Tan Ruo Ming, who scored 7 A1s, travels every morning from JB to Pasir Ris Secondary for school.

WHILE other students were still in bed at 4.30am, Tan Ruo Ming was already up and getting ready for school.

The 17-year-old used to spend more than one hour travelling on public transport daily, from his home in Johor Baru to Tampines Street 21 in Singapore.

He did that five days a week, each time jostling with thousands of students and workers who braved traffic jams and the mad rush to cross the Causeway.

All that hassle proved to be worthwhile: Ruo Ming was yesterday named Pasir Ris Secondary School's top student in the O-level examinations, scoring seven A1s and one A2.

The trilingual student, who speaks English, Mandarin and Malay, even aced Chinese language - a subject he took up only in Secondary 1 when he started schooling in Singapore. He studied Malay throughout his primary-school years in Malaysia.

"Travelling to and fro every day was very tiring. Sometimes, it was pitch dark by the time I reached home," Ruo Ming told my paper. He was the vice-chairman of the school choir, and staying back for practices sometimes meant he could reach home only after 10pm.

That, however, did not faze him.

"I believe everything can be done, as long as you have the right mindset. I did not want to disappoint my parents and my principal, so I tried my best. I am very happy with my results," he said.

Ruo Ming nearly missed getting a place in a secondary school in Singapore, as he did not sit the Primary School Leaving Examination.

He was turned away by more than 10 schools when he first applied to study in Singapore. He managed to get a place at Pasir Ris Secondary and was "very grateful that my principal decided to take me in".

"I wanted to get good grades to prove that she was right to accept me into her school," said Ruo Ming, who is now a Singapore permanent resident.

He and his family moved to Singapore six months ago. His father works as a driver and his mother, as a storekeeper. His younger brother, 14, is also here and attends Pasir Ris Secondary, while his elder sister, 21, is doing a part-time degree in Malaysia.

Madam Audrey Yue, his former co-form teacher and the choir's teacher-in-charge, said Ruo Ming has "a fire within him that helps him overcome adversities".

She added that he stands out from his peers as someone with "a great sense of duty".

Describing him as someone who gets along with his peers and is a good role model, Mr Albert Neo, his other co-form teacher, said: "Ruo Ming is pleasant, mature and all of us can see that he is determined to succeed in things that he does."

Mr Neo, who also taught him mathematics, said he showed "a great inclination towards the sciences". Ruo Ming would like to study science at Victoria Junior College.

This year's overall top student is Chia Pei Yun from CHIJ St Nicholas Girls' School. She scored 10 A1s.

A total of 37,655 students took the exams last year and nearly all - 99.8 per cent - scored at least one O-level pass.

Those in the Normal (Academic) stream also did well. Of the 4,510 students who took one or more subjects in the O levels, 89.4 per cent obtained at least one O-level pass.