Kayrel tops in CAPE

Of the 692 students who sat this year’s Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations (CAPE), Calder resident Kayrel Edwards has emerged as one of the most outstanding performers.{{more}}

The 18-year-old student of the faculty of Arts, Sciences and General Studies of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Community College obtained grade one passes in Mathematics Unit 2, Physics Unit 2, Biology Unit 2 and Chemistry Unit 2, with a grade two for Communication Studies.

She achieved grade one passes in the Unit 1 exams in the same subject areas in 2012.

Rather nonchalant about her major achievement, Kayrel, who visited SEARCHLIGHT on Wednesday, said with a smile: “It feels kind of normal for me. I know I worked hard.”

Attaining such success is nothing new to Edwards. In 2011, then a student at the Girls’ High School, Edwards, the valedictorian of her graduating class, obtained 12 passes – all grade ones, with 11 being distinctions.

She attained straight A profiles in Chemistry, Biology, English A, English B, Geography, Information Technology, Mathematics, Physics, Principles of Business, Social Studies and Spanish. Her other subject was French.

At the National Awards Ceremony, Edwards claimed the Top Overall Student Award in CSEC. She also grabbed awards in the science, business and modern languages disciplines.

The daughter of Elmore and Kaleen Edwards, both teachers, Kayrel shared the main ingredient to her academic success.

“Well, I don’t study weeks before the exams. Normally, I do my studying during the year. I would normally do practice papers and end of chapter questions that would help me…,” she revealed.

Edwards also revealed that reading ahead, doing all of her assignments and putting in extra work on weekends, helped her in her studies.

She thanked her parents for all their support; her lecturers at college, whom she described as “lovely” and would send her past papers and hold study sessions with her and other students.

A scholarship recipient from the time she entered secondary school, Edwards expressed gratitude to the Marriaqua Friendly United Society, whom she said paid for all her subjects.

With the curtains slowly descending on the summer holidays, Edwards is gearing up for another year in the class room; this time, behind the teacher’s desk.

She revealed that come the start of the new school year in September, she will take up an assignment at the St Joseph’s Convent Marriaqua, where she will teach Physics and Mathematics.

After a year in the teaching profession, Edwards has her eyes set on furthering her studies at the Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, USA, where she plans to pursue studies in the field of biomedical engineering.

Surprisingly, Edwards admitted that she decided that she wanted to pursue that field of study just the day before the interview.

“I always knew I wanted to do something along the line of Science, just not medicine or civil engineering because I don’t like those at all. I was looking at chemical engineering, but it was kind of restricted and I saw bio medical had a wide range and that’s what I chose,” she admitted.

According to a release from the Ministry of Education, the St Vincent and the Grenadines candidates sat 1936 examinations in 20 different subject areas.

Passing grades (1- 5) were obtained in 1616 subject sittings, representing an overall pass rate of 83 per cent, which represents a slight decrease over 2012 when the overall pass rate was 85 per cent.

The release added that for 2013, CAPE recorded 100 percent passes in Biology Unit 2, Food and Nutrition Unit 1, French, Unit 2, Information Technology Unit 1 and English Literature Unit 1 and Unit 2.