Sunway College A-level Students Triumph in British Biology Olympiad 2021

The British Biology Olympiad (BBO) competition is organised annually by United Kingdom Biology Challenge, a registered charity in England and Wales.

It serves as an advanced problem-solving competition for A-level students worldwide and an entry point for International Biology Olympiad.

The BBO challenges and stimulates students with an interest in biology to expand and extend their talents. It enables students to demonstrate their talent and to be suitably rewarded with publicly recognised certificates and medals. The BBO is not primarily a test of knowledge, it also covers topics which all students are unfamiliar with. Students will be tested to use their biological intuition, logic and imagination to answer the questions. They will be expected to apply basic principles which they are familiar with to new topics.

The international competition was introduced to A-level students of Sunway College KL by their biology lecturers. A group of A-level students was intrigued by the opportunity and decided to partake in this prestigious assessment. The competition consists of two, 45-minute multiple choice papers to be taken online under staff supervised exam conditions.

Within a month of preparation, the students equipped themselves with A-level biology syllabus along with knowledge gained from BBO past year questions. They sat for the invigilated online examination along with 8,476 students from 622 schools worldwide.

With passion and intelligence, 19-year-old Owen Woo Tsen Wen successfully earned himself the Gold Award, standing among the top 5% worldwide participants. This incredible feat has certainly make Sunway College and Malaysians proud by placing our country on the top global chart.

“Many of the questions tested in this competition were based on actual occurrences instead of solely theory-based, and as such has given me a broader view and a greater appreciation for the subject,” mentioned Owen as his greatest takeaway from the competition. Owen’s result came in no surprise as he also scored 100% in Paper 1 (MCQ) of the recent AS level Cambridge International Examination, proving his skills in any examination.

Awarded with Silver Award and being among the top 10% worldwide participants are Emily Chong Yin Sing, Jonathan Tan Lian Jun and Tan Xiang Hong. Aside from achieving an amazing result in this competition, 19-year-old Emily has also won 4th place among 4,000 participants in IMU Science Discovery Challenge 2020, displaying her interest and love towards the field of Science. She was delighted upon receiving the Silver Award and shared that it will definitely help with her university application process.

Jonathan and Xiang Hong shared similar thoughts on the examination process, stating that the questions were challenging as students are required to ideate and make deductions from their knowledge in biology instead of providing theoretical answers. They also mentioned that the time allocated for each question is limited and it was difficult to produce well-thought-out responses for every question.

The science enthusiast, Yen Hui Yi, was awarded with Bronze Award and stands among the top 10% worldwide participants. Similar to Owen, she also scored 100% in Paper 1 (MCQ) of the recent AS level Cambridge International Examination. “The most memorable moment is the tension and adrenaline rush when sitting for the exam,” said Hui Yi as she had to complete the online test under time pressure.

All award winners shared a consensus that Sunway College is one of the contributing factors of their successes with the guidance provided from dedicated lecturers, endless information database for learning and a conducive environment for education.