements that you are proud of?
Intercontinental Spell Bee champion
Reaching the worlds finals at the Worlds Scholars Cup.
Securing rank 3 in CREST Mathematics challenge.
Abacus champion for 4 consecutive years.

What is your biggest fear and how do you overcome it?

My biggest fear is the performance anxiety and fear of failing.
How do you overcome it- excepting that the journey of life is more important than the destination. Enjoying every moment of life being in contests. And attempting as many exams as possible, attempting in all exams and failing in most, give you the strength of overcoming the failure and also allows you to do the brainstorming as to why I failed. By this way I have started to learn how to shred out the failure and focus on the other better things in life. Embracing the failure and working on the reason of failure is the most important learning curve at the moment.

Who is your ideal and why?
Dr APJ Abul Kalam- for his grit, grind and determination. He is my idol because even after multiple failure he never gave up and keep giving his best shot. He was only focused in improving his skills and knowledge which took him from a small village to the highest position of the county. His journey explains that there is no short cut to hard work, and keeps reminding us that if your processes and ethics are right more often than not you will find yourself on the right path. Stop looking at the destination and start enjoying the journey, destination will automatically turn beautiful.

Which public figure (sportsperson, actor, etc.) inspires you the most?
Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam, JK Rowling

Who or what keeps you motivated?
My Mother who always keeps me motivated and grounded. She finds all the faults in my success and throws a big party on my failure to keep me realize that no defeat is final and no success is ultimate. She inspires me to keep fighting.

Have you thought of your career line? What do you want to become and why?
To work for ISRO and be a lead scientist in ISRO operations. Firstly, that dream of following the footsteps of my Ideal and secondly I want my county to be a Viswaguru and I want to have my contribution written to be right up there.

If there is one gift you would like to have, what would that be?
An inside tour and apprenticeship in ISRO head office.

Your favourite memory that you would like to share?
Every memory of my failure because it motivates be to embrace the challenge and allows me to bounce back and reminds me that I am still learning and growing .

What's one thing about you that your friends don't know?
They always are mesmerized by my success but they fail to see my hard work, preparations and sleepless night behind the success. Everyone is mesmerized by the scene of a white, calm swan floating in the pond but no one understand the struggle that the swan is going through underneath the water to remain calm at the top.

What is your secret of making friends?
My secret recipe for making friends is being open minded, honest and helpful, not being judgmental towards them, open for constructive criticism, not leaving my friend down in tough situations. In fact, I may not be there around with them in success but I make sure a point that I am there in their failures. Fighting their battle making it mine.

What are your hobbies? How do you keep a balance between your hobbies and studies?
Hobbies: Writing, reading, skating, drawing & painting, exploring new ideas and places, experimental science, playing with my siblings.
Sneaking every opportunity from studies and using my hobbies as a stress buster whenever I feel like breaking the shackles. Expressing myself through pen and paint allows me to regroup my focus back to studies.

Which is your favourite sport? When did you start practicing and why?
Swimming, skating. I started at an early stage when I was 5 years old, because the younger you are the lesser you have the fear of failing.

What do you love to do the most in your free time?
Fighting with my elder sister and younger brother is my biggest stress buster. Whenever I see them happy in my success and dejected in my failure, fighting with my parents for me and keeping my secrets, it gives me immense pleasure and satisfaction that they are always there to fight my battle.

What are your study tips for getting better grades in school examinations?
Studies should be done not to get better grades, understanding the concept and implementing those concept in real life situation will give you a upper hand in studies. Attempting the Olympiads is the best way to open up your horizons and allows you to look at questions from different and trickier angle. When we evaluate ourselves with our marks it puts unnecessary performance pressure on us. Work on the process rather than the end results, if you have the right processes the results are bound to follow.

How do you prepare for Olympiads?
Learning a book concept, understand the book concepts and then attempting loads of questions from Olympiads and different places other than books. This not only tunes my brain to look at the same questions from different angles but also makes me almost master the topic.

How has appearing for Olympiad exams helped your studies?
Attempting the Olympiads is the best way to open up your horizons and allows you to look a question from different and trickier angle. It keeps you prepared for the future ready through your everyday preparations. Making Olympiads a part of everyday preparation makes me a future ready and tunes my mind for a different route of problem solving.

Do you have any advice or tips for students who are interested in appearing for Olympiads?
Every inspiring student should attempt Olympiads regularly and make it a part of their everyday preparation. Whenever any aspiring individual finishes a math, science, English or Computer concept he should attempt as many Olympiad questions as possible which will not only allow him to look at the concept from different angle but will also master the concept for the rest of his life.
I would like to take the opportunity to thank CREST Olympiads for opening up my horizon and keeping me future ready through Olympiads.

Name : Aashika Singh

School : THE INDIAN HIGH SCHOOL, OUD METHA, DUBAI

Class : 7 (2021-22)

CREST Achievers