‘Just do it! Don’t make excuses’ – Leguan top CSEC student 

Sixteen-year-old Adriana Isabel Teekaram may have been a huge procrastinator when it came to studying for the Caribbean Secondary Examinations Councils (CSEC) exams, but she made the time nevertheless when everyone in her household went to bed.

This meant that she would only get a few hours’ sleep each night, but she didn’t mind, as long as she got the alone and quiet time that she absolutely needed to focus.

The La Bagatelle, Leguan Island girl attended Maryville Primary School and pressed on to Leguan Secondary where she copped 12 ‘Business’ subjects – nine Grade Ones, two Grade Twos and a Grade Three.

“I wasn’t really expecting it because I wasn’t the most diligent student with my studies, but it was a nice surprise,” she expressed in an interview with News Room on Tuesday.

“I am a huge procrastinator, but I study better when I am alone and the house is quiet. It’s quite a small house for six persons. After everyone went to sleep, I told myself, ‘It’s time to bathe, and right after you bathe, no phone or anything else, you have to study right away.’”

Adriana attended a lot of lessons and had to sacrifice time with her friends and her afternoons. “Every day I had lessons, sometimes multiple lessons on a day, running till into the nights like after 9 pm and even on the weekends.”

Looking back now, she wants every student to know the benefits that come from not procrastinating. “Just do it. Don’t give yourself any excuses. Just do it. As soon as you start, it just flows, and when you get into that rhythm, everything goes well. So don’t procrastinate.”

Ironically, Adriana wants to pursue Civil Engineering. Despite mastering the business subjects, she said her interest had always been in science, and with her brief work study stint at the Leguan Public Works Department, she’s more sure now that this is what she wants.