"Chris"

"Chris", aged 12, is currently undertaking the first year of a Bachelor of Computing on-campus course on a half-time basis, in conjunction with his Year 12, also half-time, at a public high school.

After six months of kindergarten (pre-school), Chris commenced Grade Prep at the age of 4. At 8, he was accelerated to Grade 5-6 after three terms of Grade 3.

Upon completing three terms of Year 8, he was further accelerated to undertake a radically-compacted Year 10 study program for the remaining 9 weeks of the academic year. This program also allowed Chris to work one day a fortnight with his mentor, a nuclear physicist at a university.

While doing one full year of Year 11 last year, he also completed Unit 3 and part of Unit 4 of Year 12 Info Tech to qualify for the Vocational Education and Training Schools Certificate III in Info Tech in the dual-recognition program.

What are your favourite subject(s), sports and hobbies?

My favourite subjects are those I do at university, which are Computer Technology and Computer Programming. As for Year 12, I really enjoy Legal Studies.

For sports, I attend Taekwando classes, which I really enjoy, twice a week.

My hobbies are collecting newspaper cuttings of things that interest me like genetics, new developments in Info Tech, earth science, planetary science, archaeology and mythology.

I love to read and enjoy playing computer adventure games. Now that I have my own computer, I can do programming work as recreation.

What do you think of school and school work?

I find school less interesting now because I'm doing uni at the same time. But, I still find Year 12 fun and challenging. Also, I have made more friends at school this year and I fit it better. I prefer uni work because I really like the challenge and extension I get from the two uni courses more.

What makes you happy at school?

When the Year 12 teachers take the time to explain things or give instructions more clearly. I feel happier when I'm given work that's challenging, not easy work, and which I have to think about and work out. At uni, I'm happiest when I can sit down and bury my nose in my work, without any distractions. I enjoy the tutorials. Tuesday is my favourite day of the week because I get to spend the whole day at uni.

How do you spend your after-school hours and weekends?

I mainly spend my after-school hours and weekends doing either Year 12 assignments or uni work. I have frequent breaks in between and I spend them reading, or watching some TV shows or videos, or doing programming work. I also get to surf the Net at least twice a week and chat with my mate on ICQ every Sunday morning. Friday after school is a strictly work-free evening for us and I can do whatever I want with my time.

I am good at ...

Speed-reading, understanding and learning programming work quickly, and also retaining most of what I've learned. I used to be very good at the pChriso. I'm quite good at playing computer games and programming.

I am happiest when ...

I can spend the whole day at uni or spend time on the computer to either surf the Net, do programming or play games, read and not have to do loads of school or uni work.

When I grow up, I want to be ...

Involved in computer technology, at the systems level (for instance, as a systems analyst or working in computer crimes detection). I'd really like to get into something that requires computer programming skills.

Recorded by Pheobe Fong-Smith - the name of the child has been changed to preserve anonymity.

 © NSWAGTC 2007

Jump to... Top | Children Index | Info Centre | NSWAGTC Home

Suggestions? | Like to Help? | Disclaimer | Webmaster | Site maintained for the NSWAGTC by Austega