Matric Results and Satisfaction

Well, I am feeling good right now (uh-oh, stative verb?!)

One of my most learning disabled and challenged students just called me to tell me his grades on Parts 2 and 3 of his Three Point English Matriculation (he had done Part 1 in January 2013 and had done well). But,  Part 2 included a writing assignment and Part 3 was considerably harder than the first two with only ten questions, meaning that each one was worth a whopping ten points. (Each mistake was a deduction of ten points.....) He was nervous, as was I, on May 13, the day of the English Matric test. He had done   very well on his Oral Matric in late March 2013, though, which is not surprising because his main mode of learning is auditory.

This is a young man who I began tutoring three years ago, when he was 14, the summer before his ninth grade year. At the time, he knew very little English, basically letters and sound words. He was so learning disabled that his parents had  pushed the native language subjects first and foremost--and in Summer 2010 it was time to start  working on  English (EFL) . He said at the time that for him, it was really starting from the very beginning of English learning, as he hadn't understood English classes previously. (I might add that he has a sister, three years older than he, who was a top student in high school,  who graduated at the top of her class. Frustrating for him.)

 I accompanied him through his ninth, tenth and eleventh grade years, working on school work as well as on the basics of the English language (tenses/parts of speech etc.), all in coordination with his teachers during the appropriate school year. (It was also helpful that I had taught at that particular six-year school in the past, both in the junior high and in the high school. I knew the school's requirements and I had good communication with his teachers already.) He was allowed the use of an electronic dictionary and received 25% extra time per test, listened to texts on a Discman and answered by himself.

This young man just told me that he felt it 'all come together' this past school year. Suddenly, English sentences made sense to him and weren't word jumbles that he couldn't understand. He was very  lucky to have been taught at school by some of the best English teachers in the area , with lots of experience teaching his kind of L.D. and his English level.

Besides being very glad for the family and for him, I  am very gratified that the hours of hard work paid off handsomely in the end!

Oh, did I forget to most important thing?!

He passed Part 2 with  a good grade, and Part 3 with an even better one!
That , combined with his excellent grades on the Oral Matric and on Part 1, have enabled him to pass
Three Point English Matric with flying colors!

Now that's satisfaction........