My Emergence as the World's Best IGCSE Student in Shocking English - Anambra

Mrsoma Okonkwo, a 17-year-old student, who received the British Council Outstanding Cambridge Learner's Award (Cambridge International General Certificate of Secondary Education Top in the World 2022) for her outstanding performance in ESL, shares with FATTEH HAMID the enthusiasm that followed her achievement and aspiration

You have received the British Council Outstanding Cambridge Learner's Award after achieving the highest score in English as a Second Language on the Cambridge IGCSE exam. What's the story behind it all?

My name is Mmesoma Okonkwo. Am from Anambra State. I currently live in Lagos and am a student at Chrisland High School, Victoria Garden City. I am in SS3 and about to finish my secondary studies. I'm 17.

I believe I achieved this feat first and foremost, by the grace of God because I believe that no matter how much effort you put into something, it's only God who can make something so great out of it (get the highest score). Other than that, I think I got a lot of help from my school and my teachers, as I remember them being very helpful before and during the exams. They made sure to give us the right places to study for students who wanted to take the exams on their own. My friends have also been very supportive, especially those who took the exam with me.

How did your parents support you?

My parents also helped me because they had to reduce my household chores to allow me to prepare more for the exam. My school in general was a great environment for this exam because they (the management) released the results of those who took the exam before and saw those results and how well they did, it kind of subconsciously made me want to do my best and I'm glad that happened at the end of the day. Of course, despite the best efforts of my parents, teachers and friends, I still had to do most of the work on my own.

How did you do it?

An important thing was to read all the past questions and look at the question pattern, try to understand them and I think it helped a lot.

Did you hope to be named the best as you prepared for the exam?

I wasn't exactly hoping to be named the best in the world and that was because I didn't know the British Council gave out this kind of award, but I was aiming high when I took the exam. I was trying to achieve something during the exam, I was trying to score high to make myself proud, to make God proud, and to make my school and family members proud. But then I wasn't really surprised when I received the award because it was like something that I had worked hard for and I was very grateful to God.

How did you feel when you received the news of your award?

I was understandably very excited to hear about it from my exam supervisor at the time. Just a week ago he told me he didn't want to tell me the title of the prize because he was trying to keep it a surprise. So when I arrived at the British Council on the day of the ceremony, I was surprised to learn that was what I had won. I felt excited; I felt overjoyed and it made me feel really good because of all the work I had done over the past few months, all the work my teachers had done, and most importantly, my parents. All the effort paid off. So that was great.

What do you plan to do next after this amazing achievement?

I hope to build a lot on this. I will be going to university soon and will use it to study anywhere probably UK and USA as I am sure this price will do. So, I plan to use it to go wherever I can, to keep learning, to keep growing, and to keep elevating myself as an individual through education.

How did your parents feel when they heard the news?

I can only imagine my parents were very excited when they heard the news. I think they heard about the time I did it, maybe my educator told them about it on the phone and the day we got to the British Council they were told about it too. They smiled and it was a very good feeling. I'm sure they were very proud of them and me because they also invested a lot in this review. In fact, they put as much effort into supporting me throughout the period as I did, and without their support, I would have felt a bit unmotivated to continue this review. It was very good that they were there and they were delighted.