After securing nine distinctions and five national placements in last year’s Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate exams, the pressure was on 17-year-old Lisanne Hylton to pull off a repeat performance in 2016. She certainly did not disappoint. Tackling a curious mix of five subjects — biology, chemistry, pure mathematics, communication studies, and accounting — the youngster is once again sitting pretty atop an avalanche of straight 1s.

What’s more, she’s also celebrating regional placements for accounting (Unit 2) and biology (Unit 1), scoring the third and fifth highest grades in the Caribbean in each subject, respectively, and topping Jamaica in both.

“My mother was convinced that I would do very well but I didn’t fully share her enthusiasm,” explains Hylton. “I was confident about obtaining ones in accounting, biology and chemistry, but I was worried about communications studies as well as math, which was an abstract test and one of the harder papers. After a nervous wait, I’m proud of my results and happy about what I was able to achieve,” she reveals.

Hylton credits her academic success, as well as her subject choices, to her mom, Dr Karla Hylton, a former research scientist, university lecturer, current owner of Bio & Chem Tutoring, and Jamaica Observer columnist; and her dad, Charlton Hylton, founder of local accounting and audit firm CR Hylton & Company.

In addition to family support from both parents and her brother Mike, Lisanne believes time management was essential to her attaining excellent grades. Unlike most of her peers, she uses her evenings solely for unwinding: taking long walks outside and watching her favourite TV shows — Blacklist and Scandal. After enjoying a restful night’s sleep, Lisanne is up hitting the books by 4:30 am, diligently completing assignments and reviewing notes before heading off to school.

Through her mom’s private tutoring programme, Lisanne has learned to incorporate her time management skills as part of her test-taking strategies. At the beginning of an exam, she initially skims the entire paper, quickly allocating timelines for each section based on the number of marks awarded. If she is unsure about a particular question, she skips over it, making sure not to panic. Later, she returns to the problem, reasons it out and formulates a response.

“Even though my schedule is extremely busy, I’m still very strict with my time; I always take my walks and I never sacrifice sleep,” says Lisanne. “Whenever I’m feeling stressed, I take a step back from the work, whether I’m at home or school, and just try to relax. This approach has worked wonders for me and I would encourage every student to find some activity that makes them feel at ease,” she shares.