A sixth form student at St Benedict’s School, Ealing, has been awarded an Army Officer Scholarship to Sandhurst.
David Cuss, aged 17, has been a member of the school’s Combined Cadet Force for five years. The selection process for the Army Officer Scholarship lasted a year, beginning with an interview at Horseguards, and progressing to obstacle courses and command tasks to assess mental and physical agility.
David said: ‘The most challenging part of the course was the planning exercise (PLANEX) which involved having to read a long text, draw out the relative information and use it to come up with a solution to a figurative situation. The PLANEX had several different solutions; the task was working out what would work, assessing the different options and then picking the solution that best satisfied all the objectives. We then had to present our plans to the DS and answer questions.’
There were 250 applicants competing in the final rounds, and 41 received scholarships this year, a measure of David’s success.
David will attend university before his army career begins, and hopes to read War Studies at King’s College, London.
