Today, the Ministry of Education and the CXC National Committee of Belize released the names of the top performers in the 2013 CSEC and CAPE examinations.
Once again, Aaron Stock, who was the second best performer in the 2011 CSEC, has been named as the country's best performer in the CAPE exams. Stock took 8 exams and managed to get grade ones in all of them. He is also the country's best performer for Caribbean Studies, Chemistry Unit 1 and Physics Unit 2. He has also been awarded the Belize Scholarship for this year. He is presently pursuing studies in the US.
In the CSEC examinations, Edward P. Yorke graduate Xiaowen Huang was named as this year's most outstanding candidate because she managed to achieve 16 grade ones in her exams. Second place went to SCA's Marilen Guerra who achieved 15 grade ones; that's one more what than the best performer managed 2 years ago when he edged out Aaron Stock.
Today, 7News caught up with Guerra and she told us how she managed to block out all distractions and perform so well, even on subjects she wasn't taking in her 4th form year:
Marilen Guerra
"I am proud that I could have ace so many. I guess it's just time management, because I live in Belmopan my parents decided that it would be best for me to stay down in Belize City so I could have more time to study and dedicate my time to my work. Also teachers were always available if we had questions or if other things came up and we needed help with. Help was always there and time was always used well."
Daniel Ortiz
"We are in a digital age and computers and cellphones have overrun everything - everything is on the internet. How does one block out all of that traffic and try to focus on education and academics?"
Marilen Guerra
"The time when I studied was when most people were asleep because I would be sleeping by at 7pm and then I would be awake a 3am to study, so that what I did. I would try to minimize as much distractions so I would have more time to study and concentrate."
Guerra, who is now a biochem major at SJCJC, will also receive the Subject Group Award in Humanities. For his performance in CAPE, Aaron Stock has been awarded the Belize Scholarship for this year.
