Bengaluru, (DHNS): After a constant dip in the pass percentage over the last two years, the PU results registered an increase of 7.18% compared to the previous year.

This year, as many as 59.56% students from across streams who appeared for the examinations held in March, have passed.

The pass percentage was 52.38 in 2017, 57.2 in 2016 and 60.53 in 2015. As many as 54,692 students have scored a distinction score. Shika C, director, Pre University Education Department told reporters on Monday that 6.8 lakh students had appeared for the exams this year of whom 5.3 lakh were fresher.

Among the urban colleges, 59.45% students passed while the percentage remains the same for the rural region. In all, 68.29% of freshers have cleared the exams.

Shikha attributed the increase in pass percentage solely to the efforts of teachers and students. She also said students who had failed must not wait for the revaluation results and must apply for supplementary exams at the earliest.

Overall, 54,692 students have scored distinction while 2,13,611 of the 4,08,421 students have scored first class marks.

In 2017, Dakshina Kannada district had topped the list for the most number of students who had passed the exam at 90.48% while Udupi stood second at 90.35%.

In 2018 as well, these districts made it to the top position. Dakshina Kannada has seen a pass percentage of 91.49 while Udupi has seen 90.67% candidates pass the exam. Bidar and Chikkodi are two districts that have the least number of students who have passed the exam at 31 and 32% respectively. The pass percentage is nearly the same in rural and urban areas this time at 59.95% in rural areas and 59.45% in urban, respectively.