SINGAPORE, Jan – Singapore’s top O-level student was not here to collect her results and may not even continue her studies in Singapore.
Haw Sue Hern, from CHIJ St Nicholas Girls’ School, had just returned to her home in Subang Jaya, Malaysia, after a holiday in Beijing when she learnt of her results. Her family had planned their holiday before the announcement last week that the O-level results would be released yesterday.
Sue Hern’s score of 10 A1s made her the top O-level performer out of 36,640 students this year.
“I am so surprised with the results ... I wish I could collect my results personally but my parents had planned the holiday already,’ she said in a phone interview.
Her father is an engineer and her mother, a teacher in Malaysia. Sue Hern and her younger sister, a Secondary 3 student at the same school, lived in a hostel here during the school term.
The 16-year-old attended CHIJ St Nicholas on a scholarship which did not have a bond. “I was scared to come to Singapore all by myself but I was impressed by how friendly the teachers were. My parents encouraged me, too,’ she said.
Her secret to success was consistent hard work, she added. “I did my revision regularly and reviewed past test papers.”
She is currently enrolled in an 11-month pre-university course at Taylor’s University College, a private education institution in Subang Jaya, Selangor.
The triple-science student has not decided whether to continue with the course or enrol in a junior college in Singapore. She hopes to become a doctor eventually.
Her form teacher, Quek Soo Hiang, said she was surprised when Sue Hern told her after her O-level exams in November that she would be returning to Malaysia to study, and was not going on to a junior college here.
“I wish that she would stay on in Singapore but it is her choice,” she said.
Finishing close behind Sue Hern was her classmate and fellow Malaysian Cheong Jia Ee, and Anderson Secondary student Low Wan Ting. Both of them scored nine A1s and one A2.
Jia Ee, 16, is planning to study at ACS (Independent), Hwa Chong Institution (HCI) or Raffles Institution.
“I’ve known Sue Hern since Primary 1 when we were in the same school in Malaysia. I am happy that both of us did so well in the O levels,’ she said.
Nearly all – 99.9 per cent – of those who sat for last year’s O levels received certificates. Of these, 80.8 per cent or 29,592 had five or more O-level passes, while 94.6 per cent or 34,675 had three or more O-level passes. – The Straits Times
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