“Do Your Best”: Cape Town’s Liam Jacobs Shows His Matric Results To Motivate Learners for Exams

• A Cape Town politician showed off his matric certificate on his Facebook page
• The young man reminded matric learners that just getting to Grade 12 is already a big deal
• Facebook users had mixed feelings, with some saying the 30% pass rate won't help anyone get into university

A young politician from Cape Town posted a video on 23 October 2025 to encourage all the matric learners who are stressed about their final exams. In the video, he showed his old National Senior Certificate and shared the marks he got when he finished high school. He got two sevens, four sixes and one five, but he said that back then he felt like he'd messed up.

The video was captioned:

"My Message to the Matric Class of 2025. Go out there and make us proud. We believe in you and know you're gonna do GREAT!"

Liam didn't hold back about what high school was really like for him. He laughed about how he used reading time in exams to look for memes instead of actually going through the questions, just so he could share them afterwards and make everyone laugh about the trauma they'd just been through.

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But he went on to say that even though he felt bad about his results at the time because he didn't get all the distinctions he wanted, he ended up getting an honours degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Pretoria about 1,500 days later. So clearly those marks weren't the disaster he thought they were.

Liam didn't finish there. He had some solid advice for everyone writing exams right now. He told them that just making it to matric is already massive because only two out of every three kids who start Grade 1 actually make it to Grade 12. One drops out, then another drops out, and only one makes it through.

But he also said they can't just stop now. They didn't come this far to give up at the finish line. He told them to get their heads down, do the work, and actually study properly. He warned them not to be the person who's studying for the first time during the actual exam, and suddenly, there's stuff on the paper they've never even heard of before. He said they need to do it for themselves, their families who got them there, their friends, and their communities, because they're carrying everyone on their shoulders.

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He wrapped up his message on his Facebook page @liam.jacobs.716 by telling learners to make jokes about their exams because that's just what South Africans do. People laugh at trauma to make it less scary. He said if you laugh at your paper, it becomes less frightening, but if you don't laugh at it, your paper might end up laughing at you.

Mzansi reacts to Liam Jacob's message

Facebook users had mixed reactions to Jacobs' motivational message, with some agreeing and others pointing out harsh truths about the education system.

@arnoldvanwyk hoped the message would sink in, writing:

"I do hope that the One, Two, drop-out sink in to whoever is watching"

@iandeRu pointed out: "They only need 30% to pass, why stress?"

@lucindaabrahams responded to that comment, saying:

"Liam Jacobs. Yes, educate our future leaders that the 30% pass won't give them access to universities; they must please aim for 90% or higher in their exams to gain a guaranteed spot at universities."

@jodipetersen simply added:

"Inspiration 🔥💚"

@patrioticyouthalliance appreciated the message:

"👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 Thanks for the motivation, Pres."

@gwenjohnson said with confidence:

"Thank you, they will be successful."

Who is Liam Jacobs

According to Wikipedia, Liam Chad Jacobs was born on 3 March 2001 in Kimberley in the Northern Cape. He's a South African politician who was a Member of Parliament for the Democratic Alliance before moving to the Patriotic Alliance in June 2025. He was the leader of the Democratic Alliance Students Organisation from October 2022 until he left the DA.

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Watch the Facebook clip below:

More stories about SA students

• Briefly News recently reported on an emotional video showing matriculants doing their final school sign-out march that had Mzansi crying.
• In another story, a Grade 12 learner broke down her matric dance budget and South Africans couldn't believe how much she spent.
• Mzansi was also inspired by a man who went back to university at 34 years old and graduated with distinctions.

Source: Briefly News