A-Level results day is often a mixed bag for students, some celebrate and others commiserate, although one teen was jubilant after being predicted to fail by her teachers.
Marta Cerkasina was shaking with excitement as she spoke to the ECHO, just minutes after she was told she had a place through clearing at Gloucestershire University where she will study biology, something that seemed a million miles away just six months ago. The 18-year-old was devastated after she took her mock exams in January, with her teachers at Christ the King Sixth Form in Southport predicting the student to finish with EUE.
Despite her teacher's predictions, Marta worked hard with her teachers to get the grades she need to go to university. She told the ECHO: "I struggled through lockdown and covid. I started off at KGV and then moved to Christ the King where I changed my A-levels about. It was hard.
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"I really struggled with chemistry and can't believe I've managed to get a C. It's been a really hard two years but I'm so pleased."
Marta managed to finish her time at Christ the King with Bs in biology and psychology and a C in chemistry. The strong-willed student thought she would have to take a gap year to figure out what she was going to do and admitted that when she was rejected by universities to study veterinary medicine, she was put off.
She added: "I thought I would have to do a gap year. I'm really surprised at how well I've done, I didn't expect it, I kind of winged my exams in the end. It put me off when I was rejected by a number of universities to do veterinary medicine because that's what I really wanted to do but I'm so happy I'm doing biology now."
Helen Cunningham, head of Christ the King Sixth Form, told the ECHO: "We are incredibly proud. They [the students] have never gone through public examinations before because of covid. We were really unsure of how they were going to do to be honest. A big part of this year's course they have had to do online. It's so hard to do A-Levels online so it's a credit to them.
"We feel as a small sixth form we have a personal relationship with our students. We are delighted, almost everybody got where they wanted to be. Incredibly proud is an understatement."
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