How top performers prepare for crucial national exams

Audi Stephanie, 17, is a girl on a mission. After watching with consternation the disappearance of the famous Alliance Girls’ School from the top 10 chart in last year’s Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations, Audi is beaming with confidence.

She knows her 2014 class must turn the tables on competitors such as neighbouring Alliance High, Nakuru-based Kabarak and far-flung Maranda in Nyanza.

As captain of the “Bush” school, Audi has been carrying the dreams of the entire school, working with teachers to ensure a sterling performance in the exams.

“I am sure our class will perform excellently in the exams,” she said. “We are adequately prepared to emerge tops.” 

Audi hopes to study medicine at the University of Nairobi and aims to score “an A plain of maximum possible points (84)”.

Her confidence is echoed by classmate Nicole Atotwa, 18, who says the strategy used this year would return much better performance compared to last year when the school was ranked 25 nationally.

But what is the reason for the high level confidence of students in the school?

Dean of Studies Wanjiru Musita said teachers completed the syllabus in May, meaning candidates were put on sustained revision for five months.

Nothing but As

“We have instilled confidence in our girls with thorough revision tips to ensure they help us achieve a mean score of 11.8,” she said.

The school has a new examinations motto, “All As and nothing but As” was meant to discourage below par performance, while also targeting all candidates with mean grades of A. The school, which has 327 candidates – an increase from last year’s 250 – believes this year’s class has greater potential compared to the class of 2013.

“Every class is unique in its own way but we think we have a better one this year,” Ms Musita said.

The school’s neighbour and challenger Alliance High is determined to retain its national position one rank in the KCSE this year.

Deputy Principal Nicholas Ndege says the school employed strategies meant to ensure it sustains the feat it attained last year – sending all 276 candidates who sat KCSE to regular programmes in public universities.

Mr Ndege said the school was now targeting a mean of 12, the maximum possible for any school, which has never been obtained. Last year, the school, which was ranked first nationally, managed a mean grade of 11.45.

He said the school had administered three trial exams in the past two school terms in a bid to raise the standards of preparedness among the candidates.

“Our trials were very comprehensive, including standard practicals,” he said of the school, where teachers completed the syllabus in March – seven months to the final exam this week. 

Previously, Mr Ndege said, the school used to administer one trial exam but realised competitors who conducted more trials were coming out smarter as their candidates faced the final exams with more confidence.

The school has registered 348 candidates up from last year’s 276.

A candidate at the school, Gwyron Kinyua, 17, said the school came up with a slogan “Operation 40 out of 40,” meaning that each of them should aim at scoring all marks in practical subjects. Science subjects – Biology, Physics and Chemistry – contain a practical paper that is usually marked out of 40 marks.

“Our school realised that we can’t score high marks in sciences if we do not pass well in practicals,” he said, while explaining the essence of the “operation 40 out of 40” slogan.

His colleague Allan Tulienge, 17, says the school came up with regular goat-eating sessions that were meant to boost candidate’s morale of aiming top grades. The school set up a caucus of candidates to spread the campaign that all students score a mean grade of A overall. He is confident he will score an A plain that would allow him to pursue Pharmacy at the University of Nairobi. Source: INB-Africa News, [email protected]