"Excellent" is never just an adjective, countless challenges and exploration earned it. After the journey, you will finally find your own goals, make your plans, and keep moving forward. Simon Yang, the main role for this interview, will tell us how he developed himself academically.

Simon entered YWIES Shanghai Lingang on 2 July 2017. He is currently a student in the 2021 graduating class. As of 9 April he has received offers of economic or finance related majors from five top universities. He once won a Regional Honorable Award in the Canadian chemistry competition. He won the school's academic scholarship in successive years. He is the legendary “scholar-lord”. Let’s hear his story about growth and being excellent.

May I ask what offers have you received in this graduation season？

Around five offers, mainly from universities in Hong Kong and the UK.

It is said that when you first entered the school, you would fight with your classmates sometimes, but now you are very polite and popular. May I ask what changed you in the past few years?

I entered Yew Wah in the second semester of Grade 9. At that time, there was indeed some friction caused by improper communication and impulsion. As I matured, that type of behaviour was no longer an issue.

In the past few years at Yew Wah, there are also many interesting memories shared between my classmates and me. As I get older, I gradually fall in love with the comfortable atmosphere of our class, and I find all kinds of experiences in these years exciting. What has changed the most, is that my introverted personality has improved a lot.

What impressed you the most during your years at Yew Wah?

I think our graduation season is the highlight among all the past few years in Yew Wah. I can still remember at the beginning of the school year; the whole class was busy with all kinds of tasks related to college, paperwork, exams.... That period of time can be said to be the most hard-working period so far. Thanks to the efforts made during that period, we began to receive valuable offers after submitting our respective applications with painstaking efforts. At that time, when I was happy to celebrate for myself and for others to get the offers, I felt all the tiredness was washed away. It was an impressive harvest season of good news.

After getting the offers from their favourite schools, the students shared their journey of the whole semester and feelings of all the hard work and efforts of this semester. One of my most memorable events was an assembly. We stood on the stage and watched the summary of all the offers we had received up to that point. I guess we all felt very proud of ourselves. I was deeply impressed by the wonderful academic year, which included the hard work in the application season, the satisfaction in the harvest season, as well as the reluctance and expectation for graduation after the big exam.

It is said that your parents are abroad, and you were brought up by your grandparents. In recent years, you have been a student of "self-growth", but you have a clear goal and plan from a very early time. Could you tell me what made you set your dream so early?

I tend to set goals and plans step by step, and objectively. I tend to set my goals high enough to make sure that when I can’t reach it, the following options are not too bad. Since I live with my grandparents, they tend to let me to take the lead in my studies. When I was in a junior high school, I was a teenage Internet addict; I liked playing games very much. At the beginning of high school, I started to have some plans and ideas for my future. Plus, my family supports and respects my choices, which is also the primary source of power for me. Because I liked my father's job when I was young, I had early contact with finance and had a good impression of it, so I had opportunities to have relevant ideas and dreams.

As an outstanding student who has won the school scholarship in successive years, could you please share your learning secrets, as well as your achievements in extensive exams and some awards in competitions?

I do not think that the A Level studies can be so hard that a student cannot figure out how to be successful. If I do a good enough review and preview, my score will not be bad. In addition, practising with mock exams during this past year to better prepare for the real test and fine-tuning my time management skills can also be considered a technical work. There are considerable amounts of knowledge points for each subject and if you have to check the causes and consequences of each point clearly, you may feel powerless. Therefore, I think I can classify the subjects I choose: which ones I need to know thoroughly, and which ones I have to learn to do well in the exam. My note taking strategy is emphasised on quality, not quantity. We can pay special attention to problems with big points, must-test problems and so on, to clearly remember the solution procedures. Learning methods mainly rely on our own exploration. I would suggest trying to find a suitable one for yourself. I also participated in many extra-curricular activities. From CCC (Canadian Chemistry Contest) in chemistry, to mathematical modeling, to the most recent economic paper activity. If you have plenty of time, you can take part in some competitions to increase your understanding of the subject and your confidence.

Teacher’s Words

Ms Liu, Core teacher of Simon & University Guidance Counsellor: Simon is a very diligent, self-disciplined, and self-motivated student. He has clear goals and takes action to realise them proactively. He gets on well with his teachers and classmates and is always ready to help others. He is very persistent in his favourite subjects, such as Economics. I hope he can read extensively and study deeply in the future, to achieve self-worth in his favourite academic fields. Because he is very focused on learning and goals and sometimes loses sight of rest, I hope he can balance his goals and expectations in the future and achieve academic attainments in a more enjoyable way.

Ms McIntosh, University Guidance Counsellor: I have known Simon for almost four years, and all throughout high school he has worked hard and grown into a remarkable young man. He is often commended for his leadership. He boasts an amazing work ethic and he puts a lot of effort into his studies. He is persistent, demonstrates both sound analytical and quantitative skills and has a thirst for knowledge. Simon accepts feedback well and appreciates the time his teachers take to help him. From an early stage, Simon has had many good habits; one of those is to avoid making the same mistake twice. He notes the mistake in a notebook which takes great self-discipline. This is a trait he has that I admire.

Simon’s thirst for knowledge makes him a strong candidate for the academic rigour he will face at his many top university choices. He deserves all the good things that will inevitably come his way because of the study habits he has developed throughout his high school. I also want to see Simon take advantage of the many extra-curricular opportunities on offer at these universities and communicate with the many students he will come into contact with.