This school year, Raven Club celebrated its 15th birthday. By ‘celebrated’, we do not mean staging a show program, or purposefully encouraging a festive mood. For we, at Raven, do not celebrate birthdays themselves – rather, we celebrate any experience that has helped us get where we are now.
Such experiences are difficult to count: we cannot tell how many students we’ve taught, or how much time, money, and effort we’ve spent over the last 15 years. The one thing that we can tell for sure is that it was/is worth it. A short account of recent success stories proves this.
At the beginning of 2012, Bilyana Petkova, then an 11-grader, scored a maximum score of 800 on SAT II Chemistry. This gave a start to a series of successfully sat exams: SAT II Math Level 2 with a score of 790 (out of 800), SAT II Biology – 730 (out of 800), and SAT – 2140 (out of 2400). Her scores have ensured her success in applying to colleges and universities in Europe and the United States. She has already been accepted to the University of Exeter in Britain, which was named the Sunday Times University of the Year 2013, and to Drake University in USA. A lover of classical music and British history, Bilyana plans to pursue a career in medicine, specifically dental sciences.
Over the course of the last two years, Ivan Evtimov also took a number of exams. He sat TOEFL and SAT once, earning scores of 114 (out of 120) and 2230 (out of 2400), respectively. With two maximum scores of 800 on SAT II Math Level 2 and SAT II German, Ivan was offered admission to Jacobs University Bremen in Germany, and is waiting for more good news from top US colleges he has applied to.
Sezen Ismet is another student aiming for admission to a US or European university. She got 108 on the TOEFL, 2180 on the SAT, and 700 on SAT II Math Level 1. She would like to study accounting or business administration and management.
Feriha Ibriyamova shares similar interests – she would like to pursue her higher education in law, business, and economics. She is currently waiting for replies from top British and Dutch universities, such as Birmingham City University, Bristol University, Glasgow University, and Leiden University College The Hague. She has a TOEFL score of 102.
With his TOEFL score of 105, Petar Barzev applied to universities in Europe and has already been accepted to the University of Exeter. He has also successfully applied to the University of Sheffield, University of Birmingham, and University of Liverpool.
Radoslav Penkov also sat several exams over the last months. He scored 113 (out of 120) on the TOEFL, with a maximum score of 30 on the Reading section. He also had a score of 750 on SAT II Physics, and 790 on SAT II Math Level 2. His SAT super score is 2080. Radoslav plans to further his education in the United States.
Hristina Nenova sat TOEFL with a score of 110, and SAT II Math with a score of 690. After applying to British and American colleges, she was admitted to Birmingham City University and Boston University.
Desislava Ivanova got 106 on the TOEFL. She is currently waiting for replies from universities in Switzerland and Britain. She has applied to Swiss universities in Geneva and Lausanne, and to British universities such as the University of Sussex, the University of Warwick, University of St Andrews, the University of Nottingham, and Durham University. She wants to study general psychology in her freshman year, and then to specialize in one field of psychology.
Dimitar Stoyanov, another 12-grader, had 103 on the TOEFL and has applied to universities in Britain and the Netherlands. Stefan Totev, a TOEFL score of 104, is also waiting for admission letters from the UK.
Although they have not officially applied to universities yet, other students began their application a year earlier, sitting exams in 11th grade.
In December, Nikola Dyulgyarov sat the SAT and received a score of 2250 – an exceptional score, given that this was the first time he was sitting the exam, and that he sat it a year earlier than most students. Nikola started taking exams in 8th grade, when he got 111 on the TOEFL. This year, he took the TOEFL again and got 115. He plans to major in engineering and is currently preparing for his SAT II exams in Chemistry, Biology, and Physics.
Mirella Dankova also took the December SAT for the first time, earning a score of 2070, with a Writing score of 780 (out of 800). She sat the test again in January and her super score is 2180. She got 109 on the TOEFL. Like Nikola, she plans to sit SAT Subject Tests, but she would like to focus on humanities and social sciences and to major in these fields in a US university.
Elitsa Ivanova took the December SAT with a score of 2060. This year, she will sit the TOEFL and the SAT II Chemistry in order to apply to American or European universities. She wants to study biology or zoology.
These results demonstrate that Raven students are academically well-prepared to pursue their education in top universities in Europe and the US. However, there is something to our approach that we cannot demonstrate by citing test scores. Although we are said to live in a knowledge economy, modern universities assess students not only on their test results, but also on their personalities. For this reason, we have always made sure that students think of Raven Club as a community rather than a school, and in fact many of our former students later admit that English is not the most valuable thing they have acquired at Raven.
Indeed, teaching English is only a part of our job; more importantly, we challenge students so that they develop strong learning habits and a strong desire for knowledge. We motivate students to keep up with world news, to read classic books and watch insightful movies, so that they become not only top-scorers but also people worth talking to. By inspiring students to be inquisitive, we spark their curiosity – so that they ask questions, communicativeness – so that they share their interests freely, and competitiveness – so that they always strive for improvement. These skills are a key to success, especially in a world in which it is getting harder and harder to distinguish oneself.
So, on our 15th birthday, we do not celebrate our age, but our achievements – and further aspirations.
Mirella Dankova
