The much-awaited Grand Finale of ClassAct 2023–The Hindustan Times Republic Day Quiz proved to be a roaring success with more than 100 students of grades 6 to 12 participating from all over India. The mega quizzing event took place on 5th February from 10AM to 12 Noon. The complete list of winners has been announced on the official page.
There are exciting prizes up for grabs for the winners of this online school quiz. Amazon gift vouchers worth INR 1.14 lakh will be awarded to all the 100 finalists with rank holders 1, 2 and 3 receiving vouchers worth INR 30,000, 20,000 and 10,000 respectively. Additionally, all students who participated in the quiz will receive participation certificates.
The Grand Finale of ClassAct 2023 was conducted over Zoom by two of India’s most prolific quizmasters, Dr. Navin Jayakumar and Mr. Avinash Mudaliar. Dr. Jayakumar is an ophthalmologist by profession but a quizmaster by passion, and is the founding member of The Quiz Foundation of India. He had co-hosted the debut edition of the Hindustan Times Republic Day Quiz ClassAct 2022 as well as Smartacus 2022 – The Hindustan Times National Interschool Quiz. Mr. Mudaliar, on the other hand, is a distinguished quizmaster with more than 30 years of quizzing experience. He has been the quizmaster for several national-level quizzes such as the Power of Ideas Print Quiz, Airtel Quiz-o-Mania, Airtel’s techQ, and the NTPC Electron Quiz among others. He had also co-hosted ClassAct 2022 and Smartacus 2022 along with with Dr. Jayakumar.
“Ahead of the Grand Finale of ClassAct 2023, I was eager to meet some of the best brains of young India and I am glad to say that they surpassed my expectations. The speed and accuracy with which they answered the questions prove their appetite for quizzing. I am thrilled with the success of this quiz and hope the participants took a lot back in terms of both facts and fun. Look around, keep your thinking caps on, learn every day, and keep quizzing,” says Dr. Jayakumar.
Echoing a similar spirit, Mr. Mudaliar says, “I would like to thank all the kids who participated in the Grand Finale of ClassAct 2023 and made it a success. I have always believed that quizzing is a quest for knowledge and that journey must be fun. It is not a mere intellectual exercise, it’s quintessentially a mind sport. So, I have never been in favour of difficult quizzes where quizzers struggle to find the answer. The goal was to help the kids enjoy while sparking their curiosity. I am happy that ClassAct 2023 was a conscious attempt at doing both.”
The champions were super excited to have participated and emerged victorious in ClassAct 2023. For them, the quiz was a truly unique, fun and thrilling experience.
While B.Sri Shivendra, a grade 9 student from Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan Senior Secondary School, Chennai, holds rank 1, Ayushman Dubey, a grade 12 student of Sunbeam School, UP and Abhinav S Nair, an 11th grader from Kerala’s Carmel CMI School were the 2nd and 3rd place holders of ClassAct 2023 respectively.
Talking to HT School, Shivendra, says, “The atmosphere of the Grand Finale was lively and enthusiastic with two of my favourite quizmasters Navin sir and Avinash sir making the event an enjoyable and memorable one.” This grade 9 student adds, “I would like to extend my gratitude to each and every one who made this quiz a grand success. I look forward to participating in all future quizzes of HT School.” The urge to keep exploring the world around and learning new things keeps Shivendra motivated into quizzing.
According to many participants, the Grand Finale was a lot more interactive and engaging than the Prelims. Kushagra Chaurasia, another student of Sunbeam School UP, who stood 4 th, says, “I love quizzing for it feeds my never-ending inquisition about all the things around. Quizzing also motivates the lateral thinker in me. However, the part about quizzing that attracts me the most is that questions can come out of nowhere, and there’s always a surprise element in there.”
Sharing a similar insight, 5 th place holder Sumanyu Aggarwal, a grade 10 student of Indraprastha World School, Delhi, shares, “Quizzing for me is like a hobby. I entered the domain of quizzing in school and has since then remained hooked to it. I think quizzing for me is a favourite kind of competition that helps me quench my thirst for knowledge.”
On the other hand, Tapan Gupta from Narmada Valley International School, MP, who is the 6th rank holder, shares how he likes to stay on top of world affairs and deems his curious nature as his key towards becoming a successful quizzer. “Just like the rest of the world, I too believe that practice makes perfect. So, I just keep taking part in as many quizzes as possible, both offline and online to sharpen my skills,” shares the 11th grader.
On 26th January this year, the day when India celebrated its 74th Republic Day, 21,540 students from grades 1 to 12 took part in the Prelims round of this online school quiz that witnessed 40,486 registrations. The number of participants in 2023 surpassed the last year’s figures which earned the previous edition, ClassAct 2022, The Hindustan Times Republic Day Quiz, the world record for “Maximum Participants in an Online School Quiz”. The last year’s edition made it to the Asia Book of Records and the India Book of Records with 19, 625 participants in the preliminary round.