A Story on Hard Work Pays: Model Answer for Class 9 and 10 with Notes
Quick answer: An original 180-word exam story on 'Hard work pays', set on a Nairobi running track, with notes on how it earns marks and how to avoid the topper cliche.
A story on 'Hard work pays' earns marks when the reader sees the work, when the payoff is earned rather than magical, and when the payoff is not simply first place. The topper-who-studied-all-night plot has been written so often that examiners can predict its every sentence. Put the work somewhere physical, give it a cost, and let the reward be a threshold crossed rather than a trophy. The model below is about 180 words and follows a girl in Nairobi training for the 1500 metres.
The proverb is a moral, so it belongs in the title or in one closing line if the question asks. Keep it out of the first paragraph, and keep the word 'hard' out of the story.
The task
Typical wording: 'Write a story in 150 to 200 words to illustrate the saying Hard work pays. Give it a suitable title and moral.' Or an outline: 'a student who is not naturally gifted ... months of effort ... a setback ... the result.' The examiner wants the effort on the page, in scenes.
Model answer
Four Minutes Fifty. Amara was not the fastest girl in her school in Nairobi. What she had was a coach who told her, in March, that the qualifying time for the county meet was four minutes fifty, and that she was twenty-two seconds off it.
So she ran. Five mornings a week before school, on the red track behind the church, in the dark at first and then in the grey and then, as the months turned, in sunlight. Her legs hurt every day for the first month. Her times came down two seconds at a time, and some weeks not at all.
In August she had a cold and missed a fortnight, and when she came back she was eight seconds slower. She cried in the changing room where nobody could see, and then she ran anyway.
At the district meet in October she finished second, behind a girl who had beaten her by half a lap in March. The board showed four minutes forty-eight. Her coach did not mention the medal. He pointed at the clock.
Why it earns marks
Against the three heads:
Three other ways to take the same topic
Each pays off with a threshold, not a trophy. Writory's monthly short story contest works the same way: every entrant aged 13 or over gets a score out of 100, and regulars watch the number move.
What writers can take from this
- Put the work somewhere physical and repeat it on the page.
- Give it a cost: pain, a setback, something missed.
- Make the payoff a threshold crossed, not first place.
- Use numbers instead of adjectives.
- Let another character point at the result.
- Keep the word 'hard' out of the story.
Try it yourself
Write a 180-word story in which a character works for months at something and, at the end, comes nowhere near winning but crosses a line that matters more to them than the winner's medal matters to the winner.
Questions
How long should a 'Hard work pays' story be?
Follow the paper: 100 to 120 words in CBSE Class 9, 150 to 200 in most school exams, 300 to 350 for ICSE. Cut the cold in August to reach 120, though the setback is what makes the story.
Can I write 'Hard work pays' in the first person?
Yes, and it suits the topic because the tiredness can be felt directly. Be careful the narrator does not praise their own effort; report the mornings and let the reader admire them.
Do I need to write the moral at the end?
If the question asks, write one line: 'Moral: Hard work pays.' The title already carries it, so do not repeat it inside the story as well.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working writers. Updated September 2026.
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