An Elgin High School pupil came within a whisker of achieving a clean sweep of A*s.
As it is, he’s had to settle simply for being one of the most successful students in the country.
Euan Mackay was one of 140,000 teenagers across Scotland to learn their fate this morning through text message, or the old-fashioned dreaded envelope.
He received six A*s and one A. He brushed off ‘only’ getting an A in English, saying he was relieved to emerge from a “terrifying” period with what, by anyone’s measure, are outstanding grades.
Countdown clocks and the pressure of being Elgin High School Dux
As well as personal challenges, Euan had to deal with the added pressure of being the reigning S4 Dux (star pupil, in layman’s terms).
Up until he opened the fateful text message this morning, he said he fretted over whether the school had appointed the wrong person.
Indeed, such was his desperation to be put out of his misery that he’d set a countdown clock upon sitting his final exam.
Eighty-three days on, Euan had a couple of hours to come down from his results success before chatting to the P&J.
“It’s been a very nerve-wracking period. I mean it’s such an important thing, it’s hard to describe what I was feeling when I opened the envelope.
“I was excited to finally get them, but yeah, there’s been a lot of different emotions. You start thinking of the worst case scenario, and getting nervous about that.
“There was also the added pressure of being the S4 Dux.”
Euan continued: “I mean getting named Dux was awesome, but it definitely added pressure.
“I was thinking, ‘what if they’ve chosen the wrong person?’
‘Terrifying’ build-up, ‘joyous’ ending
“In all my prelims I got A’s, so I did expect to do well. But then when the build-up to the exams started, well, it was terrifying.
“My way of coping with that was when I went into each exam, I just told myself it was a paper like any other, like my prelims, like all the past papers I’d done.
“Now that it’s all worked out, I am proud of myself and all the hard work I’ve put in over the last few years. And happy that it’s paid off.
“The feeling was, well it was joyous.”
Past challenges and future plans
Euan’s outstanding results are even more impressive when set against some of the challenges he has faced in recent years.
He lost his best friend and nextdoor neighbour to suicide in October 2020, which he says left him shaken.
The healing process for Euan is ongoing. But with exam results most pupils would give their right arm for, he clearly found a way to retain focus at a crucial time in his school journey.
He sat a countdown clock on his watch to tick down the 83 days between the end of his final exam and results day.
While doing his best to enjoy the summer, he admitted that at times those 83 days felt like 83 weeks.
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“Whenever I was worried about my results, I tried to tell myself that I’ve done the exams now. I’ve done what I can and I can’t change anything.
“But seeing that countdown clock hit zero was nice, and even nicer when I learned my results.”
Euan is getting ready to start S5 at Elgin High School next week. And he already has his immediate future mapped out.
After getting “as many qualifications as I can” in his final two years of school, he aims to do an apprenticeship in engineering, with the end goal of becoming a mechanical engineer.
Conversation