The state topper was Sweta Mittal Ramkumar of Mount Carmel Higher Secondary School, Ahmedabad, who scored 88.50 per cent. The other toppers are Arpit Jain in Baroda, with 65.50 per cent, Bharat Desai in Surat, with 88 per cent and Niketa Punjani in Rajkot, with 87.16 per cent.

Girls performed better than boys as usual. They had a pass percentage of 88.97 per cent and boys had 75.61 per cent.

Ahmedabad continued to do well with 16 out of 24 in the top 10 merit list. The pass percentage in the city was above 80 per cent in most of its centres. The results of vocational courses like agriculture, business and home science were also declared. The number of distinctions were the highest in courses like agriculture and home science, where two thirds of the students had obtained distinctions. The foundation 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. The art of answering exams has been converted into a fine art.'' 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.