O and A level students meet destiny

Karachi The results of O and A level Cambridge International Examinations for the session May/June 2011 have been released by the CIE on Thursday.

In a statement, Rakhshanda Khushal, senior school development manager for the CIE Pakistan, said: “Our congratulations go to all Cambridge students in Pakistan. Your achievements are well-deserved and your work is of a high standard.”

With bated breaths, private candidates in Pakistan began logging into the CIE’s designated website for results, since the time of Sehri to find out the ultimate outcome of their years of hard work, but the sudden load of traffic on the website made the landing page painstakingly slow, which, by the account of many students, remained stagnated for a couple of hours, only to add to the tension of the restless students.

“Those were the most anxious hours I ever dealt with. I’ve never pressed the F5 button so many times in my whole life! ” exclaimed Obaid Hashmi, who appeared in O Level exams in this session as a private candidate.

However, school candidates had a different story to share. They went to school, with their fingers crossed, and some of them prayed all night long. Tooba Gufran, an A Level student, confided that she kept asking her family to make themselves useful and pray for her results. “I got three Bs and I am happy about it,” she said.

While schools have not compiled their final result lists as yet, teachers are generally happy with the results this year. “There is a marked improvement in the performance of my students this year. Fifty percent of my students got As in O Level, where last year it was 43 percent,” said Mohammed Jonaid Haq, an accounting teacher at a private school.

The official grade lists of schools are in the process of compilation and will be announced in a day or two. Nevertheless, given the accounts of teachers and students, it can be safely said that, like every year, the results of this session came as expected, without any major surprises. As one teacher put it, “In O/A exams it’s very simple; if you work hard you get your reward. You reap what you sow.”The news.