Three Toronto students have defied the odds by earning perfect marks this year and they attribute their academic excellence to dedicated families, strong communities, hard work, discipline and time management.
Umayeer Ahsan, a student at Bloor Collegiate Institute, Munjal Patel, a student at Martingrove Collegiate Institute, Joshua Han, a student at Virtual Secondary School, all achieved a 100 per cent average in their top six Grade 12 courses, the Toronto District School Board says.
The trio are the top TDSB scholars for the 2025-26 school year, which means they have the highest averages in their graduating year.
Ahsan said his family made all the difference, packing him lunches, encouraging him to get enough sleep and supporting him through late nights spent studying.
“Nobody achieves success alone. That’s why I’m really thankful for my family, for all the work that they put in. Even if it doesn’t appear on the transcript, they made every line of it possible,” Ahsan said.
But he said time management is key to achieving academic excellence.
“It’s being able to juggle many different courses and many different other commitments at the same time. We all are social people. We all want to talk to other people. We want to do clubs. We want to fulfil ourselves through hobbies. But I think that there’s a time for everything and it’s important to plan ahead.”
Patel said he never actually planned on a perfect transcript.
“It definitely feels amazing,” he said.
“It’s not something that I kind of had my sights set up on since Grade 9 to get a 100 per cent average. But I think the two goals I had throughout high school [were] to always put my best foot forward in every endeavour and also try to learn something new.”
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Patel said his teachers, friends, parents and family enabled him to make the top grade.
He said “going a little bit extra” in terms of learning also helped.
Han, meanwhile, said he earned his flawless record entirely online and treated being a student as though it was a full-time job. He said his family has been “so supportive and so encouraging” on his academic journey and never pressured him.
He said his school and church community helped him as well.
Online learning worked for him, he added.
“I found virtual learning to fit me perfectly. It offers me the degree of flexibility and control over my own schedule, over my own workspace that I find to truly mesh so well with my own personal learning style,” Han said.
He said his love of learning sprang from his family taking him to the library as a child.
“My biggest piece of advice to students would be to read, read, read as much as you can, as often as you can,” he said.
Han said he agrees with the need for time management, wellness and community support.
“But do read. I think literacy is especially foundational to every aspect of life in the modern day. And so reading, I think, is one of the best ways to build that critical skill,” he said.
Looking ahead, Ahsan plans to go to the University of Waterloo to study AI and how to make it safe. Patel plans to go to the University of Toronto for engineering science, while Han plans to go to the University of Toronto Scarborough to take its co-op management program and ultimately go to law school.
The TDSB said on its website it is proud to celebrate the “extraordinary accomplishment” of the three students.
“While each student’s path to success has been unique, they share a commitment to challenging themselves, pursuing their goals and making the most of their high school experience,” it said.
