The view from the top

Here in Thailand, that mostly means an international equivalent, the IGSCE, set by Cambridge International Examinations (CIE). According to Christine Cayley, CIE Director for Asia Pacific, this was introduced almost immediately after the adoption of GCSE itself in the United Kingdom in 1988.

“At that point, we decided that we would make an international version. It obviously couldn’t be the same as the UK because the question papers demanded that you have at least residence in the UK and knowledge of what was going. So what we tried to do was to use the same standard and the same curriculum principles, but to make a qualification which was suitable for international students,” Cayley explains.

Today, there are over 50 different IGCSE exams, ranging from standards like, mathematics, chemistry and history to arcane subjects like Afrikaans as a second language. In case you’re wondering, there is no exam for second language Thai, but Thai as a first language has been available for several years now.

“The exams are challenging,” Cayley observes. “They test a body of knowledge. They test creative thinking. They test things like collaborative work, project work and course work.”

While CIE does not produce courses and course material, it does provide schools with detailed information about what students will be expected to know to pass the exams, Cayley explains.

“Generally speaking, we produce a curriculum framework for each subject, but not a very prescribed curriculum. We assume that the school will be teaching what is necessary to get the students to a particular level. We produce past exam papers and reports and things like that so that they can see what is involved.”

Most students take between seven and ten IGSCE courses, Cayley says. Grades range from A star down to G. Courses come in two versions, “extended” for students who are more academically inclined and “core” for the rest.

How do students in our local international schools fare in these exams? For many, the answer is clearly “very well indeed.” Recently, the learning post had an opportunity to attend a CIE award ceremony for the top scorers in Thailand. There, we were able to chat with some of them to find out how they did so well. Their answers were instructive indeed.

The award ceremony, held this year at Bangkok Patana International School, was entitled “Brilliance in Thailand”. It was intended to honour those students who scored the highest on any of the IGCSE exams taken within Thailand that had at least 30 examinees. Another important condition was that the top scorer receive at least an A, preferably an A star. In addition, there were also awards for the three students with the highest cumulative scores in four subjects.

Two students, Myrna Calebur and Martin Nirmal Alberter, both of Bangkok Patana, actually posted scores high enough to put them among the world’s elite. This prompted the organisers to add another category: Top in the World. Myrna accomplished the feat in two subjects – Design and Technology and Environmental Management – while Martin came through in Coordinated Sciences.

Their approaches to their studies were a bit different, however. Myrna was especially ambitious. Her overloaded timetable included 11 subjects – although she did manage to take two of the exams after year 10 which lightened up her load a bit in year 11.

Martin, who also received the top score in Thailand in Geography, was more conservative, taking eight subjects based largely on the marks he received after year nine. He says he is a no-nonsense student, making a strict division between study time and recreation.

“You’ve got to know when it’s time to go have fun with your friends – party,” Martin remarks.” Then you don’t concentrate on studies; you just think about having fun. And when it’s time to work, you just concentrate on your work and you do it.”

For him, last-minute cramming is not an option. “I definitely don’t cram. I hate sitting for hours and doing work. I try to get it done over the course of the term. So when it comes down to studying I don’t have to do that much.”

With so many IGCSE subjects to study for, Myrna took a slightly different approach. “For some of the subjects I put in much more effort than other subjects. For the easier subjects I crammed. For the harder subjects I worked throughout the term.”

From left to right: Ella Micheler, Chaninan Kulvanich, Chanuth Kamkorkul

Another overachiever, Ella Micheler of Dulwich International College, also used a mixed approach. She tried to keep up with her 10 subjects throughout the term, but says she crammed where necessary. Topping the cumulative category plus taking individual honours in first language English and History, Ella says her achievements boil down largely to hard work.

“My friends always say I have better DNA or something, but I think it (my success) is because I work hard. I don’t think grades really mean you’re intelligent. They’re a measure of how hard working you are and how much you dedicate yourself. There are a lot of smart people who just don’t work hard. They still get good grades, but not excellent ones – just because they have other priorities.”

Ella says interest is another important element to her success, even if it means she has to generate that interest herself. “If I’m interested in a subject, I just work hard at it,” she says. If a subject is boring, then I do independent study outside of class and try and get myself really interested.

