Top CSEC performers credit mental preparedness for their success

O’Neil Sprott and Nailah Jack credit proper time management, remaining humble and mental preparedness for their success in the 2023 Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) exams.

Jack, of the St Vincent Girls’ High School (GHS) and Sprott of the St Vincent Grammar School (SVGS) are the nation’s top female and male CSEC top performers respectively for 2023.

Jack and Sprott both received grade ones in English A, English B, Spanish, Information Technology, Economics, Biology, Chemistry and Physics. Nailah also received grade ones for French, History and Principles of Business, while O’Neil received a grade one in Principles of Accounting and Mathematics.

The dynamic duo received grade twos in Geography and Music, while Sprott obtained a grade two in Art and Jack a two in Additional Mathematics. She wrote Mathematics in 2022 and received a grade one.

They both expressed that being this year’s top performers was not on their agenda.

Nailah said her focus was “to do my best because I knew I was doing all these subjects and I wanted to just try to put my best foot forward and really achieve my goal.”

Meanwhile, O’Neil said he remained humble and “wasn’t so concerned whether or not I was the top performer. I was more focused on attempting to do the best I believed I could do at the time, and when I was finished with my exams and found out I was the top performer, I felt pleased of course, but it wasn’t really something I kept on the fore front of my mind.”

Time management played a crucial role in the scholars’ success as both had challenges with managing their school assignments as well as preparing for the big exams.

The demand for work to be done on time was taxing on O’Neil, who plays squash, causing him to be too tired on some days to do any work.

“The challenging part for me was making sure I got enough rest on top of getting all the work covered in time, because I found myself up really late at night doing all this work everyday.”

He added, “I had to try and figure out how to balance that resting period as well as studying period.”

For Nailah, her challenge was trying to get her School Based Assessments (SBA) done on time, while keeping up with revision.

Sacrifices were made by both students during their preparation for CSEC.

“I had to cut down on my screen time as well as my training for squash, usually I went a couple days a week then I had to minimise it to once a week so I can stay home and study,” O’Neil said.

Along with staying late at school and sacrificing free time, the top male performer said, “There were some days that I had classes on Saturdays and Sundays so it was a lot of free time sacrifice.”

Nailah also stayed late at school and had online classes on some Sundays. “Also I was in guiding in Form 4, but when I got to Form 5, I decided to take a break so I can focus on the school work,” she said.

Nailah and O’Neil are now enrolled at the St Vincent and the Grenadines Community College, (SVGCC) pursuing CAPE subjects.

Nailah is pursuing Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Computer Science with the hope of one day entering the field of medicine and specialising in radiology or pathology.

O’Neil is taking Physics, Economics, Computer Science and Pure Maths and hopes one day study Engineering or Computer Science.

They are both already involved in extra curricular activities at the SVGCC as both are members of the Intellective Collective Club – a club made up of students interested in science. Nailah is also a member of the ISCCF (Inter School and College Christian Fellowship) group.

Next on the agenda for this pair is securing a national scholarship in order to pursue university education in their fields of choice.

Nailah is the daughter of Keyon Jack and Tisha Allen-Jack of Dorsetshire Hill, while O’Neil is the son of O’Neil Sprott Snr and Tamara Job-Sprott of Prospect.