I’m not going to sit here condemning the Government’s decision to increase the retail price of oil in Malaysia. I’m actually half happy and half sad that the Government is doing this.

Half-Happy

The decision to increase the retail price of petroleum and diesel is a brave one. It’s going to be gravely unpopular with the public considering that rising cost of living was a major factor that led to the huge defeat by the ruling coalition.

From a macroeconomic point of view, I’m glad the decision was taken because Malaysia can never continue subsidising fuel. Malaysia is a net oil exporter. It will be a net oil importer in the next few years and its oil reserves is projected to diminish in the next 10 years. World oil prices have increased about 400 percent to roughly US$130 per barrel. The increasing world oil prices have seen the oil subsidies provided by the Malaysian government ballooned from RM19billion to a projected RM55billion this year.

Our whole economy is crippled by the Government’s inability to allocate valuable resources to more important investments for our country’s future growth. And the subsidies provided by the Government have only exemplified the subsidy mentality. Are we experiencing a mini resource curse where countries with natural resources experience slower economic growth?

Half-Sad

I’m actually pessimistic with this decision because the reduction of fuel subsidies will lead to inflation. And the problem with inflation in an economy like Malaysia is more serious as compared to Singapore. In Singapore, wages are continuing to rise due to the labour shortage and as long as the increases in wages are higher than the inflation level, there would not be much of a problem. But the problem with Malaysia is wages are not rising as fast as it ought to be.

This leads to a more serious fundamental problem plaguing our economy – our comparative advantage. We are still stuck in our 1980-90s mentality of attracting low value-added manufacturing FDI. We forget that we do not possess the comparative advantage in labour intensive industries anymore as countries like China and Vietnam open their doors to foreign investors.

This debate can go on for pages on where Malaysia has gone wrong, but I shall not spend time elaborating. There are many factors – corruption, transparency issues, education system, government efficiency etc

The bigger question that we should ask is what the government will do with the savings from the reduction in oil subsidies. In fact many will argue that the government is actually richer than ever before considering that Petronas and other commodities companies are posting record profits thereby contributing significantly more to the Government’s coffers through corporate taxes.

I’m sad at this because the bare fact is we do not know. The money might be used to fund important infrastructure projects or to improve our public transport, both of which will boost our country’s competitiveness and attractiveness as an investment location. Or the money can be wasted on some corruption-laden non-productive projects.

Where are we heading after this?

I was in Raffles Junior College this morning to attend a talk by a Harvard Admission Officer. Some Harvard Alumni member was also present there and together the both of them shared some rather interesting information about Harvard University.

I shall pick out the interesting part.

Harvard College admitted 1656 people last year. Around 27000 people applied to Harvard.

So your chances of entering Harvard = (1656 ÷ 27000) ≈ 0.061333 = 6.13%
Meaning for every 100 applications that Harvard receives, only around 6 people get admitted and the remaining 94 people are rejected.

Okay. That’s grim enough. But that’s not all. Ms Melanie also said international students (non-US citizens) make up around 10% of the intake.

So for international applicants like most of you and me, your chances of being admitted to Harvard = (0.061333 ÷ 10) = 0.0061333 ≈ 0.613%

And that means for every 100 international applicants, less than 1 gets admitted into Harvard.

Of course Harvard can’t admit every international student from the same country right? They need some diversity. The Harvard alumnus was kind to give some vital statistics. Every year around 5 Singaporeans, 4 Chinese, and 5-7 Indians are admitted into Harvard. From Malaysian newspaper report, I know that there is only 1 Malaysian from Kajang that got admitted into Harvard for this coming intake.

So for that sole Malaysian who got into Harvard, he defeated some rather steep odds against the other Malaysians.

His chances (and mine) of entering Harvard = (1 ÷ 27000) ≈ 0.000037037 = 0.0037%

Ok, to be fair, 3 Malaysians were admitted into Harvard the previous year. But the fact still remain, it’s still extremely hard to enter Harvard. Using this statistic of 3 Malaysians, my chances will be (0.0037 x 3) ≈ 0.0111%

There are 5 Singaporeans who got admission into Harvard, so your chances (if you are a Singaporean) of entering is roughly (0.0037 x 5) = 0.0185%

Let’s compare this to buying a 4 digit lottery in the corner gambling shop. Your chances of winning the first prize is [1 ÷ (10 x 10 x 10 x 10)] ≈ 0.0001 = 0.01%

So for me, the prospect of me gaining admission into Harvard is almost close to none. It’s like me buying a 4D number and hoping that I’ll win the first prize when the results are announced.

