Raymond Liu from Dunman Secondary and Mayflower Secondary's Toh Li Ping both scored five A1s and one A2.

According to Raymond, being a Boy Scout taught him to be disciplined and to always do his best - values he says were instilled by the Scout Law and Promise.

It was discipline that got him preparing early for the O level exams, said the youngest child of a tax director and housewife.

'If you start early, you can set your goals and improve progressively for the mid-years and prelims. Then when you reach the O Levels, you can do much better,' said Raymond who hopes to study accounting and finance at Temasek Polytechnic

Another top student Toh Li Ping, 17, said she learnt the importance of hard work from her CCA, Indian Dance.

'From not being able to dance, I was able to master the dance steps after one year of practising and helped my school clinch a silver medal in the Singapore Youth Festival three years ago,' said the eldest child of a delivery driver and housewife who plans to study bio-medical science in Ngee Ann Polytechnic.

This year also saw the graduation of the first batch of 1,100 students who skipped the N level examinations when they were in Secondary 4, and moved straight on to do the O levels in Secondary 5.

This programme was offered to top-performing Normal (Academic) stream students at the end of Secondary 3 to give them more time to focus on preparing for the O levels.

Read the full story in Tuesday's edition of The Straits Times.