P.S.E. results show mixed trends
The results are in… And while educators will need a few days to analyze their implications, the students are just happy that the waiting is over. News 5’s Jacqueline Woods spoke to some of this year’s top performers in the Primary School Examination.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
Belize Elementary School Standard Six student Lilian Shen has reasons to smile. The twelve-year-old received top honours in the 2005 Primary School Examination, having earned a total overall score of three hundred and seventy out of four hundred possible points.
Lilian Shen, Highest Overall Scorer
?Well it?s kind of surprising because I didn?t think I would do that good.?
Jacqueline Woods
?Why??
Lilian Shen
?Because…I don?t know, the test was kinda challenging, but obviously I did okay.?
Shen also obtained the highest performance in mathematics after receiving a perfect score of one hundred percent. This year, five thousand eight hundred and thirty-four students sat the exam. According to the Ministry of Education, the national mean performance on English of fifty-six point seven showed that there was some improvement compared to last year?s mean performance of fifty-five point three percent. The national mean performance on mathematics was forty-two point four percent and science fifty-two point eight percent. Performance on both these areas showed some decline compared to last year.
Virginia Hsu, Second Highest Overall Scorer
?I was very surprised and I was very happy that I did so well.?
Fourteen-year-old Virginia Hsu obtained the second highest overall score. Hsu, also a student of B.E.S., received a total of three hundred and sixty-nine points.
Virginia Hsu
?I studied really hard and went over everything that our teacher taught and I tried to study during the free time that I had.?
The third highest overall score of three hundred and sixty-seven was obtained by thirteen-year-old Ravesh Suknandan of All Saints Primary School and twelve-year-old Leia Auil of Hummingbird Elementary.
Ravesh Suknandan, Third Highest Overall Scorer
?As you might expect, I was very happy and elated to know that I did extremely well in the exam. So I was happy, I didn?t get too much like very excited, but inside I was very happy for myself.?
Jacqueline Woods
?Like some of your peers, did you find the examination challenging??
Ravesh Suknandan
?Yes, it was very challenging. All of them were hard, but science and math were especially hard.?
Leia Auil, Third Highest Overall Scorer
?I was very happy. I couldn?t stop smiling and I?m proud of myself for working so hard. I was well prepared. We stayed after school every day an extra hour, we had Saturday classes, we got a whole lot of notes that helped us to study and learn more than what was expected and we had a whole lot of question papers about Belize and events, government, everything.?
The top scorers all agreed that it takes extensive preparation and hard work to reach the top and offered this bit of advice to the next set of candidates.
Lilian Shen
?Well they should study really hard and make sure that they remember dates, and formulas for math.?
Jacqueline Woods for News Five.
Rounding out the top ten placements of the more than five thousand eight hundred students who sat the exam are David Ma and Brian Habet from Belize Elementary School; Perla Hinojosa of Hummingbird Elementary; Kelsey Balderamos, Our Lady of Guadalupe in Belmopan; Winnie Zhao of La Immaculada in Orange Walk; Emaun Hyde and Vanessa Hertular, Belize Elementary School; Oniesha Flores, Sacred Heart Academy in San Ignacio; Elliot Osbourne of B.E.S.; Tara Jones from St. Joseph; Peter Gregg, B.E.S.; From Belmopan, Belize Christian Academy’s Sarah Song; Michael Gallaty of B.E.S.; In San Ignacio, St. Andrews Anglican’s Xian Liang; and Lila Estephan from B.E.S.
