‘How I Was Able To Make 9As In WAEC’ – 18-Year-Old Girl Given Scholarship By Enugu Governor

A former student of Shalom Academy, Nsukka, Enugu State, Chinecherem Cynthia Ali, whose story went viral after she made A grade in all the subjects she took in the West African Senior School Certificate Examination, shares her success story with PUNCH.
Read excerpts below;

Please introduce yourself.
I hail from Umuagama community in Enugu State. I am the third of eight children. I am 18 years old. I attended Shalom Academy in Nsukka, Enugu State. My parents are not so rich but they gave me adequate care. My dad is a teacher. He also has a poultry farm. My mother works as a medical lab scientist in a district hospital.

You became the first pupil in your school to earn A grade in all the subjects you sat for in WASSCE. What motivated you to achieve the feat?
While I was in school, my priority was to make a wonderful result. I had clarity of purpose in what I wanted to achieve. My elder brother was the chief motivator. He made six As in his WASSCE last year. He told me I could do better than he did. He planted that goal to surpass his feat in me. Whenever I had a problem with my studies, he was always around to help me out. He practically taught me the techniques to excel in the subjects. He prepared my mind about the syllabus in SS3, who the teachers were and what would enable me to get the best from each of them.
He told me I needed to put in extra efforts in whatever I was doing. On my first day in school, when I got to SS1, my chemistry teacher called me and told me certain things about my goal. He told me no one had ever made nine As in the school. He said he heard an inner voice that I could break the record. I was just laughing when he told me. I had a note which I titled, “My future WASSCE results.”

I wrote down my results on the note, filling As across all the subjects I was to sit for. I prayed to God to help me achieve the goal. My friends who saw the note said I was going crazy. But I told God to help me. Another teacher that helped me a great deal was my biology teacher. She prepared a study timetable for me to follow. She told me to study at least two hours at a stretch. The two teachers (chemistry and biology) told me my goal was achievable.

Have you always had an excellent result like this?
By God grace, I have always excelled in my studies. My results were always among the best.

What did you say when you saw your outstanding result?
I was overwhelmed with joy. It was a record-breaking result because no one had ever made that result in my school. On that day, I was sleeping. My brother came to wake me up and broke the news. When I saw it, I thought I was dreaming.

How many hours did you study daily?
In our school, we were mandated to observe our preparatory classes for day students. From 2.30pm to 4pm, I would go home to cook and do other things I needed to do till around 7pm. From 7pm till 10pm, I was always reading my books daily. Sometimes, I could set aside five or six hours to read.

How did you cope with the distractions from boys in school?
I never had a boyfriend. One thing I learnt along the line was that once one is serious with one’s studies, it will be difficult for boys to approach one for a relationship. When I was in SS1, one day I entered the class. There was this male classmate of mine who was always disturbing me. I was reading my book. We had just finished the computer practical. Others were discussing while I was reading my book. Then the boy said, “What’s the problem with you? Is it that you cannot rest, at least talk to people.”
He said I didn’t need to be reading every time. I was able to overcome the pressures of male pupils because I didn’t entertain any unserious talks. They knew me for that so they avoided me. Also, I was a day student, so I spent most of my time in class. We had preparatory classes by 4pm so I was always at home when I was not in school. This made it impossible for any boy to approach me. Maybe if I was in the boarding school, it would have been a different story. I am a quiet girl. Because I rarely had time to chat with others, they said I was a proud girl. But I taught a few of my classmates in my spare time.