Read Lucille’s GED Success Story after being homeschooled from birth, using an eclectic, customised approach to home education. You can read the details of her ‘homeschool recipe for success‘ too!
At the end of Lucille’s grade 9 year, she decided to pursue the GED® as an alternative to a matric.
She already had a mail order business running that she had started at age 13, selling Afrikaans homeschool workbooks.
At age 16, she had also just started a new business, coaching gymnastics to a group of 4-8 year olds.
She started studying for the GED® early in 2015 and finished writing her tests in May that year, scoring in the 99th percentile for 3 of them! She earned her matric equivalent in 3 months!
Percentile rank of 99 means that 99 percent of graduating high school seniors earned the same score or lower.
Lucille was able to dedicate the rest of that year to a lot of training for gymnastics and she qualified to represent South Africa in double-mini trampoline at the international Region 5 gymnastics competition in December 2015. During this time she also studied for the SAT – the American college entrance tests.
The day before the leaving for the gym competition, Lucille wrote the SAT and qualified for a letter of foreign conditional exemption from Universities South Africa.
Meanwhile her gymnastics club grew from one to two classes and she got hired to coach gymnastics at her old club too. She also judged at various district and provincial competitions.
During this time she planned to travel and work overseas, so she put up her profile on an au pair website and within a short time she decided to take up the offer of a family living in Switzerland. A recognised high school diploma was one of the visa requirements, which her GED® credential satisfied.
She spent 2017 living in Switzerland and attended French classes at a language school. She toured Paris, France and Italy and other places of interest in Switzerland during the weeks when she had leave. She was accepted to study a degree at Stellenbosch, but decided rather to spend another year working in Europe, this time in Belgium.
She returned from Europe in 2019 and in 2020 she started her Bachelor of Business (Marketing) degree at Massey University in New Zealand. She was accepted with her GED® plus SAT combination. In her first semester she achieved straight A’s.
Final results first year 2020: 7 A’s and 1 B+
Lucille was the top student in her class, made the Dean’s List and was awarded the CJM Prize for Marketing, Communication and Advertising. In her final year, she was ranked in the top 5% of her class and received a Scholar Award certificate and a $300 prize!
In 2022, at the start of the final year of her degree, she approached one of New Zealand’s top-ranked marketing companies and they snapped her up and offered her a part-time position. In 2023, they hired her full-time at the salary she requested! She’s a go-getter!
