Wednesday, October 14, 2009

It's Wednesday 14th October, 2009, 9.59pm. In just two days time, SAJC JC1 Finals results would be released, or rather our papers would be distributed back to us.


Ok to get you better prepared to see my uber-critical post on Friday, I'm going to let you guys know what is my "standard" that I've been using all along. Here it is:


80 rank points: Spiritual Entity
75 - 79 rank points: Amazing!
70 - 74 rank points: Decent
65 - 69 rank points: Acceptable
60 - 64 rank points: Pathetic
<60 rank points: Fucked


Now let me explain why this is important. If you ever achieved below 60 rank points, it means that your subject grade average would be lower than C, in other words D, which stands for dreadful. My raw score for CT is actually 63, in other words a downright pathetic score, but due to my Chinese which luckily got an A, it pulled me up to 66, making my CT results barely acceptable.


I think it is crucial for me to constantly remind myself of this gauge I'm using. It is not difficult to achieve the Spiritual Entity status, but I'm not saying it will be easy either. The point of choosing JC is to do well isn't it, so why not push yourself harder to get the good results?


I was discussing with some of my friends back in the afternoon. I have realised a pattern which can be seen in almost all the JCs. As I am from the Science faculty, I will not bother to talk about the Arts Faculty. What I'm going to be talking about is the general trend going on in every JC1 cohort within JCs, and it can be more commonly seen in the more average JCs out there.(My analysis is never going to work for RJC and HCJC)


Firstly: In every single JC1 cohort there will always be two distinct groups observed prior to the release of their Finals results.


Group 1: The students who constantly prayed that they would not get retained, or at least are able to sit for the LUT.(Level-up Test if I'm not wrong)

Group 2: The students who keep on dreading that they fall into the "Pathetic" level or below as stated above by my analysis.



It is important to note that if one is able to consolidate their JC1 work well in Year 1, he or she would be more able to concentrate on their Year 2 stuff. JC is a 2-year course, which you will go through and eventually sit for your A-levels, nothing else. For the students in group 2, it can be assumed that they take this note very seriously. They are more or less very anxious to know of their results as they want to see their academic progress over their first year. There is basically no time to waste at all. The group 1 students however may think that as long as they promote and mug harder in their Year 2, they would still be able to catch up with the workload and achieve decent results. Although opinions about this are often subjective, the rationale is that more time and effort must be channeled into revising your Year 1 work, which should be spent on consolidating more information as the syllabus draws to an end. It is not that I'm being a total asshole, but if someone chooses the JC path, wouldn't that someone had promised himself that he will do well for his A-levels and proceed to university with flying colours? If he was to get retained or transfer to a Poly, wouldn't he just waste away one year of his life? Even if he proceeds to do well in Poly after his wasted year in JC, he could have prevented the wasted year by making his choice over JC and Poly more carefully in the first place!


Let me share with you guys something before I moved on to the second point. I admit that my mum always wanted me to go to a Poly. She wanted me to study some Contemporary "Stuff" (LOL I forgot) and get a diploma. However I still chose the JC path. I also admit that after orientation in SAJC, during the subject talks, I was still more or less in my Sec 4 mood, ready to just scrape through everything, but after the subject talks, my mindset changed. This is because there is no way that one can just scrape through everything in their Year 1 and 2 and get straight 'A's in A-levels. It will only take a miracle for that to happen. Despite being lazy, I do make an effort to know what is currently going on for my 4H2s, which is not a difficult thing to do. Quote from Bao Bao: "Aiya, Anselm! Everyone has their own different style la, stop asking already!", it is indeed true. Ultimately we just want our good results in A-levels, I'm just saying.



Alright moving on to the second point: Scholars. Ok I admit that I don't have much knowledge of the difference between ASEAN scholars and MOE direct scholars, so I'm just going to refer to them as scholars.


Just a few hours back, I sort of complained to my mum about getting back my Finals results on Friday. As our class had already gone through the 4H2 papers in school, we more or less have an idea of what results to expect two days later. I'm almost already expecting that I am unable to achieve "Decent" results for my Finals. We then talked about scholars, and she said something quite insightful. She said,


"The reason why scholars do so well is because they worked very hard to get the chance to study overseas in the first place. Their primary motive here is to study and proceed on to university level. What's more their parents, knowing their intentions, are the ones who encouraged them all the way, paying for their school fees, allowance, travel fares etc. It becomes more of an obligation for them to constantly do well and it also serves as a personal satisfaction that they have done their parents proud."


in chinese of course.



OK, my point is that in most JCs, scholars can always be seen dominating the list of top performers of particular tests. I believe the above explanation clearly summarises why. Scholars generally have the discipline to monitor their academic performance closely and try their best to score to their maximum potential. Once again, the idea, or should I say the argument of personal brilliance comes into place. Maybe it is due to their inborn talent? Their photographic memory? Their kiasu-ness? The answer is no to a large extent. They may have the talent, but they know that self-discipline is very important in maintaining their momentum throughout their high school life. Their ability to absorb knowledge and compartmentalize concepts must also be trained regularly, or else they just wouldn't be achieving such amazing results constantly.


Once again, I know what you guys are thinking:

Scholars are human beings after all, why are you(Anselm) describing them as though they are robots?


Ok sorry for going all fullhouse on you guys, but by posting posts of such nature I hope to be able to slowly diminish my problem of laziness and start afresh in my Year 2.(If I get to promote) Well, that's basically all I have for you guys today.




Two more days to getting back the papers!



Alright seeya guys!
I posted at 9:55 PM