tango said:
<i>I have seen many people slacking for years in primary and
secondary schools and yet they score at their PSLE and O's. As for
the A level, slacking and scoring at the last moment is not that
common though. However, opinion base on this is mainly due to my
experience so it might not be brought to generally how "kiasuism"
is seen in our education system.</i>
There's some truth in that. But unfortunately you single out the
minority; only some people are able to score at
the last minute - if we all could do that, then life wouldn't be
called difficult! It's called exam smart; you score, but you
haven't really had a proper education due to weak foundations, poor
method of study etc. Because of that, you can do well for easier
levels like the O's, but the A's for example needs strong
foundations, time and motivation; plus the higher order skills if
you know what I mean. Also, some don't tell you they study, and
that's often the case, those aren't your true friends! I try to
really picture it as an imagined race; you have to focus, train,
practice, fine-tune, and gain experience. So that's the approach I
use.
You seem to forget that most students entering TJC are in fact from
neighbourhood schools like St. Joseph's Convent and St. Hilda's,
and they can do extremely well. For example, one of our top
students with '8 A-level distinctions last year, was from St
Hilda's.
You seem to draw a clear distinction between the top 5 JCs and say,
SRJC. You should note that there's a normal distribution curve
here, i.e. the top 5 are very kiasu; the next 3(SA, AC, Anderson)
are relatively kiasu; and so on. So if you sum everything up and
look at the majority, there's still some 40% of the annual cohort
dubbed as 'kiasus'. Alright putting it clearer, look at the
statistics, about 10% of post-secondary students enter the top 5
JCs, or so we're told. That places 1 in every 10 students into the
super-kiasu category, isn't that scary? It's definitely a more
nerdy student population than other countries!
If it was based on your personal opinion, are you / were you in VJ
or TJ?
Try not to judge solely on your individual experience, and take the
system itself and everyone into consideration; the good,bad n'
ugly! =)
