Education Zambia Project #34089

Tertiary Application Fees

by Kucetekela Foundation

Project Report | May 2, 2019
SAT Preparation

By Vincent | Gap Year Student

Grade 12s of 2018 Prepare for the SATs

I learnt about the SAT prep in Grade 11 Term 3. We were expected to start during the December holiday preparing and learning.

My first reaction to this was fear of failing and nervousness. I began to think Mina, the KF fellow, was trying to test who was the best student among the Grade 11s. But it was about taking this exam to find better placements in university.

SATs consist of two subjects: English and mathematics. They contain topics from our school syllabus but they are advanced and depend on time and accuracy to finish them.

The SAT preps are led by Mina, who takes us through questions and helps us to grasp complicated concepts. It’s two hours long, so we do one subject per hour and have assignments to take as homework or extra work. Additionally, it’s student oriented in that we present our problems in dealing with the assignments and she introduces students who understand it better to explain.

During the two hours of learning we take exercises and assignments to do. These freak me out and makes me feel like I will fail, but it helps to force myself while we are learning to understand the task and concepts guiding it. I also do some of those questions during my free time in class and it helps me to clear my mind.

This time, I now feel free and less nervous to approach questions because I have had a test of some questions and what they ask for. I am certain in October when I write I will be more accurate and vigorous to do it. To achieve this, I will continue practicing how to read work out and write the test within the allocated time by monitoring testing and engaging in group discussions to complete assignments.

I have learnt a lot from this practice, but one surprising thing was how easy it is to identify figurations, parts of speech and reference of passages by simply using word choice and opinions of the writer. I have improved in my English exceptionally. Exciting things like how to do graphical equations just by using a simple formula is a push in mathematics and how to do equations of a circle.

My advice to all the students who are going to take this exam that it will either stress you or make you better. Use them to your level best and everything will fall into place.

Vincent works on applications

Pestalozzi Grade 12s prepare for the SATs

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Jan 25, 2019
Nelly Takes SAT Subject Tests

By Nelly | Gap Year Student

Sep 27, 2018
Martin Reflects on His Gap Year Experience

By Martin | Gap Year Student

The transition from being a dependent person to one who has to entirely meet his own needs is tricky. This is so because as an adult or high school graduate, there are some needs that probably nobody else can provide for you apart from yourself. One such need is transportation to enable you to carry out your duties.

I am personally one of the luckiest persons to have been offered a job directly after high school, but the credit is not mine to take home. This is so because KF helped me get an internship with BookWorld Zambia. I was later given a contract as a full time employee. Since signing a contract, a lot has changed in my life in terms of different things, from how I spend or handle finances to communication skills on a personal level.

As an employee and Gap Year student, I have had to find a balance between work, university applications, and studies. That seemed difficult at first because work was tiring and extremely demanding, but I had to get my game back on. The travel to and from work was not just stressing but costly. At some point, I began to think I was working for transport.

To curb the problem of transport costs, I thought of buying a bike, as I knew I would spend so much on a bike, but once and for all. I didn’t just curb costs of travel, I also created a way for me to exercise and travel around town without delay.

I have used my bike to run around the city within time, as I time my pace and start off times. For example, when my mentor wanted to meet me, I used my bike to get to Kabulonga and still managed to attend my soccer practice at the Olympic Youth Development Centre (OYDC), on the opposite side of town.

Riding around Lusaka is somewhat a funny thing but worth trying. You have no traffic on a bike and no daily costs of forty kwacha for a one-direction trip. I have used my bike to even get to Pestalozzi, my former secondary school, twice for a tournament the school invited me for. The only sad thing is that I didn’t take part in it, because I was known by one of the officials of the tournament, as he faced me at one point.

If you want to do something big in life one day, start simple. Having a bike has enabled me to use that extra money for transport on some of my own long-term projects. At times, you may just come across some guy and you start cycling each other, which makes me even ten to twenty minutes earlier for work or my destination. I am careful, though, when I ride. I always wear a helmet to protect myself from head injuries.

The only problem I had at first was how people view owning a bicycle, but I am a kind of person who works to get to my goals, so I ignore people’s thoughts. The night rides are fun too; they make me happy.

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