Every year thousands of learners in South Africa – including St Catherine’s –  write the English Olympiad. Now, you must be wondering what The English Olympiad is about, other than being about the English language. The English Olympiad is an open-book assessment where the participants get an anthology of different types of literature based on a specific theme and get to write an essay and a piece of creative writing. The theme this year was Victim or Victor? I wanted to write the English Olympiad because it’s a fun challenge to test my language skills and because I wanted to gain experience in writing such an interesting and admittedly challenging Olympiad. When I arrived at the classroom to write, the atmosphere ranged from a mixture of nerves and excitement. Some questions were tricky, but what worthwhile challenge isn’t? One of the things I really liked about this Olympiad was that, even if I don’t get the highest mark, I gained a lot of valuable knowledge. I got to read and know more about new and different authors, poets and their works and how it impacted the world. I also learned to appreciate different people’s opinions on different topics and how it affected my opinion. Victim or Victor? Learning how you can be a victor and a not victim was one of the most interesting lessons I learnt from this Olympiad.

Overall, participating in this Olympiad was fun, exciting and a great learning experience. One thing to remember about the English Olympiad is that don’t be victim —be a Victor. Most importantly, have fun.

Written by Eishal Muhammad