Normal stream girl sets record with 7 O-level distinctions

Grades of Swiss Cottage Secondary student Diana Beetsma are best in the stream's history

By Jane Ng


ST PHOTO: SHAHRIYA YAHAYA

DIANA Beetsma, 17, yesterday made education history by having the best O-level scores achieved by a Normal stream student since the stream was introduced in 1980.

The Swiss Cottage Secondary student chalked up seven distinctions - six A1s and an A2. The A2 grade was for mathematics, a subject she had failed consistently. Now, it is the grade she is most pleased about.

'I worked the hardest for maths, sometimes even studying it for the whole day at the expense of other subjects,' she said.

Acing the subject became even more touch and go for her when she fell ill on the day of the paper.

While working on it, she spent 30 minutes crouching in pain and another 20 minutes throwing up in the toilet.

Her invigilator suggested that she skip the paper, but she wanted to carry on.

'I had already worked so hard, and my sister and teachers would always give me extra help. I had to do it for them.'

She credited her mathematics teacher, Madam Ong Lay Kwan, for being instrumental in helping her do well by boosting her confidence in the subject despite her earlier failing grades.

'She told me I had to believe in myself. There was no doubt in her mind at all that I could do well as long as I tried hard. That gave me a lot of confidence,' she said.

Diana's other distinctions were for English, Malay, combined humanities, principles of accounting, food and nutrition, and science.

The next highest scorer in her cohort was Edmund Kwek Jun Wei of Yishun Town Secondary, with five A1s.

The overall top performers in last year's O-level exams were two Singaporeans - Pearlyn Ler, of the Singapore Chinese Girls' School (SCGS), and Kim Chan Xinhui, 17, from Methodist Girls' School.

Pearlyn scored nine A1s and one A2 - for Higher Chinese - while Xinhui notched up A1s for all her subjects except Japanese, her third language, for which she scored an A2.

The girls' achievements stood out because, as in past years, foreigners dominated the top ranks: The pick of the O-level crop featured 11 foreigners out of 19.

In the Normal stream, nine in 10 of the 3,516 Secondary 4 Normal (Academic) students who sat for one or two O-level subjects passed them.

From next year, Normal stream students can take more than two O-level subjects in one sitting, which is expected to result in even better grades for them in future.

Going by past records, 60 per cent of Secondary 5 students who sit for the O levels do well enough to qualify for polytechnic studies.

Yesterday, Diana said her role model was her sister Sufyani, now 20, also from Swiss Cottage, had six distinctions - four A1s and two A2s - when she took the Normal (Academic) route to the O levels in 2004. Though not a record at the time, her grades were good enough to top the school, and Diana said she was motivated to do as well as her sister.

Sufyani, who went on to National Junior College and is now reading psychology in the National University of Singapore, said students simply need self-confidence to do well.

The girls have an older sister working as a case management officer and an older brother studying in the Singapore Management University.

Their father, Mr Louis Beetsma, 57, a Dutch-Chinese Singaporean, is a senior executive, and her mother, Madam Habibah Akib, 56, is a finance officer. They live in a flat in Woodlands.