Five students in all scored 500 on 500, with French and Sanskrit as first language.

A total of 41 students scored 499 on 500 to get the first rank in the Class X state board examinations with Tamil as the first language.

In the results that were announced in Chennai on Thursday, overall, 773 students got state ranks with Tamil as the first language, with 190 students scoring 499 and 542 scoring 498, according to K. Devarajan, Director of Government Examinations.

Five students in all scored 500 on 500, with French and Sanskrit as first language. There are 296 students who scored over 498 on 500. With Tamil as the medium of instruction, 23 students received state ranks.

Amongst the visually impaired students, the top ranker was M. Andal from Little Flower Convent Higher Secondary School for Blind, who scored 477. Mithun V. Krishna from Kasthurba Gandhi Oral School for Hearing Impaired, Varadharajapuram, Coimbatore scored the highest mark among the hearing impaired students, with 385 on 500.

This year the pass percentage increased by 2 per cent, from 90.7 per cent to 92.9 per cent. A total of 11,15,906 students appeared for the examinations, with 5,33,043 boys and 5,27,823 girls writing the examination through schools.

The pass percentage for girls is 95.4 per cent, while that of boys is 90.5 per cent. A total of 7,96,466 students have scored over 60 per cent in the examinations, he added.