In exactly one week Daraja will welcome its newest freshman class. In honor of this, we are profiling Form 3’s Lilian N, who, in the 8th grade, received one of the highest KCPE (Kenya Certificate of Primary Education) scores of any Daraja student ever. (Her score was 395; to give some perspective, the highest score in Kenya this year was 430.) Now, Lilian is a tall and self-assured young woman who’s grown a lot since she arrived at Daraja Academy two years ago. Check out her interview below:
What’s your favorite subject? “Business and math.”
What subject is hardest for you? “Chemistry.”
What do you want to be when you grow up? “I want to be a doctor. This is very difficult – if I do very well in my exam I’d like to become a surgeon but to become a surgeon you have to get A’s in all subjects.”
What were the KCPEs like? “It’s not difficult like the other exams that we used to do when were in Class 8. We used to be given different exams
took the KCPE we were very anxious and we thought it’d be more difficult than the
exams we were doing previously. But, we realized the KCPE was much simpler because
when the teachers test you in Class 8 they want you to do very difficult questions so you
can be ready for the exam. So, when you’re experienced with difficult questions, it won’t be difficult to answer simpler questions.”
What tips would you give a Daraja girl who is taking difficult exams? “First, in Class 8, they should not fear the KCPE exam because when we were doing the exam we were very anxious about the exam but you should just be confident and know that it is an exam like any other. Also, I would tell her from my own example that when I was joining Class 8, I used to perform very poorly in social studies and science. So, I started revising homework because I didn’t have a strong base. I was doing many questions
so I would make sure I understood it better. So what I would tell her is first to identify her area of weakness so she can know what she needs to work on the most, because if you don’t know what you’re weak in you might spend time focusing on subjects you’re already good at.”
Any tips for Daraja’s incoming freshman? “All the teachers help us here because they tell us the tips we should use for revision. We take different subjects with different approaches – you need to allocate different amounts of time for various subjects. For example if it’s humanities you have to read and analyze but for science and math you have to practice doing many questions. Some subjects require more tasks – you don’t study the same in all subjects.”
Do you feel competitive with your classmates? “You should compete with yourself – I think that is the best competition.”
Lilian (right) on her first day of school two years ago
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