Punjab clocked in a pass percentage of 65.97 per cent, marginally up from 62.36 per cent last year in the class 12 Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) exam, the result of which was declared on Monday.

A total of 3,00,417 students had appeared for the exams this year. Pooja Joshi, a student of Teja Singh Suttantar Memorial School in Ludhiana, topped the state by scoring 98 per cent marks, while the second position was bagged by Vivek Rajput of the same school (97.55 per cent).

Jasnur Kaur, a student of Dashmesh Public Girls Senior Secondary school, secured the third rank with 97.33 per cent.

Overall, girls outshone boys with a pass percentage of 78.25 as against boys (60.46 per cent). Pass percentage in commerce group was 84.95 while in humanities it was 65.11. Pass percentage in science group was 58.79.

Muktsar district recorded the highest pass percentage of 79.64, followed by Mansa at 78.59 per cent and Ludhiana at 78.56 per cent. Tarn Taran, border district of Punjab, witnessed lowest pass percentage at 31.60, while Pathankot and Gurdaspur recorded 47.89 and 46.73 pass per cent respectively.

The overall pass percentage in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 was 81.09 per cent, 76.24 per cent, 76.77 per cent and 62.36 per cent respectively.