Written by : Hannia Zia (A Levels Beaconhouse Defence Campus Lahore) exclusively for PakEnt.Net.

Ali Moeen Nawazish, a name that’s become famous all over Pakistan. Some people praise him, others curse him but

Ali Moeen Nawazish - Guy with 22-A's

everyone’s impressed. Currently studying in Cambridge University, this is the guy who attempted 23 A-level papers (and you had trouble handling 3? Shame on you!!) and got 22 straight A’s. If you’re hearing this for the first time, I’m sure your going, “Whoa. What was he thinking?”

Well, we got to find out what he was thinking. Ali came for an interactive session with the A-level students of Beaconhouse Defence Campus, Lahore on Dec 21, 2010. He started off trying to make us at ease by cracking some jokes and asking us what he wanted to speak about, since he didn’t want to bore us. Taking our suggestions, he wrote down the topics with tongue-in-cheek names like “Secret I’m not going to tell you” and “Bad Cambridge experience.” When he started talking, it was like listening to a friend. He knew exactly how to connect with teenagers but as he said “I’m not a teenager anymore, so I can bash you all I want now. Hahaha.”

Ali cleared up some misconception people had: No, he is not some 24year old “buda” who did A-levels in 6 years. He did A-levels in 2 years, just like the rest of us and is only 20.

Ali started off with our question about his timetable. After discussing a little with the audience, he told us his secret to success: he didn’t have a timetable but set targets instead. He would tell himself he had to finish some specific topics in a day, regardless of whether it took him 5 minutes or 3 hours. This way, he told us, we wouldn’t waste time. Plus, no one can follow timetables anyway.

So, what inspired Ali to do something people would call crazy? Well, he didn’t want to be just another person on earth who would be forgotten after a few generations. He explained to us how we are given a few decades to do what we want with life, and how it should be something productive. Sure, have fun, but remember that the time you get is like currency and wasting it means you’ll never get it back. So being a student, what is the most productive thing you can do? Study ofcourse!!
You might be surprised to know that this guy is not some natural-born genius nerd type person. He actually failed 5th grade, had “bure halaat” from grade 6 to 9, until he finally woke up and decided he wanted to be something. His biggest failure: He didn’t get into the university he wanted – Stanford, in the USA. But this led him to the success he is today. Because, and this may be hard to believe, no media person in Pakistan knew or cared he got 22 A’s at first. In fact, it was when he was in Cambridge in England did a small-time journalist discover him because of a friend. Then the Daily Mirror picked up his story, which was later read by the Director of Jang Group, who wrote the first article about him in Pakistan. If he had gone to Stanford, no one there knew what A-levels was and he would never have been discovered.

Then Ali moved on to address the three main issues the youth face: criticism, jealousy and failure. He really connected with the audience in an informal way. When a boy asked him about the London party scene, he just laughed and said it cost too much to go from Cambridge to London. The headboy tried to kick out the boy, Ali stopped him and said, “Kya hai, koi baat nae, aisey he chalta rehta hai.” He tried to get everyone to participate in the discussion, to the point where he said “Okay, not you! I want some back-benchers to talk” to a certain girl who kept speaking up. (Okay, that girl was me, don’t judge). He sympathized with and advised everyone who came to him after the session and even put up with taking pictures, which he doesn’t really like.

Ali’s future plans? Well, he is writing a book which we are all supposed to buy, or else. He’s planning on becoming a politician (vote for him!) but he didn’t tell us which political party he supports because he didn’t want to influence us to support a certain party. If that’s not diplomatic, I don’t know what is. We all expect a lot from this amazing guy, and BDC appreciated him coming.

Ali Moeen Nawazish In BDC

Hannia Zia