“The future depends on what we do in the present.” – Mahatma Gandhi

For Christian Muthiora, this quote perfectly reflects his IGCSE journey—a path filled with challenges, determination, and ultimately, success. We learn more about his journey at Nova Pioneer Midrand Senior: 

“My name is Christian Muthiora and I am 15 years old. I received my IGCSE results not too long ago. Personally, I was quite pleased with my results and quite frankly, I was expecting exactly what I received. I joined Nova Pioneer at the beginning of term 3 in Grade 9; this was in the year 2023. At first, I struggled to understand the content since I was new to the whole Cambridge curriculum. My first exam at Nova Pioneer took place towards the end of term 3 of Grade 9. This was when I was still struggling to grasp content that was being taught to me. As expected, when I received my results for that examination, I was not too pleased, especially since I knew that I was capable of achieving much higher results. However, I used those results as motivation instead of getting discouraged as I would then proceed to my final year of IGCSE in Grade 10 the following year. I used my December holiday to catch up on content and revise previous content that was taught in class as well. Term 1 of Grade 10 was much better grade-wise compared to the previous term. I began to see the results of the hard work I put in throughout my December holiday. Unfortunately, we did not write exams in Term 1 so I was unable to gauge how much I improved from my previous term.

Term 2 was even better as I saw significant improvement from term 1. It seemed to me that consistently putting effort into studying after school hours was really key to my success. My grades progressively increased in my Unit Assessments. When it came time to write my exams
at the end of the term, I could tell that my results were going to be promising. True to that testimony, my grades were quite impressive and I was ready to take on my last term of my IGCSE journey, term 3.

Term 3 was rather short as it was only about 3 and a half weeks of learning time. This was the final push and I understood that I needed to put in 100% effort into studying for my IGCSE. Our teachers were really helpful throughout this time. They were always available to help us
whenever we seeked their help. Finally, October came around and it was time to sit for our first papers. Cambridge stretched our papers through a period of one and a half months and this proved to be quite helpful as it gave me more time to study and consult my teachers on my weaker areas. As I sat more and more papers, the more promising it looked for me and finally the time came to write my final paper which was Chemistry on the 13th of November 2024. The paper went well and I went home quite confident about my overall performance in my IGCSE.

It was a holiday full of anxiety for me as I was eagerly waiting to get my results back in January. Eventually, January came around and it was time to receive the results. Personally, I was in school on the release day of the results and when the clock hit 8 o’clock, all of us at school were quite anxious. When we had all received our results the general feeling about them was quite good. Some people expected lower, some expected higher but so is life. Personally, I was content with my results however English was quite dissatisfying as it was not consistent with the results I was getting in the school’s internal exams.

What I learned throughout this whole journey was that hard work really does pay off as long as you put in the hard work consistently. I would like to thank my teachers, my parents and my fellow classmates for walking with me throughout this whole journey.”