Georgetown: With 20 Grade One passes at this year’s Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examination, Christian Pile, 16, a student of Queen’s College said “I had the ability to do more than nine so why limit myself?”
He wrote all of the Science subjects since “I always had a passion and an interest in Science in general.”
All together Pile wrote Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Integrated Science, Agricultural Science, English Language, English Literature, General Mathematics, Additional mathematics, Geography, Social Studies, History, Principles of Business Information Technology, Electronic Document Preparation Management, Human and Social Biology, Physical Education, Religious Education and Spanish. Since Agricultural Science is a double award subject Pile has recorded 20 instead of 19 passes.
“I remember the first profession I had in mind was that of an astronomer. That is still on my list of career choices. In addition I wrote several subjects in the Arts stream which included History, Geography and Social Studies because I didn’t really have many issues when I wrote them in third form so I just continued. I did one business subject and I also did subjects such as Physical Education. Most persons believe that “smart” kids don’t necessarily do sports but I’m extremely athletic actually so P.E was an easy subject for me when it came to the practical aspect. I also did Religious Education which wasn’t challenging for me since I grew up in church,” he explained.
He expressed gratitude to God, his parents especially his mother Fayann Simpson-Pile.
His goal to always do better was evidently not an overnight decision. But the intensity did increase by the time he was in Fourth Form.
Christian recalled having to direct a great deal of time and effort to completing his School Based Assessments, even as he dedicated time to extra-lessons and studies.
“In Fourth Form I had morning lessons then I went to school; I had afternoon lessons then I went back home and my mother worked with me,” Christian recalled.
“My life certainly did not revolve around studying. I played cricked and lawn tennis and I attended music classes and I plan to start for keyboard too. I used to go out with friends to the [Giftland] Mall to look at movies,” he noted.
But as part of challenging himself, Christian disclosed that while he opted to do 16 subjects in Fourth Form, by Fifth Form he’d added an additional three subjects. Moreover, he had to cut back a bit on his extra-curricular activities.
“I was okay with doing 16 subjects at first, but them my mom started encouraging me. She would say ‘you know you can do this, you know you have the ability, so why not try it?’ So I started the 19,” said Christian, who admitted that “it was really tough at first and continuing on it was tougher, but I had my mom’s support all the way.”
“I really wanted to see if I could pull off 19 ones,” said Christian. He had no shortage of support. “I couldn’t do all this on my own, I have to thank my parents – my dad and my mom. My mom was there all the time with me; she had confidence in me even when I didn’t have that much confidence in myself. She would stay up late with me sometimes until two or three o’clock in the morning just so I am not alone studying. My dad, he provided all of the resources for me…all my books, anything I needed basically would be provided,” Christian revealed.
At school, the teachers certainly played their part by “teaching me the new concepts and finishing their syllabi and I had very supportive classmates too…some of them would tell me, ‘you know you got this’,” a smiling Christian recalled.
Even his teachers outside of school were particularly instrumental in his ultimate success.
His advice to students who will soon be embarking on the CSEC examinations, is “do not procrastinate and know your ability. Whatever you do, do it to the best of your ability.”
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