CAIRO: The night preceding the announcement of the Thanaweya Amma results was marked by anxiety for some, and for others it was a night of unfulfilled promises. As many students tried the different websites and phone services that offered a preview of the results, some discovered these services weren't as efficient as the ads promised. Ahmed Adel, a student, thought that the Ministry of Education's website was the most efficient. On Tuesday morning, the results were out. Labeled as 'the nightmare,' Thanaweya Amma exams ended at the beginning of this month. Now, the students and their families can look at college options. Some are optimistic and others can't help but have regrets. Because I got 88 percent in my first year of Thanaweya Amma, I will not be able to apply for the college I want, said a flustered Alaa Rashid, student at El Horreya Language School. Alaa said that if it wasn t for the history exam, she would have been able to apply to the faculty of mass communication at Cairo University. Different students had problems with different subjects depending on their specialization. Third year secondary school results were excellent this year while the second year students faced some problems which affected their grades, said Azza Abd El Wahab, principal of the secondary section of El-Horreya Language School. The French exam which had never posed a serious problem was the hardest of them this year, she said. Other students, however, were celebrating their good grades. Amira Deif was one of them. But she was worried about the college admission process. Her friends shared the same concern. If we got 97 percent and 98 percent and we don t get into Cairo University then what else do they want from us? said Amira. Grade inflation has been plaguing high school results for about 10 years. As for the top students on the national level, most of them were girls. Heba Atef Abd El Rahman scored a full 410 out of 410, topping the science section. Amr El Sayed Abd Allah, top of the mathematics section, scored 409 and Nayera Mohammed Sabry, number one in social sciences, got a total of 408.5.
