DF Malan High School’s Class of 2021 can finally toast to their successes after achieving a 100% matric pass rate this year as well as 92.44% of their students meeting the bachelors pass requirements this year.
Once again the school outdid itself and showed great improvements from last year after 62% of their students passed with an A aggregate while 64% scored a B aggregate.
Last year, only 60% of the students scored A aggregates and 55% achieved B aggregates.
According to Samantha Prinsloo, marketer at DF Malan, the school also improved in the amount of A symbols the students scored after they noticed that there were 579 A’s this year compared to last year’s total of 487 A’s.
She adds that 71.8% of the students also had an average above 70% which is another improvement from last year when only 58% of the students achieved an aggregate above 70%.
This year, DF Malan’s top five performers were: Renke Lorio with 96% (nine A symbols), Benjamin Roelofse (95.25% with eight A’s), Danielle Swanepoel (94.29% with eight A’s), Renska Krynauw (94.29%) and Arnold Hattingh (93.57% with nine A’s).
On the day a few students representing DF Malan’s top 10 achievers shared their excitement upon finally receiving their long-awaited matric results with Northern News as well as the challenges they encountered during their final year.
Mienke Theunissen achieved eighth place within DF Malan’s top10 students with a 90% aggregate and eight A symbols.
“I feel really relieved, happy and surprised that I did really well. I’m planning on studying data science at Stellenbosch University which utilises mathematics and IT and hopefully I can become a data scientist,” she said.
Isabella Van Wyk came in sixth place with 92% and scooped seven A symbols.
“I’m shaking in my boots because this was like really unexpected, so I’m very relieved and I feel great. My future field I’d like to pursue is medicine at Stellenbosch University hopefully,” she said.
Gaby Dos Santos described her relief as a mountain that had finally collapsed off her shoulders and she feels optimistic that a new chapter in her life is starting.
She came in seventh place with a 90.71% aggregate and scooped seven A symbols.
When asked what some of her biggest challenges were during her final year, she said: “I think maths and accounting were quite challenging, so I really pushed to have those subjects above 85% as I really wanted an A.”
For Marelise Marais the sweet surprise she felt once she saw her outstanding results brought a few tears to her eyes.
“I was so surprised that I started to cry. I’ve been in our top 10 once, so this was a very big surprise for me. I must say writing a mock exam and just after that exactly the same work for the final exam was very challenging for me, so you really had to dig up your motivation to do it again.”
She came in 10th place with 90% and scored nine A symbols and plans to study engineering at Stellenbosch University.
Fifth-placed student and deputy head boy, Arnold Hattingh, was over the moon after scoring nine A symbols and an aggregate of 93.57%.
When asked what sacrifices he had to make for his results, he said: “I really had to find a balance between having fun at school and trying to do well academically. I really feel like I got that balance because I didn’t study that hard that I didn’t spend time with my friends or had fun at school.”