Yarah Narker, who completed her matric year at Rhenish Girls’ High, did not expect to be the school’s top learner or achieve a 93% average mark.
“I expected to do worse than I normally do,” she said. “I was very nervous after we wrote the first few papers. Later in the exam, after we wrote Physical Sciences I realised everything was going to be okay.”
A strong support system, consisting of her family and a belief system providing the principles needed for doing well in the exams helped her achieve academic heights. She believes keeping herself motivated and only competing with herself were also key to her academic success.
“I try to seek motivation for learning more and nurturing my knowledge. It is also important to not compare yourself or your expectations of the exam with anyone else’s.”
Yarah says she would advise this year’s matrics to keep calm “while all around them become stressed” and to remember that everything will work out in the end.
“Some people believe that the final exams tend to be easier than the normal school exams,” she said. “This is not necessarily true. Study well and study hard consistently.”
Studying hard does not mean spending more hours behind the books.
“Avoid studying for long periods and rather study in manageable bursts,” Yarah said. “Try to increase the efficiency with which you study rather than the period of time you spend studying.”
She will use all these principles when studying towards a BCom in Actuarial Sciences at Stellenbosch University this year.
“I chose this course because I have always found learning and understanding numbers easier than theoretical concepts. I like to solve problems by using equations.”
