Overall grades of last year's 'A' level results slightly below 2004SINGAPORE : The 'A' level results were released on Wednesday and grades were slightly down from last year.
91.1 percent of school candidates received a minimum of 2 'A' and 2 'AO' level passes including General Paper.
This is down 1.2 percent from last year.
Nearly 1,400 more students took the exams in 2005 than in 2004.
It has been a tough two years for former Anglo-Chinese Junior College student Nicolette Chionh.
Her mother died suddenly of a stroke just before her exams in JC 1 and her father was seriously ill with kidney failure during her 'A' levels.
Still, she scored an unexpected five distinctions.
Nicolette says: "It was very tiring because I had to juggle school work, than come home I had to do housework, I would make sure I had dinner with my dad everyday, and I would spend time with him after, just to watch or talk to him. Basically it was my priority."
For Nicolette's 54-year-old father, she is an inspiration.
Chionh Chai Cheng, Nicolette's father, says: "I'm very glad for her, in the sense that she has basically done all on her own strength, although she has gone through a trying period the last two years."
Nicolette says: "I want to be a doctor, or I'm considering becoming a nurse because my mom was a staff nurse, so I want to be just like her."
As for Chai Jishan, she is a rare breed - a female Singapore Armed Forces scholar with seven distinctions who has high-flying dreams of being a pilot.
Jishan says: "I didn't have much time to think about results really because training is quite tough and I just did a 24-kilometre route march yesterday, so most of the time it is a lot of mental and physical endurance that we are being stressed on, as well as team work."
ACJC has much to be proud about this year's results. They have broken the record they set last year for the highest number of students receiving three or four distinctions for 'A' level subjects.
And for the first time in the college's history, two of its students are among the top in the country with nine distinctions each.
Raffles Junior College also has reasons to celebrate with the best results in 25 years.
A whopping 76.4 percent of its 2005 cohort scored three or more 'A' level distinctions.
Top scorer Grace Tan with nine distinctions has a special secret to her success
Grace says: "I think it is very important to enjoy what you are doing, to enjoy studying, which is quite hard, but you have to enjoy what you are doing."
One of the top students from Victoria JC was Rushni Vijay Wadhwani
With eight distinctions, including an A1 in Malay, Rushni intends to go to Oxford to read Chemistry.
"Definitely it is consistent work throughout the years, whenever you do your tutorials, I just made sure I understood what I was doing," she says.
She hopes to get a teaching scholarship and eventually join the Public
Service. - CNA/de
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