Three girls top GCE O-level exams
Three female students topped the 2011 Singapore-Cambridge General Certificate of Education ordinary level (GCE O-level) examinations, results on Monday showed.
Lim Min from Crescent Girls’ School and Zhong Yingyi and Chai Yung Ci from CHIJ St Nicholas Girls’ School scored 10 A1s in the exams (11 A1s inclusive of mother tongue language).
One of the school's top scorers, Zhong Yingyi, 17, told Yahoo! Singapore that she had not expected to score 10 A1s. The Singapore citizen, who was born in Hunan, China, aspires to enter Raffles Institution (JC) and hopes to become a diplomat. She attributed her success to the school's consistent efforts and teachers' dedication.
The other top scorer from CHIJ St. Nicholas, Chai Yung Ci, 16, was also surprised to have received such good results. "I did not score well for my prelims -- B3 for English and C5 for Combined Humanities -- and it came to me as a shock that I actually scored 10 A1s," said the Malaysian, who is currently on MOE's scholarship programme.
This is the fourth consecutive year CHIJ St. Nicholas has produced a top performer in the O Levels. This year is the first time over the four years it has produced two top scorers.
"CHIJ St. Nicholas has done comparably well this time. Although our average L1R5 fell by 0.3 points, but two of our students have made it to the national top scorers," its principal Tan Wai Lan said in an interview with Yahoo! Singapore.
She also noted the strong performance of direct school admission (DSA) students. "In fact, three of our DSA students have done exceptionally well, scoring an average of 13 points for their L1R5 despite coming in with a PSLE aggregate of just 199," she added.
A total of 36,955 school candidates sat the 2011 GCE O-Level examination and 30,281 or 81.9 per cent received 5 or more O-Level passes, MOE said in a statement.
It also noted that a total of 48 Secondary schools had students scoring 7 A1s or more.