The Harvard alumnus also said that Singapore has a very disproportionate representation in Harvard. For a nation of around 4million people, the percentage of people being admitted for any single year is around (5 ÷ 4 000 000) ≈ 1.26 x 10-4%

As for China and India, the representation is only around (5 ÷ 1 000 000 000) ≈ 5 x 10-7%

So no wonder Harvard is so famous. It’s famous for rejecting so many people. And those that does gain admission into Harvard, they are rather set for life cause there are just simply too little people with a Harvard degree.

If the chances of me being admitted into Harvard are comparable to that of winning the first prize of a 4D lottery, then should I even consider applying? People say don’t waste your time and money buying the lottery. This is nearly the same thing. Now do you still want to try your luck entering Harvard?

I think I know why it’s hard for me to study….Coz it’s hard for me to concentrate on studying. My mind is always wandering off while I’m doing my reading and doing some practices….Argh damn it….What can I do to fix this problem? And also I hate spending hours everyday studying. So boring!

Anyway, the first week of holidays is official over. It’s now in the 2nd week. This means there is 3 more weeks to go - 3 more weeks of work and play; 3 more weeks to ensure I’m prepared for my Mid-Years.

But I’ve got a feeling this Mid-Year paper is gonna be a killer. I was reading the Straits Times today and there was an article on how Mid-Year and Prelims papers set by Singapore schools are extremely hard, harder than the actual level.

Screw it man….That’s the Singapore educations system. Always trying to distinguish the good from the exceptionally bright, thereby setting the bar higher and higher….

That’s another blog post altogether. I’m gonna write something about the Singapore education system and the stress level that it brings about. And also I’ve been inkling to write a post about quantifying the value of success and failure. Give me some time to pen down my thoughts. Hopefully I can come out with a nice write-up.

Nya Hai..Itu calculus banyak susah wor…..Benci.

How the hecK? 6 Bloody topics. Differentiation, Integration, Application of Differentiation, Application of Integration, Differential Equation, MacLaurin’s Series.

Idiot.

Pure Maths very hard. And haven’t even include Vectors yet.

Screwed up Maths…..Why so many bloody topics to study? Why can’t it be just Statistics?
Tak de mood belajar….

Haven’t even touched other subject yet. And I gotta memorise the whole Organic Chemistry part. Whole chunk of useless information.

Why do I study so much junk? What’s the use? Mangkuk…..

Ten weeks, 1 whole term from my last update. Not because I didn’t want to, but because I was simply too busy to spend time updating my blog. Sorry, I had a very busy, hectic schedule and time is very precious. I had to prioritise my work and blogging is always at the bottom of my list.

A brief summary of what I had been doing during term 2. I would love to call term 2 as the killer term, once it’s over it’s basically smooth sailing towards the end of the year.

This is what I have been doing for the term - Economic Symposium, Council Admin, Paradigma, etc.

Economics Symposium

I signed up to represent the college in the annual premier Economics competition for JC students. I was duly selected to represent the college in the team of 5. The title of our presentation is “Remaking Singapore: Discuss how the development and promotion of the creative industries (arts, design, media) help in the remaking of the Singapore economy”

It was hard work throughout the whole duration of the competition. First, it was preparing for the audition, then preparation for the preliminary round and then preparation for the finals. We did well by qualifying for the final round and then finishing 2nd. I was extremely disappointed at finishing only 2nd. We believed we did extremely well and deserved to win the competition as we didn’t believe the other finalists were that good as compared to us.

A brief outline of what we did during the course of the competition. We stayed back almost everyday doing research, crafting out a script and practising. I was glad the team is a really cooperative, commited and dedicated team. Shona, Leck Khai, Candice and Hui Li - you guys rock!

