Aftermath

Its already more than 2 weeks since STPM results released and soon SPM results come next. Around these time, education fairs and scholarships start popping out and students are busy with the procedures. As for me, opportunities are available. If plan A fail, there is always plan B. The only thing that has been irking me is; my inability to make a dynamic decision with my career. Hopefully I won't be fickle-minded.

There are times where I wonder, the insecurity faced by students who excel in STPM. Lets start with students who got cgpa 3.835(2A and 2A-), 3.833(3A and 1B) and 3.92 (3A and 1A-). These group of students are often neglected especially in their choices for competitive courses like medic, pharmacy and dentistry. Why is that? Let's look at University of Melbourne prospectus, if u were to obtain cgpa 3.8 and above, you will definitely get a place there (of course you need $$$ ;-) ). On the other hand, if you have cgpa 4.0 (4A), you are not guarantee to have a place in either Malaysia universities available. 90% of your entry requirement is contributed by your cgpa while 10% is contributed by koku. Who would have thought the 10% of koku could be so salient. Mind you University of Melbourne outrank Malaysia unis. I could not possibly fathom one logic which is; a better uni require a lower cgpa while a lesser uni require a higher cgpa.

As for koku, I would often look at the perspective what I learnt during math lessons. THE MICRO and MACRO PICTURE. Look at the micro picture 1st, the school is the one who is in charge of distributing the marks. If your school care for you, you will probably know how they will help you, if not, too bad. As for the macro picture, I would say that government policy are the reasons why koku mark has become either "helpful" or "hindrance" to students.

Some would claimed that without strong moral values, there is no point getting straight As. I would say that is not the worrying issue. The biggest threat to our current education system is its declining standard especially SPM. Have you ever compare the difficulty SPM in '70s, '90s and 2000s. Another issue that has hardly been addressed at national level is the gap between SPM and Singapore O-level. Our straight As seems pale in comparison with those straight As in Singapore. The constant declining of spm now could hardly be used as an indicator. Take me for eg, I constantly scored 95 and above in additional math during F5 but I got a low-blow during my upper six trial exam when I only scored 48 for pure math!!! If I had choose my additional math marks as my indicator and a difficult math-related course, I would probably heading towards a big trouble. At least getting 48 for pure math is an excellent gauge where I actually stand.

When I look through TIMES magazine, I was intrigued by the article, "5 Things America Should Learn From China". One of the concerning issue is China's accelerated growth in not only economy but education. The most concerning trend happening is China's top students apparently are really studying 24/7 and could not comprehend the meaning of "play" or "tv". To them its a routine to study. If the American think-tank are concern with this trend, how should we feel? One can only wonder the answer.