Pretoria - They studied together and now they get to flourish together.
Best friends Calvin Huysamen and Daniella De Figueiredo, both 18, from Hatfield Christian School not only passed their IEB matric exams with flying colours, but they scooped distinctions too.
Huysamen emerged as a top achiever at his school, racking up nine distinctions- while De Figueiredo achieved 6 distinctions.
The Pretoria News caught up with the ‘straight A’ duo at their school where they had gone to collect their results earlier this morning.
The two could not stop boasting about their triumph. They also shared their future plans with us.
Huysamen said: “I’m feeling excited. I knew I would do well but not like this. It’s really overwhelming,” he said.
“I’m just glad it’s over and we can move on. I didn’t think I would achieve this,” De Figueiredo said.
The two said they were headed to the University of Pretoria.
De Figueiredo said: “I will be going to Tuks and I’ll be studying Law and Criminology while staying at home.
"I’m really excited and looking forward to having a great time in varsity and studying hard of course.”
Talking about the challenges they encountered during the year, she said:
“The workload was a lot and it was challenging to balance sports and culture and academics and trying to do the best I could. But with focus, it can be done no matter how challenging it might get.”
Huysamen said: “When I started the year the workload was a bit too much but after a few months the work was manageable but I’m happy it’s all over now.”
The school which had 64 candidates writing exams obtained a 100 % pass rate, with 12 of them achieving 6 distinctions and overall achievement of 153 distinctions.