Finishing matric early: all in a day’s work

Matric is known to be a hard slog. You have one year to do your best and not a minute more. But can you imagine finishing matric in just seven months? This was what Cape Town Torah High (CTTH) student Yehuda Hecht achieved in 2021. And he didn’t do it for glory or extra chill time, but rather so that he could attend yeshiva.

“I set a goal to finish early so that I could go and join yeshiva at the start of the Jewish year,” Hecht says. “The CTTH system allows us to have more control over what we learn so we’re not stuck doing courses that we have no interest in. It also allows us to work at our own pace which is what let me graduate five months early.”

He set this goal before he started the year, and “the hardest part was doing a full year’s worth of work in seven months. Most of the time I didn’t feel under that much pressure because my parents and friends were helpful and the school was accommodating. But when it did get tough, I always found that leaving my work for an hour and going for a run or cycle on the promenade did wonders for productivity after I got back.”

His favourite subjects are psychology and physics, and he also enjoys cycling, hiking, and photography. He quips that besides finishing matric five months early, his biggest achievement was “managing to bluff my way through wearing civvies for a week!”

He’s still figuring out what he wants to do in the future, but the next step is to go to yeshiva hopefully in Israel or in the United States. He also hopes to go to university. Ultimately, “my hopes and dreams for my future are to have an enjoyable and meaningful life shared with good people”. If finishing matric early is any indication, he’s sure to achieve any goal.