Degree in his hands at 18, now he eyes a master's

19-year-old has offers from two UK universities to do master's in finance

WHIZZ-KID: At 18, Rakesh became the youngest person here to pass the ACCA exams, a globally recognised qualification for accountants. nica id 5781267 -- CHEW SENG KIM

B. 'RAKESH' Sundarabalan is a teen in a hurry.

Last year, at age 18, he became the youngest person here to pass the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) exams, a globally recognised qualification for accountants.

He also bagged a degree in applied accounting from Britain's Oxford Brookes University before going on to ace Maths, Physics and Economics in his A levels.

The former Temasek Junior College (TJC) student even found time to captain the school cricket team.

The 19-year-old, known to his friends as Rakesh, moved here from India with his parents when he was seven. They returned to India in 1999.

He did his O levels in the Seychelles before coming back to Singapore with his parents the next year.

Instead of enrolling for an A-level course, he did a full-time advanced diploma in accounting at the Singapore Accountancy Academy (SAA).

After obtaining his diploma, he signed up for the ACCA programme, which gave him the option of pursuing a degree from Oxford Brookes at the same time.

He did not need A levels, but he applied for a place at TJC anyway.

'I did it out of interest. I like subjects like physics and maths,' he said.

Over the past two years, he had hardly any free time. On weekdays, he went to school at 7am, finished his classes by 4pm, then rushed to the SAA's Aljunied premises for classes that sometimes stretched till midnight.

His weekends were often taken up with cricket training at the National Stadium.

The longest holiday he had was the two weeks last June, he said, but even then he spent most of it studying for college exams.

'If you have free time, you might have a lot of choices and not know what to do with it. Because I had no time, all I could do was study,' he said.

The teenager, now interning at KPMG, one of the big four audit firms, could have put his ACCA exams on hold, but he considered them his priority.

The exams, which consisted of 14 papers on topics like business taxation and financial reporting, took him 11/2 years to finish.

It did have an impact on his college studies though, and he found himself scoring Cs and Ds for exams.

But having completed a degree and the ACCA last June, Rakesh went all out for the A-level exams.

'For me, everything was in the last five months. I was able to catch up as it was easier to remember things I just learnt,' he said.

Now, depending on whether he gets deferment for his national service, he is eyeing a master's degree in finance and already has offers from two British universities.

His father, Mr Somasundaram Balasundaram, 51, is a Singapore citizen and runs an import and export business. His mother Jayalakshmi helps with the business.

TJC principal Loke-Yeo Teck Yong said Rakesh could have slacked off after getting his degree, but continued his studies with 'focus and drive'.

'He has once again made his parents proud,' she said.