'I am more than a number on marksheet': Techie scored 58% in 12th exams and companies keep rejecting her. She shares the reality behind missing the cut-off

A percentage on a marksheet can follow a student long after school is over. For coder Vishakhaa, scoring 58% in Class 12 has become an unexpected roadblock while looking for a job. She missed the 60% eligibility cutoff used by many companies by just two percentage points. But behind that score was a difficult period shaped by loss, relocation and disrupted schooling. Now, she says the number is preventing recruiters from seeing the skills she has built since.

Techie scored 58% after losing her father during COVID

Vishakhaa took to X to share something she said she had never spoken about publicly before. She explained that she scored 58% in Class 12, just two percentage points short of the 60% cutoff that many companies require for candidates.But, according to Vishakhaa, the percentage does not capture what was happening in her life at the time.

During COVID, she lost her father. Her family subsequently moved to her nani’s house, and her education became much harder to manage. She missed classes and had to travel long distances to attend school. Her board examinations were particularly challenging. Vishakhaa recalled waking up at around 4 AM on some exam days, taking a bus to the examination centre, writing the paper and leaving early because she had another bus to catch to return to her nani’s house.


She said she was dealing with circumstances she had never been prepared for while still trying to study and sit for her exams. The result was 58%.

‘This one number is still deciding whether I get a chance’

Vishakhaa said she accepts the score because she cannot change it. What frustrates her is that the percentage continues to influence her opportunities years later. She recently experienced this during campus recruitment. A company came to her campus, and she applied by submitting her resume. However, she said she was eliminated before anyone looked at what she could actually do, simply because her Class 12 score was below 60%.

According to Vishakhaa, this has happened repeatedly. She clarified that she is not claiming she deserves a job because of her personal circumstances. Instead, she believes she deserves “a chance to compete” and have her current abilities assessed.

Her academic and technical profile has changed

Since Class 12, Vishakhaa said she has worked hard to improve herself. Her academics have improved, while she has also developed technical skills, worked on projects, learned new technologies and continued trying to become better. She believes she has built a strong profile compared with many people around her. Yet, she feels that these efforts can sometimes become irrelevant if she fails to cross one eligibility checkbox created years earlier. That, she says, is the part that hurts the most.

‘How do you prove what you’re capable of?’

For Vishakhaa, the bigger issue is not simply rejection. It is being filtered out before she gets an opportunity to demonstrate what she can do. She questioned how someone can “prove what you're capable of” when they are not even allowed into the room. Her post is essentially a plea for recruiters to look beyond a single academic figure and consider what a candidate has done since then.

She acknowledged that she does not know whether sharing her experience will change anything. But she wanted to talk about it because, as she put it, “behind every percentage, there is a story.”

‘58% doesn’t mean someone didn’t work hard’

Vishakhaa's message also highlights how academic scores can sometimes hide the circumstances surrounding them. In her case, 58% came during a period when she was grieving her father, adjusting to a new home and dealing with difficult travel arrangements while preparing for board examinations.

She stressed that sometimes “58% doesn’t mean someone didn’t work hard.” It can mean a student was dealing with struggles that others could not see. Today, Vishakhaa says she is still learning, building her skills and trying to move forward. Her biggest frustration is that she wants recruiters to see the person behind the marksheet rather than treating one percentage from years ago as a permanent measure of her potential.

As she put it, she simply wishes for the opportunity to prove that she is “more than a number on a marksheet.”