i thought this is supposed to be the term to relax before going full steam for A-levels….but it’s not. quite the opposite in fact. it’s just plain studies, studies and more studies. it’s boring. i dun enjoy it. sometimes i wonder why am i in school. well not to say i dun like anything academic at all. i like the other parts of academic like doing research, writing reports, giving presentations. these are more interesting stuff than books, tutorials, ten-year series aka past year questions, other schools’ prelims questions….wth? this is so insanely boring.

u noe, i used to think that studies in malaysia is bad because it is simply too exam oriented. when i got the letter offering me a place in singapore, i was happy coz i thought that i’m outta the exam oriented culture since i thought tat singapore being a more advanced country would have further developed its education system to make it less exam oriented tailor to fit it to the new challenges. but that is not the case and i came to realise it early last year. it’s in fact much more stressful and exam oriented than malaysia. it’s more demanding with more challenging questions. teachers push students for the sole purpose of excelling in the final biggie - the As. there are insanely many tests, quizzes, class assessments, common tests, mock tests, you name it, it’s all here. i despise tests. it’s not a good measure of one’s calibre. success in tests can never determine one’s success in the future. but here i am putting my whole future in one solitary exam at the end of the year. wth?!?!

i always thought that learning other important life skills such as the ability to write a good report, do a good presentation, delivering a good speech, even crafting out an interesting powerpoint slide are more important. i mean how many of you out there who dare to say that they are good in coming out wit an interesting powerpoint slides?

this is boring. but i dun have a choice. 5 more months and counting down. everyday is the same old routine. to school, practice and discuss several questions, go home, prepare questions for next day discussion….sleep and the cycle repeats itself.

there is just simply too much work to be done. it can never be completed. i mean of course i have the option of slacking off and not doing a single piece of all the homework given, but i cannot afford to. all the others are working insanely hard. they are all driven to excel in the As. and if i don’t follow suit i will just be the lame duck next year when we collect our results.

call it the ‘kiasu’ syndrom, i won’t object. but this is exactly what singapore has done to me. we are all ‘kiasus‘ here and we don’t want to lose. n we will use whatever method to achieve success even if it means working our asses off.

boring or what crap it may be, but i must be an asshole here to stay in line with the competition. scoring As has never been that hard for me. now it’s one of the toughest thing to do. passing itself is a gift. i guess i finally understand what my father meant when he said that how is it possible for students these days to score As so easily. he used to say that it was hard to even get an A during his time. the time of obtaining easy As during secondary school days are over. it’s now a slog to pass, what more to get an A…….