Johannesburg - Despite describing his matric year as a roller-coaster, Saheti School learner Ivan Chen is among the matric candidates who had remarkable results in their final exams.
Chen earned the second-highest average (90%) and 10 full-house distinctions in Afrikaans, business studies, English, Information Technology, life orientation, Mandarin, maths, physical sciences, further studies: maths elective (statistics), and further studies: maths standard (calculus and algebra).
"My academic year was really a roller-coaster. I have had moments when I felt comfortable with my results and moments where I thought the results were not good enough. Matric is slightly different from the previous years because of the increase in the number of tasks and big projects that had to be done in short periods of time. Sometimes it became quite dreadful to continue with the tasks, but you just have to push through it," he shared.
Speaking about his preliminary results, he said he was not impressed, something that pushed him to plan to do better for his final exams.
"My preliminary results were not as good as I wanted them to be. A major part of it was due to the lack of motivation I had during that period of time, despite my acknowledgement of it being important. So after seeing the results, I told myself to avoid procrastination during my upcoming exams and work harder than I did for prelims," said Chen.
"I think that planning ahead of exams was the most helpful thing I have done for myself. By planning the subjects that I would have needed to study on particular dates, I would have had sufficient time to absorb the knowledge instead of trying to learn everything the night before."
He also shared his highlights of the year, revealing that he was chosen as one of the prefects at school.
"One of my biggest highlights would probably be that I had been chosen as one of the prefects at the school. I honestly did not expect to be chosen because it seemed like it was quite difficult to get recognition for good work from the teachers and the students. Numerous students were also competing for the role, which made it even more challenging to be chosen."
In describing the challenges he encountered, he said: "The major challenges I faced in matric were a lack of motivation and procrastination. They often creep around when the end of a term or the end of exams is close by. I usually remove all types of distractions because distractions less to procrastination. Furthermore, I tell myself to keep going because there are only a few more exams/days left.
"Besides school work, I mostly did prefect-related work. I helped to ensure that events such as the cultural day market planned by the prefect body and the teachers would run smoothly. Furthermore, I tried my best to fulfil my prefect duties of voicing out the students’ concerns to the school."
He also spoke about his family, which has always shown him immeasurable support.
"My family has been supportive throughout the years. They have always said that they believed in me and that I would achieve what I want. They were the ones that would believe in me even when I didn’t believe in myself."
Chen has applied to all major universities in South Africa and will pursue computer sciences in hopes of becoming a software developer.
"My wildest dream would be the one where I dreamt of opening my own software company and making millions."
The Star