“I have watched this happen to other people and always wanted to achieve it myself. It is something I’ve wanted for a long time, since grade eight.”
These are the sentiment shared by 18-year-old Matthew McGurk, who is a top matric achiever who attained a full house of 10 distinctions.
He has lived in Observatory all his life and attended the Saheti School in Senderwood. He said he was surprised by his achievements. “In Grade eight, one would always complain when receiving too much homework, but one learns to work consistently throughout the year,” said Matthew.
He said that doing so makes it a lot easier when writing the final exams. “I have to credit the good teachers I had. I’m still wondering how I achieved this, especially with the languages which I found a bit challenging,” said Matthew.
Matthew said he was happy he could make his parents proud. “I’ve worked for it, though I did not expect it,” he said.
He went on to explain the importance of having a balance in one’s life. “Focus on the work, you only get one chance to write matric. But also have fun while you do it, make the work fun and have a bit of a social life in order to avoid burn-out,” said Matthew.
He is unsure of what to study or which tertiary institution to enroll at. “I have a few offers I need to consider. It will be a choice between Wits University and the University of Pretoria. At Wits, I would study actuarial sciences and at Tuks it would be civil engineering,” said Matthew.
He said he has always been inclined towards maths and has never had a problem with it. Matthew achieved distinctions in Afrikaans, English, history, information technology, life orientation, mathematics (100 percent), mathematics paper 3, modern Greek, physical science and advanced programme mathematics.
