Congrats! 2014 SOTY Linguist winner thrilled with her six 5** and one 5* HKDSE results
Former Diocesan Girls’ School student tells us how participating in Student of the Year helped her in her HKDSE
Elaine Wong (L) with other high scorers - Jennifer Qiu Zi-jun, Vanessa Ma Yuen-kwan, and Laurice Wong Lok-see - from DGS.Elaine Wong of Diocesan Girls’ School returned to Hong Kong last night from a trip to Japan ... to the score of six 5** and one 5* in her Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination (HKDSE).
“[I'm not quite a top scorer] but I’m happy with my results,” the 18-year-old former DGS student told Young Post over the phone. She adds that she achieved six 5** in her core subjects and electives of biology and economics, and a 5* in chemistry with hard work but also a little bit of luck.
Elaine was name South China Morning Post’s 2014 Student of the Year (Cantonese) Linguist winner last year. The team captain of her school's debating team, she is an enthusiastic writer of stories and essays, and feels that not only helped her win the SOTY award but also in her HKDSE.
She has been debating since Form One, which she says has helped her with studying.
“Debating trained me to keep up with the current affairs, both local and international," she says, "which is helpful for liberal studies."
Elaine adds that winning the SOTY award reminded her that learning isn’t just a responsibility for students, but it’s actually more about your interest and how you can use your abilities to help others. This understanding helped her find her own interest in subjects such as Chinese language and liberal studies.
“You do better when you are actually interested in the subjects,” she says.
Elaine has received an offer to study law at London School of Economics and Political Science, but she plans to study medicine at the University of Hong Kong instead.
“I like communicating with people. I would really appreciate talking to the patients and understanding their pain, because relationships and interaction with people means a lot to me.”
When studying for the exams, Elaine tells us that she likes to make a timetable and push herself to stick with it. She also prefers her school’s study room to staying at home.
“I feel it’s hard to concentrate at home. Plus, I feel less alone in this when I’m surrounded by friends at school.”
Elaine says it feels so unreal to be the one getting her results after reading about HKDSE results of other students for the past few years. “Suddenly it’s my turn, and I need to accept that secondary school is now in the past and I have to start researching for life in university.”
Before she goes off to university, she wants to spend time exploring Hong Kong,
“I feel like I’ve been trapped at home and in classrooms too much. Now it’s a good time to walk around and really get to know Hong Kong," Elaine says.