Selborne College IT genius Brett Tyler who came first overall in information technology in Buffalo City district for the 2025 matric NSC final exams, plans to make his programming dreams real when he starts electrical engineering at Stellenbosch University.
Tyler on Friday received an award from the district education department at headmaster Andrew Dewar’s office at the school’s premises accompanied by his brother, as well as his father, a well-known urologist, Dr Fred Tyler.
Tyler achieved an outstanding 97% in IT, contributing to the school’s remarkable 100% pass rate in the subject. The IT class of 2025 at Selborne, comprising of 19 pupils, has excelled with eight distinctions and three pupils achieving 90% or higher.
“I was really surprised. I didn’t expect such a high mark for IT, but I was glad my work paid off,” he said.
“I am proud to have made a good contribution to Selborne and I am glad that my IT teacher can be proud of my result and the high results of the other IT pupils.
“What I really enjoy about IT and programming is the limitless creation possibility you have.
“With just a computer, the internet and enough knowledge you can create almost anything you want such as an operating system to a simple calculator, nothing such as money or location can hold you back.”
Tyler said his passion for computers and coding was sparked his father’s friend, a software developer, who introduced him to programming.
“He helped me get started. I looked up to him so I was eager to try it out, though I didn’t go too far into it then.
“But this led to me choosing IT as a subject in school where I was able to consistently learn about programming even if I wasn’t doing it as a hobby. So, I was able to learn more about it and become slowly more interested.”
He said watching videos of programming and engineering projects on the internet “amazed” him: “due to how complex they were”.
“This led to me considering programming as a career, instead of just a subject, so I could be at the forefront of technology, designing complex systems. I found there is a lot of diversity when it comes to solving problems in programming.
“On the school level, it was similar to maths, where you were given a problem and there was an expected way the examiner wanted you to solve it; with the more difficult questions I would say it required a large amount of imagination, and visualising in your head how your code will work to give the correct solution.”
Tyler said when preparing for his final examination he would try to do as many past papers as he could, to get a lot of practice.
For the term four exams he went through 11 past papers.
“I try to time myself to do them in about 1 hour and 30 minutes, so I have time after to check answers. For theory, I did six past papers to get the feeling of how the exams are laid out and then read through the textbook we were given for matric and grade 11.
“I wrote down definitions in a book and aimed to memorise them although there were a lot of definitions so I wasn’t able to memorise everything perfectly, but I had a good understanding of the concepts.
“In the theory exam, I aimed at writing as much as I could for a question, so I had a high chance of getting a mark for it. I had more than 20 pages of answers for my theory exam.”
He said used technology to help him balance screen time for learning with rest and mental focus.
“I would use a website to time myself with 50 minutes study time and a 10-minute break. For my routine I would wake up at 6am every day and go to bed at 9.30pm. I’d start studying at around 7.15am to 7.30am and at 50 to 10 minute intervals until 6pm.
“I’d have two longer breaks where I’d make a coffee and have maybe a 15 minutes break instead of a 10 minutes one and I’d make two fried eggs on two slices of toast for lunch and eat that in a 15 minute break.
“For resting during a break I’d usually have around a two-hour YouTube video and just complete it in bits throughout the day.
“During prelims, I would stop studying around 9pm, but I found I could actually get more work done when I stopped at 6pm in finals. In finals I’d focus on doing five exams a day and I don’t think I could do that in prelims, even with a longer study time.
He said in finals, his total study time during the 50-minute intervals would come to around eight hours and having a timed study routine really helped him be efficient and thus avoiding mental fatigue.
He said was exited to take on electrical engineering at Stellenbosch University.
“I want a job that really challenges me and where I’m working at the forefront of technology. I really enjoy programming and can definitely see myself doing it more in the future, and IT helped me realise and had this passion for programming.”
He said should anyone be interested about programming, there are websites such as codewars (https://www.codewars.com), where people can learn the basics of a language, then they can try a view tutorials on creating something to learn from others code.
Dewar said: “We are extremely proud of Mr Ndlovu, our IT teacher, and the IT pupils of 2025. Their dedication and hard work have yielded exceptional results, reflecting the school’s commitment to academic excellence. This achievement is a testament to the school’s pursuit of excellence in all spheres of education,” Dewar said.