We stayed back almost everyday after school. Call us crazy or what but we really worked hard. You guys really taught me what is hard work. In the initial stage we would stay back till 10pm to complete our task before splitting the work so we can further work on it at night. The school officially locks up at 9pm, so we were chased out of college. But we decided that we were better off if we stayed outside the college gate to complete our work.

Once our main script was completed, our schedule was toned down to going back around 7-8 pm. This is DAILY schedule. We practised, rehearsed, prepared our slides for our competition. We were so committed that going home at 7-8pm actually felt early after getting used to getting chased out of school almost everyday by the guards who were preparing to lock up the college.

Whenever we can go home seeing broad daylight, we were extremely happy. For me, I would be extremely extremely happy if I can still see the sun when I reach hostel. And mind you, the journey back home from school to hostel in a good 45 minutes!

Students’ Council

Not only was I busy with Economics Symposium, I was also busy doing random Council work here and there. I’m the Secretary and every once in a while I would be busy doing some admin work which I wouldn’t even remember.

There was an Elects Camp during Term 2 and I was also involved in 2 adhocs at the same time - Council Elections and Paradigma.
In Elections, we had meetings to discuss how to run certain stuff.
In Paradigma, I’m involved in a Research Team to investigate the Rich-Poor gap in Singapore. It’s like doing Project Work again. In my team of 4, we had to do our due research on the project, before crafting out a report.

We are towards the end of the report phase and in term 3, I’ll be representing my team in doing a presentation to a big crowd in the college Auditorium.

SAT

It does not help that I have my SAT right in the middle of my busy term. It was never my intention to take it in term 2. I wanted to take it in January but all spaces were filled up when I wanted to sign up. So between all these stuff, I also had to study for my SAT, learning new words with the hope of doing well for the test to stand a better chance of landing admission into one of the top US universities.

The results had been released. I wouldn’t say I did extremely well, but neither would I say I screwed it up big time. It’s just an average score; slightly above average. Hopefully it’s good enough to land me admission to one of the Ivy League universities.

Studies

With all those co-curricular activities happening at the same time, my studies somehow took a back seat. It was not as urgent until there was a test. Lectures were completed with a super fast speed. It would take around 1 week or at most 2 before a chapter is completed and a new set of tutorial will be waiting on my study table.

My study table in the room is completely messed up for the whole weekday. Only during weekends will I clear it up. Sometimes only after 2 weeks or so. How do you find time when you leave for school at 6.30am and only reach home again at 10 or 11pm? I’m just so dead tired everyday that I can just bath and then sleep.

Luckily there were many public holidays and long weekends during term 2. The breather provided by the holidays is the only time I have to consolidate my studies and complete my tutorials. I’ll usually complete my tutorials ahead, normally 2 to 3 weeks’ worth and then not do a single tutorial for the next few weeks. That was my only way of surviving.

Alas, I still managed to find time to study during weekends whenever there is a test, be it class assessment, lecture test, common test etc. Although I didn’t do so well for one or two of the tests, I’m proud to say I did pretty well for the majority of the tests, scoring mostly Bs.

Holidays

It’s finally the mid-year holidays. I now have a 1-month break from schooling. I’m studying hard. I want to convert my Bs into As. I’m sick of getting Bs. I’m staying in Singapore till 7th June. Then I’ll come back home to KL for 11 days till 17th June. After the holidays, it’s stressful time back again in Singapore. Everyone in the hostel will be busy studying day and night for the mid-years. This exam is crazy coz it’s almost every topic in the syllabus for all subjects.

Well, I’m not staying in Singapore till 7th for no reason. I actually signed up for AJC’s internal selection to represent the college in the National Economics and Finance Management Quiz in Term 3. I just took the test and I surprisingly ended up 2nd highest. Now there are several training session for this quiz with the last session in NUS on the 6th.

So, that’s about all my life update from the last post up till this point.
I’m now looking forward to going back KL to catch up on a good breather.
Then again, it’s not really a holiday. I’m in this study mood. Everyone is.

Bryan, organise a class outing for me!!!! Haven’t seen you guys for a LOOOONGGG time. And mind you, this will be my last trip back home before my A-levels at the year-end. The next time I’m back I’ll have a good 7 to 8 months break from studies.