A student from the Bernice Yorke Institute of Learning has topped the 2015 Primary School Examinations. Back in 2013, the institution yielded the top performer and in 2014, the second highest grade and now in 2015, Bernice Yorke did it again. Gabriel Hope, a thirteen year old student from Belize City topped this year with a score of three hundred and eighty-six out of a total of four hundred points. Late this evening, the Ministry of Education released the preliminary results for the exams. A total seven thousand three hundred and twenty-five students registered for the exams, but seven thousand two hundred and twenty-three sat the exams earlier this year. Hope learnt that he is this year’s top scorer when News Five placed a call to him. He told us that he was asleep and woken by his mother with the good news.
Gabriel Hope, Top Scorer, P.S.E. 2015
“When the news came to me, I was in complete shock. I was sleeping actually and my sister waked me up. She said that m mom was on the phone and she wanted to talk to me and she told me oh you came in first and I was like oh my god.”
Duane Moody
“Talk to us about the work you put in to come out on top.”
Gabriel Hope
Gabriel Hope
“Well I think my teacher Miss Sherry Ali was a big provider in helping me prepare for the exams. She made us stay back for classes every day and as the P.S.E. got closer, she gave us even more work. So I think that really paid off.”
Duane Moody
“Anything on the side to prepare?”
Gabriel Hope
“Yeah, of course I studied at home. I studied with my aunt, who is a standard six teacher in Corozal and she helped me to go over past P.S.E. exams to know what the material was.”
Duane Moody
“What would you say is the key to doing so well?”
Gabriel Hope
“Well of course you have to praise god cause he helped me during the exam room and he helped me to prepare for the exams as well. I think you just have to study as often as you can. You have to put as much effort into the works so that you can get what you want.”
Duane Moody
“I know it is still surreal, but did you know that you were going to come this far…top it or at least come this high in the numbers?”
Gabriel Hope
“Well I’ve done well before but I know that there were other competition from other schools, but I know I had a feeling that I was gonna place in the top twenty-five.”
Duane Moody
“Were you nervous any at all when you took the tests?”
Gabriel Hope
“Of course, there has to be some level of nervousness, but I think I handled it well and I calmed down as much as I could so I think I did good.”
Duane Moody
“What advice would you have for others?”
Gabriel Hope
“Well of course you have to study. Try to get the best materials that you can to prepare for the exams and try to see what the past years were like so that you can be familiar with the material.”
Taking second place is Carrel Moralez from San Narciso Corozal, while third and fourth place go to Sahil Hotchandani and Megan Williams from Belize Elementary, respectively. Junyan He from the Corozal Methodist School in Corozal also tied at fourth. And there were three students tied for sixth place with three hundred and seventy-five points. They are Britney Hill from Bishop Martin RC in Cayo, Henry Rodriguez from St. Andrews Anglican in Cayo and Emile Torres from the Shepherd’s Academy…also in Cayo. We note that there were improvements in the results of Mathematics and Social Studies and we’ll look closer at the results in Tuesday’s newscast.
View the full article