He had just taken the SAT from the US College Board, having spent 2.5 hours in the exam room alongside 10 teenagers.
Despite having had breakfast just before leaving home for the exam, he immediately reached for food and water that I had prepared to replenish his energy levels.
He appeared to be in good spirits, and he quite precisely said that the exam he just took was “10 per cent more difficult” than his recent practice tests.
Rewind six months, on the opposite side of the New Zealand capital city, Raymond, then in Year 4, was the first to enter the hall at Wellington High School to take on the national standard literacy and numeracy exams – the NCEA.
Holding my hand, Raymond walked past a crowd of waiting teenagers and calmly seated himself at a desk in the hall before the Year 11 and 12 students started pouring in.
It took me some time to get Raymond’s US College board account created. As a parent, I had to fill out and sign a consent form and send it to their ‘under 13 team’.
There were even more hurdles to be found when signing Raymond up to take on the NCEA exams.
Nearly a year ago I approached 30-40 secondary schools in the Wellington region, asking if they could act as Raymond’s Link School for the exams. In the end, only two agreed to take him on.
So why have Raymond take these exams?
Well, I started recognising Raymond’s giftedness when he was at a very young age. By the time he was in Year 2, he could tell you how many moons each planet has and the chemical components in their atmosphere, and he would occasionally ask questions like “what is a square root?” and so on.
At the age of seven, he was reading about social science such as capitalism vs. communism, the two world wars, etc.
Because of this, I wanted to give him something challenging to aim for and to help him reach his full academic potential.
Unlike in Australia, where there is NAPLAN testing school children’s literacy and numeracy from Year 3, there is nothing equivalent in New Zealand.
The first academic challenge our young learners face is the level 1 NCEA literacy and numeracy exams, typically taken at the age of 15 and 16.
Unfortunately, the pass rates for these have been declining nationally and are now at an alarming level, fuelling continuous debates in the media.
Some secondary schools even openly boycotted these exams, with principals claiming their students are simply not ready.
Many of my colleagues and friends have expressed dismay towards our current OECD ranking of literacy and numeracy, especially when compared to the rankings we once held as a country.
Our current government, elected in 2023, has been trying to introduce standard national tests for school students. However, this initiative has been met with more reservation or resistance from schools than support.
In preparation for his exams, Raymond and I went through all the NAPLAN questions we could find online.
We felt that our first ever real academic exams, which are designed for Year 11 and 12 students, are not too much harder than those in Year 9 NAPLAN tests.
Another notable characteristic of New Zealand’s national exams is the inclusion of Maori and Pacific culture.
As an example, the dimensions of manu tukutuku (a traditional Māori kite), fund raising for kapa haka by selling hāngī packs, preparing for Kai (food) for Matariki (Māori New Year) have all been featured in literacy and numeracy questions in recent NCEA exams.
This should come as no surprise, as many would say the founding principle of our country is a partnership between the Māori and Pākehā, and in education, we are simply returning to that.
Raymond attends weekend math classes with students from various colleges in the Wellington region where they do karakia (a Maori incantation or prayer) at the beginning and end of each class, a common practice at our high schools.
From my conversations with our education experts, New Zealand follows the philosophy of John Dewey, the American education psychologist and education reformer from early last century.
Dewey advocated for students to actively explore and discover their own knowledge and interests, rather than passively receiving information.
While having John Dewey’s philosophy in our education DNA may explain why we are more laid back in testing our young learners, nevertheless, to me, testing is still an integral part of foundational education, and it would simply be part of the “Plan, Do, Check and Act” cycle.
You wouldn’t let young people study the Road Code without giving them a learner’s test.
In addition, gifted children like Raymond require guidance to the path that suits their giftedness and additional development to achieve their full potential.
In November 2024, Raymond received his NCEA exams result, passing successfully. In late March this year, Raymond’s SAT score was released, and he achieved an 1140 out of the total 1600 (560 for reading and writing and 580 for maths, both exceeding university entrance benchmarks).
Raymond’s estimates of the actual testing being “10 per cent more difficult” was almost spot-on, as he scored 1240 on one of his latest practice tests.
At just 9 years and 8 months old, Raymond could well be one of the youngest individuals to take this international exam and receive a reasonable score.
Where to from here? Raymond will certainly keep navigating the New Zealand school system and strike a balance between his social and academic life.
I will continue to support him to meet challenges domestically and internationally. I have started exploring avenues of an early start to his tertiary education, while also encouraging him to develop his own interests and see where his passion takes him.
Currently aviation is his no.1 passion, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this changes over time, as his interests often do.
As a Radio New Zealand host jokingly said at the end of my recent interview: “Raymond Hsu, remember this name, we look forward to him running the country at some point” – who knows where his journey takes him, but he can be assured that his proud father will always be behind him.
