PORT ANTONIO, Portland — When 13-year-old Titchfield High School student Kahlaliah Moore jokingly asked her parents if they would buy her an iPhone 16 Pro Max if she passed CXC English A with the highest grade, they humoured the then first former but didn’t give it much thought. Now they have to hold up their end of the bargain because she got a grade one in the exam.

“Both of us owe her an iPhone, but [her father Everet] is really over the moon about her success,” the teenager’s mother Kayon Hutchinson-Moore told the Jamaica Observer.

“I knew that she was a very smart child, but I would not have imagined that she would have cracked a grade one, at first, despite the fact that I know that she does her work well. It’s something that I’m extremely overjoyed about, something that I share a lot with my friends, and it gives me even greater motivation to challenge her to keep on doing more,” the proud mom added.

Students typically take CXC exams in later years so many questioned if Kahlaliah was making a smart decision. The young girl admitted that she even wondered, at times, if she could really pull it off.

She has excelled in the past, winning awards while she attended Rock Hall Primary, a school in the deep-rural section of Portland Western. According to her mom, she has been at the top of her class since the first grade, she was a top student in the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) exams, and was awarded “all the top prizes in all the subject areas”.

It came as no surprise that among those who were convinced Kahlaliah could do English A in her first year at high school was her primary school teacher Renae Dell-Thompson, and Rock Hall’s Principal Ponceta Thompson. At Titchfield High she also had strong support from educator Tara-Lee Tracy.

“I did not tell my teacher at Titchfield that I was going to do the English, but she encouraged me to do it because of my performances in my work. When she gave us essays and just normal class when she was explaining topics I would always be eager to ask more questions, go in-depth and talk about the topic. She was like, I think you really should try doing CXC at grade seven or grade eight,” said Kahlaliah.

But the teenager was still cautious.

“I didn’t tell her I was going to try. I just wanted to do it and surprise everyone. I didn’t tell most of them that I was doing it. Even though I was pretty confident in myself and in my writing and expression, I was still concerned. What if I don’t get the grade one? What if I get a grade two? I won’t be as proud,” she explained.

She was also worried about her tendency to slack off on the studying at times, but she also saw getting a grade one in English A while in first form as something she had to do.

“That’s something that really motivated me, because I love taking on challenges. I love to prove my point,” Kahlaliah told the Observer.

The teen, who writes poems in her leisure time, wants to be a lawyer.

“I like to prove why I’m right, or why the matter is wrong, and I love to talk, to defend myself. I really enjoy talking, I really enjoy talking a lot, so I think that career would fit me,” she pointed out.

For now, she is mulling the idea of doing CXC exams in other subjects soon: social studies, principles of business and maybe English literature.

She will wait a bit before tackling mathematics.

“I have not always been the best in mathematics, but I have done well. I would say I really improved in maths, because my maths average is now at 96 per cent, and when I just started high school, my maths wasn’t so good at all. I was passing, but not passing high. With the help of my teacher, I was a top math student in my seventh grade class and the seventh grade block,” she said.

Kahlaliah’s success has also been an inspiration for her younger brother who tries to better her accomplishments. Helping him with his schoolwork also helps her with her studying

“Sometimes he says, ‘Kahlaliah, you got English in grade seven, I want to do English and maths, so I can be like you’…Sometimes when I’m studying, I try to teach him what I’m studying, and it helps me to learn better,” she remarked.

The overjoyed teenager’s mother, who is a guidance counsellor, told the Observer why her success means so much to the entire family, especially her father.

“Her dad is just as excited, and he is extremely proud. Her dad had to drop out of primary school at quite an early age. It has been his goal for his children to be as educated as possible; he pushes them to become very academically inclined. He is over the moon for something like this. He shares the joy with his friends,” said Hutchinson-Moore.

Titchfield High School student Kahlaliah Moore.

Kahlaliah Moore with her prizes at Rock Hall Primary School graduation day.