Hitting The High Notes: The Artistic Skating Competition
Fri, 28 Feb 2025

Follow the stories of academics and their research expeditions
The Perfect Prose: English Olympiad Announces Winners with Precision
In a remarkable display of linguistic prowess, the recent English Olympiad has yielded its winners, impressing organizers and judges alike with the exceptional quality of their responses. The biennial contest, which tests the communication skills of high school and college students from across the nation, has become the premier platform for showcasing talented writers and their mastery over the English language.
With over 50,000 participants vying for recognition, the stakes were indeed high. Students from government schools, private institutions, and online universities alike rose to the challenge, leveraging their linguistic agility to decode the complex texts and exercises designed to test their written comprehension, creativity, and persuasive abilities.
The meticulously curated questions and passages challenged students to exhibit a staggering range of skills, including understanding of complex literary structures, nuance in written communication, and the power of persuasion through rhetoric and narrative. Judged against stringent criteria, the essay-writing competition aimed to reveal the crème de la crème among English writers.
Among the top prizes awarded, Rohan Gandhi from St. Xavier’s High School took the helm with his compelling essay "A Tale of Two Wars: A Reflection on American Identity." This thoughtful masterpiece earned him the coveted President’s Gold Medal, impressing judges with its razor-sharp analysis of J.R. Dickey’s The Cider House Rules, alongside insightful reflections on American identity, cultural differences, and social justice.
In second place stood Ayushi Pandey of Presidency University, whose astute critique of Sylvia Plath’s Lady Lazarus catapulted her to first runner-up honors. Both judges and readers alike celebrated the precision with which her writing dissected the darker undertones of Plath’s poetry, exploring its intersections with personal experience and artistic expression.
Other notable winners recognized in the individual and institutional categories included Harsh Bhaskar, Aadhya Rane, Swarna Priya, Amara Kaur, and Bhawna Tripathy. These accomplished students leveraged their analytical minds to analyze literary works, extract pertinent themes and motifs, and weave captivating narratives on various topics.
This triumph highlights the growing importance placed on language education, cognitive skills, and creative articulation in an increasingly interdisciplinary academic landscape. The recognition earned by these students testifies to the power of education in cultivating linguistic flair, critical thinking, and informed expression – essential faculties in today’s information-based world.
Organizers plan to continue expanding the outreach and scope of the event, with hopes of galvanizing language education within Indian schools, fostering inclusivity, and celebrating inter-institutional camaraderie. For the past quarter-century, the olympiad has set the precedent for linguistic mastery, propelling aspiring writers and storytellers toward exceptional careers across academia, publishing, research, and industry.
At its core, The English Olympiad celebrates the infinite nuances of human expression: where language transcends discipline and medium, becoming the shared language of human connections and collective thought. Amidst the vibrant tapestry of India’s diverse communities, this premier literary endeavour seeks to hone the razor-sharp tool of linguistics, arming youth with the creative prowess essential to shape their futures with eloquence, conviction, and precision.
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