INTERVIEW WITH BECE CANDIDATE ABRAHAM AHUTORVIE TETTEH (PART 1)

Abraham Tetteh is a 15 year old student and an explorer of Pokuase MA Basic School. This year, Abraham is sitting for the Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE) and The Exploratory caught up with him to get to know how he is preparing for the examinations.  

Hello Abraham, how are you doing and how is the preparation for the BECE going?

Hi Sir, I very fine. At first, it was a normal learning preparation, but as the days went by and the time for the examination drew closer, I saw the need to put in extra effort into my preparations. I started solving past questions, engaging in academic discussions and going for extra classes. I am doing all these with the hope that I will excel.

So what are the challenges you are facing in your preparations towards the examinations?

So currently, I am facing two major challenges; the first is that, I am not receiving the support from my parents as I expected. As a BECE candidate, I expect to be exempted from household chores, at least until the exams are over, but nothing has changed. I do all the chores at home, making it difficult to have enough time for myself and studies. Also, the subject Mathematics is a big challenge to me. I seem not to do well in the subject, no matter the amount of time I dedicate to studying Mathematics, it happens that, I find it very difficult understanding it.

Now that you have been able to identify these challenges, what opportunities have you also identified to address the challenges?   

Learning at dawn and also late into the night are the strategies I have adopted to make gains from the time lost during the day. My idea is always to make enough time for studies, so any time I get, I use it to learn. Also, solving past BECE questions has been an important opportunity. Luckily, my teachers have been doing well in getting us these questions to be solving. This was very regular during the times we were home due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Talking about Covid-19, how has this pandemic generally impacted your preparation for the BECE?  

For me, Covid-19 has bought enough time to prepare because if the exams were written in June, according to the previous timetable, I wouldn’t have performed better because I did not know much then. So the impact of the pandemic has been a positive one on my studies in general.

What have you got to say to everyone especially your fellow candidates?          

I want to say that, they should treat BECE like normal mock exams. This will put their fears away because fear robs us of the courage to write the exams to the best of your ability. Additionally, I will like to advice all candidates to desist from any form of examination malpractice. Finally, I will like to thank everyone who has contributed to my education.

The Exploratory wishes you the very best of luck in the examinations and thank you very much Abraham Tetteh for your time and attention. We will interview you again after the examinations for your experiences. 

You are welcome and also thank you for the interview. I will also looking forward to the one after the examinations.

INTERVIEW BY: SAVIOUR OKINE