Passion for gaming drives him to the top

OUTRAM Secondary student Choar Choong Mun, who is an avid gamer, wants to study computers and networking at the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) to find out how to make his computer run faster.

The 16-year-old will be able to do so next year as he emerged as the top Normal (Technical) stream student who took one or two Normal (Academic) subjects.

Based on the N-level examination results released yesterday, there were 99 students in the stream who took one or two N(A) subjects - which are more difficult than N(T) subjects.

Since 2006, N(T) students have been allowed to take up to two N(A) subjects.

Choong Mun's score of 5As and one C for his N(T) subjects, and a Grade 2 for the extra N(A) subject - Mathematics - was better than his teachers expected.

Form teacher Hazlan Mohd Aris, 41, who described him as 'playful and mischievous', said that Choong Mun had always been ranked among the top three in his class.

'He has a steely determination to do better than his classmates. Any query he has, he asks before he leaves school,' he said.

Mr Hazlan was also the person who drove to Choong Mun's home to pick him up yesterday before the results were announced, as he could not be contacted on his cellphone or home phone.

Even though Choong Mun took Mathematics at the N(A) level, he said he did not spend much time outside class preparing for it.

His mathematics teacher Haslinda Yusof, 28, said that he was such an independent learner, she hardly gave him extra help.

Six months before the exams, Choong Mun would spend up to two hours a day studying. But he continued with his online games, playing up to six hours a day.

It was his interest in gaming that spurred him to work hard, so he could enter the ITE's computer and networking course - 'so I know how to make my computer go faster and not keep crashing', said the middle child of an odd-job worker and coffee shop assistant.

Outram Secondary also produced another top N(T) student who took an N(A) subject - Tsui Yuh Lian, 16, scored 4As for her N(T) subjects and a Grade 4 for Mathematics.

Choong Mun and Yuh Lian were among the 6,028 N(T) candidates who took the revamped N(T) curriculum subjects which were introduced last year to provide more practice-oriented learning which better caters to their learning styles and industry needs.

Of these students, 97 per cent passed.

Of the 99 N(T) students who took one or two N(A) subjects, 87 students (88 per cent) of them passed.