School's history
Mint Chan Ching-man's hard work finally paid off yesterday when she received her results in this year's Advanced Level examinations.
Mint, this year's winner of the Best Improvement Award of the South China Morning Post Student of the Year Awards, scored a B in Geography, a C in Use of English and Ds in Economics and Chinese Language.
She was delighted with her results, especially with the C in English.
'I have spent a lot of time on this subject as I go to a Chinese school. To be as competitive as students from English schools, I knew I would need to work even harder,' says the 19-year-old from Yuen Long Lutheran Secondary School.
'I only got an E in the HKCEE so it's a big improvement, and I have to thank my teachers for their help.'
Mint has put in tremendous effort to get to where she is now. Five years ago, she was a teachers' nightmare and failed most of her subjects. She was hanging out with the wrong people and was not interested in her future. Fortunately, her teachers never gave up on her.
Although she was a little disappointed with her result in Chinese, she is confident of being admitted to the Faculty of Arts at the University of Hong Kong.
Some Hong Kong Sports Development Board scholarship athletes also received good news.
Triathlete Derwin Chan King-chung has been offered a place to study psychology at the Chinese University.
Although he was a bit disappointed with his physics marks, the national youth squad team member was happy with his overall result.
'I didn't really start preparing for the exam until six months ago. I'd been busy with my school duties and training. I didn't even have time to rest,' recalls the Diocesan Boys' School (DBS) student, currently second in the Asian triathlon junior rankings.
'Some of my teachers were surprised that I even passed.'
He hopes he will have a more balanced timetable when his university life commences.
'I want to spend more time on my studies because university is the last learning ground before I join the workforce, and psychology is a pretty difficult subject,' said the 19-year-old, adding that he would work out a suitable training schedule with his coach later.
Badminton players Leung Wing-hei of DBS and Pang Chun-yu of Jockey Club Ti-I College have been offered a chance to study at City University and Hong Kong Polytechnic University respectively.
Ten-pin bowler Chan Ka-fu of Tuen Mun Catholic Secondary School has met the minimum requirements for the physical education course at the Baptist University (BU), while fencer Tam Kit-yee of Helen Liang Memorial Secondary School (Sha Tin) may take an associate degree course.
Some candidates may think they can now relax as they have done both the HKCEE and AL exams. But their counterpart Carey Lee warns this is just the beginning.
'There will be many challenges to face at university,' says Carey, who is taking part in Young Post's Summer Challenge. 'They may be even more difficult to tackle than the public exams.'
Carey will enrol for recreation and leisure studies at BU.