A Story on a Brave Girl: Model Answer for Class 9 and 10 with Marking Notes
Quick answer: An original 180-word exam story about a brave girl on a Shimla school bus, with notes on why it scores under content, organisation and expression, and three other plots.
A story on a brave girl earns marks when the bravery is a single specific act that the girl could have avoided, when she is frightened while doing it, and when the story shows the act rather than praising her afterwards. Avoid violence; boards prefer bravery against weather, accident, illness or fear itself. The model below is about 180 words and puts a twelve-year-old on a hill-road school bus whose driver has collapsed.
The weak version of this story is a list of the girl's qualities followed by an incident. The strong version is the incident, with the qualities left for the reader to infer. Fear on the page makes the bravery real; a girl who is not afraid is not brave, only lucky.
The task
Typical wording: 'Write a story in 150 to 200 words with the title A Brave Girl.' Or an outline: 'school bus ... driver falls ill ... panic ... one girl acts ... everyone safe ... the next day.' Whatever the cue, decide the single act of bravery before you write and make everything lead to it.
Model answer
The Handbrake. The school bus was crawling up the last bend before Sanjauli when Mr Thapa made a small sound and slid sideways against the window. The bus kept rolling. For one long second nobody on board understood what had happened.
Nandini understood. She was twelve, she sat in the front seat because it made her less sick, and her father drove a taxi. She had watched his hands a thousand times. She pushed past the boy beside her, got both hands on the handbrake and pulled until her arms shook.
The bus stopped against the hillside with a scrape that she would hear in her sleep for a week. Her legs were trembling so hard she had to hold the rail. 'Open the door,' she said to the boy, and her voice came out much smaller than she wanted. He opened it. Twenty children climbed down into the cold.
A tea-stall owner ran up the road and phoned for an ambulance. Mr Thapa came back to school a month later, and the first thing he did was find Nandini and shake her hand.
Why it earns marks
Against the three heads examiners use:
Three other ways to take the same topic
Each keeps the bravery specific and the fear visible.
What writers can take from this
- One act of bravery, planted in advance so it is believable.
- Put the fear on the page: hands, voice, legs.
- Avoid violence; weather, accident and honesty are enough.
- Never use the word 'brave' in the story.
- Let an adult acknowledge the act in one gesture at the end.
- Set up the girl's skill or knowledge in paragraph one.
Try it yourself
Write a 180-word story about a girl who does one brave thing that nobody sees. End the story with her deciding whether to tell anyone, and do not tell the reader what she decides.
Questions
How long should 'A Brave Girl' story be?
Follow the printed limit. CBSE Class 9 sets 100 to 120 words, most school papers 150 to 200, ICSE 300 to 350. The model above trims to 120 by cutting the tea-stall owner and the month later.
Can the brave girl story be in the first person?
Yes. First person lets the fear be felt directly, which strengthens the bravery. The risk is a narrator who sounds proud of herself; keep her surprised by what she did.
Should a story on a brave girl have a moral?
Only when the question asks. A one-line moral that fits the model would be 'Courage is acting while you are still afraid.' Leave it out otherwise; the story already shows it.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working writers. Updated September 2026.
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