Personal best: Former Dux mentors students towards academic success

Saint Ignatius’ College students keen to achieve their absolute best in Chemistry, Mathematics, and Physics enlisted the help of Old Ignatian Zac Anderson (Class of 2022) as they prepared for their final exams.

Shu Yi Ong and Kyle Santosh Olakkengil were two students tutored and mentored by Zac this year. They worked with the old scholar in their studies of Stage 2 Chemistry.

“I have found it really beneficial on all occasions because he is always open to helping his students in all sorts of ways, whether it's us bringing up a question or him giving us tactics,” said Shu Yi.

“Chemistry is one of my prerequisites for medicine and it is also one of my passions because I find chemicals and chemical equations really interesting.

“Currently all my grades have been quite good but what I am hoping for in the exam is an A+ to bring my grades up to a high solid A,” Shu Yi said.

As well as being grateful to Zac for his support in Chemistry, Kyle also credits the College for preparing him for success.

“It helped foster a love for learning and instilled values such as justice, gratitude and resilience,” said Kyle.

Zac, who finished as one of the two deuces of the Class of 2022, always knew he would fulfil his desire to give back to the College and is enjoying the opportunity to support his former peers.

“I just really loved the College environment and so I knew I would want to return after graduating, said Zac.

“The students are all lovely and they’re all very bright too.

“The most stressful thing about being a tutor is worrying that you haven’t explained something properly or that you’re not helping at all but it’s great when you have got students that really know what they’re doing because then you click with them, and you feel like you’re really making a difference.”

Zac received the Way College Prize for Chemistry from the Royal Australian Chemical Institute for SACE Stage 2 Chemistry in 2022. The award acknowledges the student/s who received the top score for Chemistry in South Australia. He believes that practice is key when it comes to exam performance.

“I think the best way to get practice in is to do past exam style questions and past tests and to just get familiarity with every aspect of the course that you could be quizzed on - just to get that familiarity until its like second nature to you,” said Zac.

Zac is currently studying computer science at University of Adelaide but is looking to add electrical engineering to his degree. He expressed gratitude for his Ignatian education, reflecting upon his experiences at school, now as a university student.

“Of course with subjects, we have amazing teachers and staff and I found those subjects definitely prepared me for uni work. But in terms of development of the whole person I think the pastoral care system really helped me develop a more rounded personality,” said Zac.

“I guess going to uni and meeting lots of other people who didn’t get the luxury of going to a school like this and having the experiences I have of doing such a wide range of subjects and cocurricular activities has helped me appreciate how lucky I got to go here.”