part and parcel of our life - something we experience everyday
acting pro-active, not reactive
i think my one incident in which i count myself having acted pro-actively would be when i was diagnosed with hypothyroidism caused by autoimmunity in sec 4. it was towards my prelims exams and o-levels and my condition had affected me pretty badly then from end-Aug onwards (slowed metabolism, water retention, rashes, inability to concentrate and remember well etc.) - my academic performance was dropping but i wasn't on medication yet cos initially upon diagnosis the doctor said it was mild and i had a choice to go without medication as there was no need to.
anyway, i knew i couldn't take the load of revising my 9 subjects for my prelims, but i didn't want to give up cos i kept pushing myself that i could do much more. so i decided it was best for me to focus on revising only 5 subjects for prelims in the 1 week before the exams, since in the end it's only the L1R5 score that mattered. i chose 1 humanities subject (geog), the 3 sciences, and 1 math (emath). i'm glad i took this decision even though it meant failing amath (F9!) and social studies+hist (D7!), because i got a 7 for L1R5 which was more than i could have asked for.
then in the following month to the o-levels, i was even more lethargic but i pushed myself to practise amath questions and to up the grades of my worst subjects. turns out that even though this decision got me a lower L1R5 in the end as my english and physics dropped a grade, looking back, i would still think this was a good decision as i managed to up my amath scores to an A2 and to finally pass combined humanities. :)
being pro-active, to me, meant that i remained optimistic to make the best of my situation and to keep up hopes that perfection is still worth striving for; rather than throwing in the towel and groaning at my downfall without making any plans to get round it.
our education system
overall i do think our education system gives us ample opportunities to make our own decisions and from experience, learn how to make good decisions. from choosing your buddy in lower primary to choosing which school to transfer to after the gep selection test to choosing whether you want to take higher chinese to choosing which secondary school to go to and then choosing which subjects to take, which CCAs to join etcetc. i like that we're being given choices and information about the options available for us to make informed choices. sometimes, when the information given is not sufficient, i would then try to find out from others for advice or about their own experience or reasons for making their decision, rather than just plunging into something i am unsure of.
perhaps the only negative aspect of decision making in our education system comes from the rigidness and inflexibility, especially in terms of discouraging advice from teachers or parents that the choice you make isn't suitable for our capabilities (as in, they undermine what you can do). i really dislike that and i wish more opportunities will be allowed for students to stretch themselves and explore their limits rather than being restricted by some pre-set criteria by schools. e.g. in nj, there's this 'sapphire scholars' programme that only allows the students who reach a certain academic criteria to join even though this is not officially stated; i was indeed discouraged from applying for the programme.
a tough decision to make that i've made
it sure is an exciting adventure to be headed overseas to study. yet i've withdrawn my applications to 2 uk universities that i had a chance to head to. i still remember last thurs i still haven't gotten over my decision, i was still thinking about being in london on that day for my interview.
thinking about it, it was really a tough decision to make as i had to consider my 'wants' and my 'needs' and my 'capacities'. i WANT to study med in uk because of the exciting dissections they have for practicals and because of the opportunities to experience a new culture and something different from singapore's education system. however, i do not really NEED a uk med education since i would want to return back to serve singapore, and i can very well study med at a local university.
frankly, i applied to uk partly because i was afraid of not being able to study med locally. =\ for the 2 uk universities, the interviews are conducted in london and it means i've to fork out my own expenses to pay for the uk trip and my stay there for the interviews, which amounted to quite a lot of money. and carefully considering and calculating everything, family savings are only sufficient to fund me up to my 2nd or 3rd year there, and without a scholarship, i wouldn't want to burden my family so much just for my selfish desire. since it was partly to be a back-up plan, there was no point spending so much money for interviews especially when the spaces are not even guaranteed. so in a way, i was being limited by monetary capacities in making this decision. hence, after a few days of consideration, i withdrew these 2 applications, and am now satisfied with reading up about more options of other courses and about our local universities. :)
-Chin Yee
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