Underachievers and overachievers in English were compared in terms of the effect of Activity Based Instructional (ABI) strategies on their multiple intelligences. The study employed the pre-test and post-test single group design wherein 44 underachievers and 41 overachievers in English, separated statistically from a larger sample of 223 ninth grade students, were exposed to pedagogic intervention with 36 ABI lessons each of 40 minutes duration. Pre-testing and post-testing of Multiple Intelligences (MI) were made with the help a standardised instrument. The discrepant achievers were compared in terms of the gain scores of each of the MI-component by applying independent sample t-test. The result showed significant difference between underachievers and overachievers in verbal-linguistic intelligence, visual-spatial intelligence and interpersonal intelligence. The discrepant achievers are alike with respect to the effect of ABI on the remaining seven multiple intelligences. The underachievers excelled the overachievers in the improvement they made in all the three multiple intelligences, showing that activity based instruction is more appropriate for promoting the verbal-linguistic intelligence, visual-spatial intelligence and interpersonal intelligence of underachievers in English than that of overachievers in English.