SA literary prodigy achieves academic excellence with seven distinctions
AWARD-WINNING teen author and activist, Stacey Fru, now has her sights set on becoming an engineer, after claiming the top achiever spot in her school with seven distinctions in the 2024 matric exams.
Stacey, 17, achieved distinctions in English, Further Studies English, Mathematics, Further Studies Mathematics, Physical Sciences, Life Orientation and History.
So far she has been accepted at all the universities she applied to and has until today to make a decision.
At just seven years old, the Johannesburg-based literary prodigy was cast into the spotlight after writing her first book, Smelly Cats.
She had written the book on her own and became the youngest author to have her work officially approved as learning material for primary schools in South Africa.
In addition to her literary accomplishments, Stacey is a passionate child activist who has won numerous national and international awards.
“At first I was a little disappointed. Out of all the subjects I thought French would be the subject I got a distinction, nonetheless happy with all results. My marks from prelim to finals drastically improved. I think that the consistency and the determination I had throughout the year made this possible. I started developing a routine for studying early on in my high school career.”
Stacey said she started implementing studying techniques in grade 8 to 11, it was “trial and error” until she figured out what method worked for her.
“There is active recall, flash cards, to be a successful student you have to attempt all those and find what works for you. The way I study, I listen to music with lyrics, around finals I was into pop music. I also did a lot of past papers, refining what I know. I worked on papers from 2012. Factored in with pattern recognition, I could pick up the kinds of questions and the way they were being asked. I also had my own personalised study notes through high school. I kept all my notes and compiled files with the notes I wrote throughout high school.”
She said that matric was not easy.
“Matric is a lot, there is so much portfolio work, writing two to three tests every week, you can burn out by the end of term two. My favourite subject was AP English. It’s an additional subject, which introduces you to first year university Math or English, in my school I took it from grade 10.”
The workload was not the only challenge, her mother Victorine explained.
“She never really got recognition for her work from school, she never got the marks she deserved many times and she knew. When she would have to get marks deserved, in a few cases it would take us having to query the school for them to rectify the problem. She went through a lot.”
“We are very proud of her.”
Stacey added: “Throughout my high school career I did feel that I was getting pushback from school. It was quite discouraging. During matric, the school could no longer deny me.”
In prelims she received several awards, which surprised her.
“I never really expected to improve that drastically.”
While still an avid creative, she said she had developed a love for Mathematics.
“My plans are to attend university and study something very Maths and Physics related, I'm gearing towards engineering.”
Her advice to the matric class of 2025 was to take care of their physical and mental health when it comes to the result waiting period, as it could be an anxiety-filled time.
“Something no one warns matriculants about, is while you're waiting for your results it is very stressful. From Jan 2 we were all in limbo and didn't know what to do. You are just feeling so anxious unlike anything we felt before. For two weeks we were just stuck waiting, losing sleep and appetite.
“My advice to the 2025 matric class is time is going to be stressful, make sure to take care of your physical health.”
Cape Times