Haw Sue Hern, 16, from CHIJ St Nicholas Girls' School topped the 2008 GCE O Level results which were released on Monday. -- ST PHOTO
TEACHERS of this year's top O-level student Haw Sue Hern had some trouble tracking her down on Monday.
The 16-year-old from CHIJ St Nicholas Girls' School was not in school to receive her results as she had just returned to her home in Subang Jaya, Malaysia after a holiday in Beijing.
After trying for an hour to contact Sue Hern over the phone, her teachers told her that her score of 10A1s made her the top 0-level student this year.
'I am so suprised 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.
Nearly all - 99.9 per cent - of the 36,640 students who sat for the 0 levels last year received certificates. Of these, 80.3 per cent or 29,592 had five or more O-level passes. 94.6 per cent or 36,368 had three of more O-level passes.
Some 4,250 or 32.4 per cent of the secondary four Normal (Academic) students sat for one of two 0-level exams. Of these, 90.5 per cent of these students got at least one O-level pass.
Of the 3,087 private cadidates who sat for the O levels last year, 2,739 or 88.7 per cent were awarded certificates.
Sue Hern, a Malaysian who came to study in Singapore under a scholarship from St Nicholas Girls' when she was in secondary one, said her secret to success was consistent hard work.
'I did my revision regularly and reviewed my past test papers. This allowed me to destress a few weeks before the O levels. I would play badminton, cards and go jogging,' she said.
Sue Hern is currently enrolled in an 11-month pre-university course at Taylor's University College, a private education institution in Subang Jaya which is in Selangor. She has not decided whether to continue on with her course or enrol at a junior college in Singapore..