“In one business-related class, I started reading newspapers and watching the news a lot. Also, because I did history, which has a lot to do with politics and economics, I was able to tie the two subjects together. It was interesting because it applied to real life,” Ella observes.

In preparing for the examination itself, almost all students cited practicing with old exams as the most effective strategy.

“Most of the time I tried to practice my questions or asked the teacher about them,” relates Bangkok Patana student Lynn Shiao Tai who topped the country in the Biology exam. “For the last few terms in year 11, we got study periods. We were at school and we basically just studied the entire time.”

Alvin Chen

Fellow Patana student and Mathematics champion Alvin Chen echoes her strategy. “Basically our teachers gave us past IGCSE exam papers to practice. So we kept practicing every lesson.”

At the same time, Alvin stresses the importance of leading a balanced school existence. “I do a lot of sports to even it out,” he explains. “So I have my sports and I have my academics. It makes me more relaxed and when I come home I can concentrate more on my subjects.”

The test itself, he says, was pretty much as he had practiced – “matrices, probability, basic stuff” – but it was also a bit harder. “Actually, for most people I think that exam was more challenging than the papers we’d done. It was harder, but we still coped with it because in classes our teacher made us do more advanced work.”

Lynn found the Biology exam a bit easier than expected. “I didn’t actually think it would be my best subject, but I found it relatively easy compared to my other science courses.

“The exam had three different categories. One was the practical. We had to analyse what we were given and we had to make a conclusion from it. Then we had a multiple-choice section and long answers which counted for the largest proportion of the grade,” Lynn recalled.

From left to right: Kevin Chen, Myma Calebur, Lynn Shiao Tai

Those taking the Economics exam had to pick four out of 12 possible essay questions, relates Bangkok Patana’s Kevin Chen. He topped that exam as well as the Physics exam, which put him third in the cumulative category.

One of the questions he chose was a supply and demand question concerning the basic commodity soap. “They gave you a specific question relating the pricing of soap and you had to discuss it and justify why certain things happen according to economic theory. It was a price elasticity question,” he recalls.

The Information Technology exam had two high scorers, Chaninan Kulvanich and Chanuth Karnkorkul, both from Dulwich International College. The exam, Chanath recalls, had a practical section in which students had three hours to carry out assignments using a wide variety of computer programs and an essay section on the effects of IT in everyday life.

According to Chaninan, one of the practical questions involved producing a web page. “It was a web page about a sports company. They gave the instructions about what to do. They gave us pictures and we just put them in the web page.”

Chanath’s preparation for the exam was a bit unusual to say the least. “Actually, I didn’t take the IT course. I took the Computer Studies course which is harder than IT. So I just read the textbook. I’ve been using computers since I was a kid,” he explains.

As you might expect, Myrna’s Design and Technology exam required a good deal of creativity. “We got to choose from four questions. They were all different types of design questions. I picked the design of a carrier bag,” she relates.

“You had to write four points about its safety and four points about its ergonomics and then you had to draw initial ideas. You had to develop the ideas and come to a conclusion.

“There was also another part to the exam. You had to answer technical questions about machinery, how to make things, and what the tools are called,” Myrna recalls.

What motivates these top students to excel? Is it a quest for grades, a thirst for knowledge or something else entirely? The answers are varied.

For Martin – a practical sort – grades were the biggest motivator. “I enjoy science so that’s why I guess I’m good at it, but for the rest of the courses I just studied so I could get my marks. That way I can do my IB (International Baccalaureate) diploma. That’s what’s really important.”

Ella has her sights on getting into a good university, so grades were high on her list of motivations as well. But she also had another reason for wanting to do well. “I wanted to please my father the most and that’s why I worked hard for grades,” she admits.

Both Myrna and Lynn agreed that learning was most important factor for them, but they clearly took their examinations very seriously. Interestingly, Kevin, who says he actually enjoyed his exams, believes the distinction between the desire to learn and striving for high marks is misleading. You can’t have one without the other, he asserts.

“I think how you did on the test also reflects how much you wanted to learn something. I don’t think you would gain a good mark if you weren’t motivated to actually learn.”

That is an observation any student would do well to keep in mind.