hello hifi!
Well, perhaps the A level is not exactly the toughest or the most rigourous, but compared to what we've been going through in Secondary school and primary school, it IS considered rigourous.
Also, I speak from experience. As explained, my year was the "guinea" year, the first year to try out a completely REVAMPED syllabus. There was no C Maths or whatever maths, just H1, H2, H3, etc. We were FORCED to take one contrasting subject (if you were from science stream, it would be an arts subject, and vice versa).
It also did not help that the teachers were equally at a loss on how to teach sometimes.
I wasn't exactly "Spoon-fed". I had two teachers who knew nothing about teaching the subjects they were supposed to teach (Chem and History) and we ended up doing our own self-studying, even studying chapters that were not even taught earlier.
History was pretty much a subject we all studied by ourselves. Our teacher was a complete *****************. He came to class, talked rubbish for an hour, walked out. We did our own research, studying and revision papers, shamelessly asking another teacher to go thru them instead of our useless one.
Fine, the Big Three may be more happening. But exactly how easy is it to get into it? It is not as easy as one think it is. Even BCC students are finding it hard to get into FASS, and FASS was qutie well known as THE "dumping ground" once. And these are students who were from the Arts Stream.
Fair enough, the lifestyle and culture might be more vibrant there as there are a lot mroe activities going on, but I never really said anything about that.
The whole point of my post, is to explain to those that the Big Three are not the only options. However, many students are overly FIXATED on achieving results that can guarantee them that they get into the Big Three. I have asked many people what they wanted to do, where do they want to go after As.
I had a few of these replies:
Person: Get into SMu/NUS/NTU lor...
I: Really? Which course?
Person: Don't know. See first when I have to choose lor
They don't even know what they are working for or what they want to do. Their short-term goal is to get into uni, but for what? Because its ingrained into them that they "HAVE" to go?
But what is the point of going into the uni, unless you know what you want, which course you intend to do?
Okay, sidetracking. My bad.
My whole point is to say that, even though we may not get into the Big Three, there are many other options.
It all boils down to what you intend to do. That gives you a more substential goal to work towards.
Also, my target audience in mind was those who cannot get their choice courses because they were deemed as "unsuitable" by society and the university.
No, they may not be academically inclined.
But what I feel is that this should not be a barrier to achieving what they want.
If they want it badly, then they should really work towards it. Discover new ways, explore possible options. At the end of the day, if they know they want to do something, then they should work for it and not let mishaps stop them from doing so.
I don't want to see people giving up the dreams like this:
"Sigh. Cannot get into medicene. Aiya, just do Chem Engineering lor..."
you understand what I mean. If you really want something badly, go for it.
After O levels I knew I wanted to become a teacher, but it was not until end J1 that I knew I wanted to become a GP teacher.
Just knowing that I have to work hard to get into FASS gave me something to work for.
Just my two cents
