She said yesterday she was overwhelmed when she first saw her performance.
She got 94% for Afrikaans; 96% for English; 99% for life orientation; 98% for maths; 95% for life science; 98% for information technology; 100% for physical science and 97% for Alpha maths.
The matriculant from Waverley said that what got her the best results was constant dedication, hard work and a willingness to study, as well as an interest in the work she had to do.
“An aptitude for it made success more accessible,” she said.
When she spoke to the Pretoria News yesterday she was calm but said that before that she had been overly excited and amazed to think that she was the top pupil in the province among the matriculants of 2017.
“I am extremely excited about my future. When I first saw my results I was overwhelmed by how well I did. It was absolutely amazing to hear that I was the top achiever. It was a great feeling, one I cannot explain to this day, but most importantly I made my family proud, especially my mother who has been my role model because she is a strong, independent woman who cares deeply for others.
“I would like to continue the same consistent standard of marks at university. I will work hard to surpass the marks I have now. My matric year was not that hard because I was constantly studying; this was not something that started last year but for the whole of my school career,” she said.
Jacqueline has always been a top achiever: “I was the top achiever in every grade for my entire school career.”
Besides being headgirl for two consecutive years - 2016 and last year, being a go-getter has always been in her genes. She had been the microbiology team winner of the Eskom Science Expo for the region and nationally, was also the winner of the Tshwane University of Technology engineering competition building science team.
She also won the provincial spelling bee in 2015.
Her matric studies were in jeopardy when she participated in the Intel International Science and Engineering fair.
She said the preparations for the fair were so hectic because they took away time from her matric studying.
Later in the year she took part in a competition in Los Angeles for 10 days, which also took away much of her academic time. But she has bounced back. Jacqueline will study medicine at the University of Pretoria. She said she had never dreamed small because she applied her mind to everything she did and was looking forward to starting her new journey at university.
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