It was a proud moment for the parents of Grahamstown matriculant Tomas Knoetze this week, as he emerged with eight distinctions.
It was a proud moment for the parents of Grahamstown matriculant Tomas Knoetze this week, as he emerged with eight distinctions.
Knoetze wrote the Independent Examinations Board (IEB) paper, considered by many, both within South Africa and abroad, as a more challenging assessment than the State National Senior Certificate. Students with excellent IEB results have been accepted to Ivy League and Oxbridge institutions, without taking further requirements such as A-levels.
The former Kingswood College pupil, who is currently in Kenya, obtained distinctions in Afrikaans 1st, English home, Geography, History, Life Orientation, Mathematics and the optional Maths paper 3 which consists of geometry, probability and other topics.
This paper helps with people who will be doing university level mathematics. "Chemistry and History paper 2, were very difficult and the History paper had a question that I didn't expect," Tomas told Grocott's Mail via email on Wednesday.
"I feel good, proud and also very happy. It's hard to get my head around it, but I expected the distinctions. I just had a feeling." The young man is planning on taking a gap year and hopes to travel to the US or Canada to work later this year.
At the moment he is in Kenya, doing some community work there, and will return to South Africa in March. "I don't know what I am going to study after the gap year, but science or something in the humanities faculty are strong candidates."
"I've only applied to Rhodes University at the moment, but I'm still thinking of applying to the University of Cape Town, or a university in London. San Knoetze, Tomas's mother, who used to teach at Kingswood, told Grocott's Mail that while she knew her son would do well, she hadn't expected eight distinctions.
"I am very proud of him. I know he set himself goals to do his very best in the culmination of his high school days. He is someone who won't let such achievements get to his head and is very self-motivated. He is a humble, gentle and caring person.''
His father, Jan Knoetze, senior lecturer in the Psychology department at Rhodes University, could not be reached for comment.
Another matriculant whose mom was over the moon was Butterworth-born Abongile Tanga. He is the top achiever at Graeme College, with his six distinctions – isiXhosa first additional, Mathematics, Life orientation, Life Sciences and Physical Sciences.
Abongile has been accepted at the UCT School of Public Health and Family Medicine, where he hopes to achieve his life-long dream of becoming a doctor. "I want to make a difference is someone's life and it's going to make me feel good knowing people depend on me," Abongile told Grocott's Mail.
He said his mother burst into tears when he told her he had achieved five distinctions. "I expected the four distinctions, but to have five was a huge shock because the isiXhosa paper had poems that were totally different from the ones we expected."
