Assignment 3: Decision Analysis (Nafisah)

1) Give an instance of when you or have friend have acted in a pro-active instead of reactive way?
- My understanding of being pro-active and not reactive in layman’s terms is that you do something to change or improve your situation instead of merely complaining and focusing on what you can’t change. A very vivid situation whereby I feel I acted pro-actively instead of reactively was when I chose to join the students’ council in junior college.

Most people would assume that since I was in the prefectorial board, then I would definitely want to join the students’ council. However, I had something else in mind. I wanted to do something different, step back a little. So I told myself, I wouldn’t join a council, instead why not something like the choir or hockey or even touch rugby?

I intended to go to where almost everyone else in my school had intended to go, RJC. But my grades wouldn’t get me there so in the end, I was in AJC. I’ve heard of rumours of it being a mugger school and honestly when I stepped into the school, I wasn’t very happy. I found fault with everything (that was my initial reactive reaction). I felt the school looked old and in ruins, I hate the fact that I didn’t know anyone and I hate how orientation was held and run. This was all due to my incapability to stop comparing to what it was like back in my secondary school days – which I definitely enjoyed.

I had such a negative attitude that I totally did not enjoy myself at all. But then I was thinking, I couldn’t just let these two years slip away. So I joined the students’ council because I thought, at least I could be involved in the organizing of events,-that way, I can’t complain about it being BAD because I had the ability to voice out my opinions-and get myself involved in making the school a better learning place for myself.2) Do you think our educational system teaches student to make good decisions? Would like your views on this (2-3 para)
Good decisions do not necessarily reap successful outcomes but to me, they are decisions that have considered other alternatives and reviewed by a few people, particularly one’s parents, tutor and so on. However in the end, a good decision renders one’s good judgment mainly based on the amount of knowledge he has and the amount of experience he has. This is so that he/she could predict a possible outcome and consider possible barriers to achieving their outcome through their decision.

On the knowledge side, I think Singapore’s education system has been really effective in entrenching the basic skills and knowledge. Compulsory education and the rigorous tests in primary school is really good drilling. For example if they decide to work in a particular sector, they have the vast knowledge of what the sector is about, its benefits and so on.

However the education system is not as effective in that of exposing the students to different scenarios, so our perspective is really narrow. Take for example the types of subjects we are allowed to take. There is not a wide range of courses we an take and there’s no such thing as courses/modules. It’s more like if you wanna study calculus, you have to take algebra, etc. which equates to maths. If you want to know more about plants, there is no such thing as herbology, you just take chemistry. At the tertiary level, there is also no compulsory art modules for science combinations and vice versa. With limited choices, at the later level, some may be too naïve to make a good choice in the early stages and there is no alternative ways at the later stage for them to change their minds.

But the all encompassing factor is possibly the fact that the system does not encourage students to voice their opinions. Without this ability, they do not know how to express what they want or what they belief in. This may also be exacerbated by the attitude of the society. From my experience in a global conference I went last year, something distinguished the Singaporean participants from the other participants, especially those from America.
1) They are definitely not afraid to ask questions, even if it may be silly or considered stupid for us Singaporeans. And the best thing is, the tutors bothered to answer! In Singapore, students are not keen on asking because this may result in making them look “stupid”. Some may even think they are trying to “act smart” The problem is society is too quick to pass a judgement on someone rather than take it as a learning experience. This may be due to the society having the need to feel that they are smarter than others (considering Singapore is an academically competitive country among other sectors). When we are afraid to ask, we can’t learn from other people’s mistakes or get advice from those that are more experienced and knowledgeable than us in the particular aspect. Thus, the decision made would not have considered the views of others and taken into account the outcomes of those who have made a similar decision before.

2) They are definitely more willing to express their opinions. This would involve them going through the process of thinking of their stand, the reasons for their stand, the evidence to support them and making a conclusion or a judgement, which is very important in making a good decision. Without this practice in school (because we prefer to measure our self worth with tests and merely by certificates only), in the future, it is not easy for us to go through this process. We might actually be swayed to conform with the society instead of accessing what we need and want for ourselves.

3) They have modules related to their daily life. While we wait until university or during spare time to read about philosophy or political science or get our hands into studying the aesthetics such as art, (especially the science students) most schools in America have it during the secondary school level. Projects are also aplenty as I heard from friends studying there which exposes students to communicating with people and having the initiative to find out more about something on their own. This would give us the ability to know more about people and may help in decisions relating to relationships-which is a daily affair- and having the initiative to learn by ourselves would enable us to know more than just what is taught. Thus we would not just blame the system for our bad decisions. Instead, try to get the best decision out of what is left.3) Choose a real-life example of a difficult decision you are in the midst of making a decision for?

I think it is obvious everyone is going to start writing along the lines of higher education. The most difficult decision right now is whether I should just get into any course in Singapore if I do not get the course that I want or go overseas, possibly next year (because most of the applications would probably have closed by now).

The possibility of me getting into my preferred course, which is medicine, is really slim and my back-up courses are not really back-up in the sense that they are bio related and I did not take biology at O and A level. At the time of streaming, I could only take 8 subjects and I thought it was safer to take two science subjects than one humanities as if I fail my humanities subject, the grade will still be counted even if my other subjects are fantastic. Furthermore, they announced that Biology is not needed for entrance to the medicine course in NUS and we can take Biology at A level even without it at O level. Unfortunately, my school did not allow for such cases and so this is where I am now.

It is hard for me to apply overseas too because I am not equipped for their entrance tests (BMAT and another one) which includes biology. Furthermore, unless I do extremely well, it is hard to get a scholarship and I could not afford an overseas education which is not sponsored.

But the biggest dilemma is that if I wait for the next year and decline the course I have in Singapore, what happens if I do not get accepted into any overseas universities? That would spell trouble and wasted time because I would have nothing, no place in local OR overseas universities.

So basically that’s my soap story at the moment. (:

~Naf