On My Academic Story Thus Far

I swear, blogging while on a hiatus seems aphrodisiac at times. All the time. Sometimes. Hah, I'm going a little crazy and hyper right now, though I have no idea why.

Maybe it's because of the realisation that I have to memorise the quotes for Twelfth Night, for tomorrow's test? Which is a test that I want to score well in (i.e. an A1, nothing less) and if I don't, I'm going to cry and cry and cry. But pssh, I haven't cried for anything related to academics since Common Tests 1 of Sec 2. This might be an interesting story.

Ah, heck, time-killer this is. I'm typing it up.

My academic story thus far:

The Foundation Years: Indeed, I was very hardworking during those times, the main reason being that I have incentive for it - I was ranked within the top 3 of the level each year, with those seemingly prestigious titles of 'Best in _______' in my grasp as well. If it's unbelievable, I achieved a first in standard with bests in English, Chinese and Math during Primary 2.

I was happy, extremely so. I made best friends with Qiwen (yes, the same one from 4/3 right now! She lived directly above me, and it was really cool now that I think of it: If she jumped on the floor I could probably hear the thumps, heh. Add that to the fact that we've known each other since we were ... 4? Yup.) and basically we were just competing to be the first and second in class all years round, until she had to move to Woodlands. I waved her goodbye and forgot to take down with me her number and new address, and it was only until Primary 5 that I finally contacted her -- or rather, she contacted me, hah.

But anyway, back to the academic story: It all went downhill during Primary 5. I'm not proud to say, but the group of friends I was with was more interested in doing useless things like watching TV, buying magazines, gossiping and spreading awful rumours about everyone and anyone. It was like a miniature version of Mean Girls. We had a mental Burn Book, and anyone who 'offended' any of us were, well, to put it simply, put through hell. Even teachers, I may add. I'm not proud to say this, of course. I still do keep in contact with this group (Jacqueline in Anderson, Meiqi in Chong Boon, Shang Geok in KC Presbyterian and Clarinda in Cedar) and we've all matured quite splendidly through the years apart. :)

(I do stray from the given topic a lot.)

During the prelims of the Primary Six year, I - or rather, my mother - got the big shock as my aggregate was something like ... 230? Now that I look at it, I wouldn't mind getting that score just so I wouldn't have entered Nanhua. My mother forced me to study every single minute of the day in the last month leading to the PSLE, and it did reap results, I've gotta say, since I got the grand ole score of 253. Nothing commendable, but it was within range to enter RGS. I wish I had done so, pfft.

I chose River Valley High School as my first choice, and Nan Hua as my second. The rest of the choices were spread across the Jurong West area.

The Crapshoot Years: As I enrolled into Class 1/1 in Year 2002, I was filled with a myriad of feelings: No friends in this ancient-looking (campus one was looking like that ... ) school ('Eww the uniform's white,' I recall myself complaining) with a principal who spoke in Chinese ('Ah so sian!' another thought as I sat in the hall). From then on I knew I was in an exhibitionist school, judging from all the awards and accolades presented during the orientation slideshow.

Secondary One's academic results were still pretty okay, since at the end of the year I still was ranked somewhere near the top-middle.

Secondary Two was the biggest landslide ever. I got interested in many, many things, many of which I can't even remember. Results dropped drastically, and when Common Tests in March rolled by, my results read something like this: B3 (that was English), B4 (Literature), E8, D7, F9, F9, C6, B4. Well, something like that. And it isn't exaggerated, I'm not kidding. I cried for the entire day.

From that day onwards my interest in academia vanished into thin air.

This was evident in the mid-years and final year examinations, and even though I scrapped through promotion to Secondary 3 it just wasn't good enough - at least not even for consideration to take A. Math and Lit at the same time.

So where do I stand right now?

22 days away from the prelims, I stand here with the belief that I can overcome all odds to achieve fantastic results to go to my dream junior college - Hwa Chong Institution (all thanks to zixian!) As luck would have it, my dream junior college is now Anglo-Chinese JC, because of the Drama Elective Programme. -winks- In fact, on my other blog, I set down these targets:

Common Tests L1R5: 7
Prelims L1R5: 9
O Level’s L1R5: 8

Wish me all the best of luck? =D

(This doesn't quite conclude my academic progress though; it's just a really condensed version!)