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Dominic Jackman sat the Common Entrance at just ten years old and is heading for Harrison College.

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Khalil Vanderpool-Nurse is joined by his parents, Trisha Vanderpool and Dwayne Nurse, who congratulated him on his accomplishment.

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Talha Mohamed scored 100 in the Maths paper with much thanks to his dad, Zakariya Mohamed pictured here, and other teachers who Talha says worked along with him consistently.

Results take top performers by surprise

 

 
“I feel excited” and “I didn’t expect that” were among the exclamations made by the island’s top performers in the Common Entrance Examination taken some five weeks ago. These students hailed from mostly urban schools with one exception in a rural community.
 
While the Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation has taken the decision not to release a Top 10 Students’ Performance List for 2016; and possibly onward, they did acknowledge the Top Male, Top Female and the Top Three Performers in Mathematics and English.
 
The Top Female, Adia Deane, hailed from St. Angela’s School and could not contain her surprise when the announcement was made by her Principal. Adia, who is also a swimmer, stated that the news was shocking since she did not expect it; but she was happy that her hard work paid off as she made many sacrifices such as watching television and swimming training sessions. Adia received 97 in both Math and English and an A in Composition. She is heading for her school of choice, Harrison College.
 
The Top Male came from just on the other side of the road from Adia, St. Gabriel’s School. With 100 in Math, 98 in English and an A in composition, Zachary Gill was not only the Top Male overall Performer in the island but he was also among the Top Male Performers in Mathematics. Although Zachary was surprised, his parents, Gina and Andrew Gill who joined him at his school were not. His mother noted that the class had been doing mock tests for quite some time and Zachary received 100 per cent on quite a few of them. In addition, his father believes that what sets him apart is his unique ability to focus on the task at hand while dispelling any distractions. Nevertheless, Zachary cannot wait to have his celebratory dinner and enter his school of choice, Queen’s College in September.
 
Also note-worthy are the Top Three Performers in English who are all females. While there is a slight decrease of 1.59 points when compared to 2015’s results, Alyssa Charles and Rebekah Bethell of St. Angela’s were respectively first and second in English with 99 and 98; and third was Sarah Downes of Hillaby-Turners’s Hall with 98.
 
Moreover, the Top Three Performers in Mathematics were all males. All scoring 100 per cent in what was thought to be a challenging paper were: Talha Mohamed and Khalil Vanderpool-Nurse along with aforementioned Zachary Gill. All of the boys thought that the paper was a bit tricky, but were extremely happy with the results; giving much of their credit to their parents and teachers.
 
This year, 11 Early Sitters took the examination as opposed to nine students in 2015. Among these was Dominic Jackman, also of St. Gabriel’s School who received 91 in English, 99 in Mathematics and an A in composition. Dominic, who was also very excited to be heading to Harrison College, told the media that what you put in is what you get out and that is why he did so well.

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