The Day Itself

Feb 11, 2006 10:07

First I'm going to explain the points system so that people can understand what I'm talking about. People take about 8 or 9 subjects usually in MGS. Six subjects are counted for our L1R5 - if we get a1s for six subjects that can be counted, including english, a humans, a maths, a science - then we're considered six-pointers. When we get an a1 in that subject, means we got 75 marks and above. A2 is 70 marks and above, b3 is 65 marks and above. If we don't get enough a1s that can be counted, we become sevenpointers, eightpointers, etc. The lower the points the better.

***

So we were dismissed from NJC at 10.50, but I stayed behind to practice for that weird Total Defence concert next Wednesday with some of the people in my class. I hope our song wins. :)

Then I left for chapel at MGS, it wasn't compulsory but I miss chapel. You know how worried you get when people start clinging on to your arm and saying, "Charmaine, I'm so scared so scared so scared"? Well the good thing about chapel is that it makes people stop doing that to you, and it was sort of peaceful. Like - okay, what's done is done and whatever you get, you won't die.

Anyway, before chapel we were loitering in the canteen and we saw our form teacher, Mrs Choo. Since the form teachers get to see our results in the morning, we were practically begging her to tell us if we failed anything. Mrs Choo said, "You'll be really happy." And made us promise to cook her something for Valentine's Day.

Then at 2 we traipsed off to the hall and took our seats. The current year's sec 4 students were in the gallery, and I distinctly saw some of those AVA people taking a video of us. HELLO, you don't just invade people's joy or sadness but taking a video of it like that.

***

Then Ms Kon, our principal, came in and started talking, for perhaps 15 minutes. She said the results were better than last year's and she sounded pleased. :) Last year's results were one of the worst, by the way.

They did that powerpoint slide thing. First they showed the results for individual subjects, and whenever we saw less than a hundred percent passed, we looked worried. Then they came to the topscorers.

First they showed those with ten a1s (meaning they took higher chinese, so counting in their chinese mark that they take the year before they take higher chinese). First was Joanna Tang, then Meiping. :) I was so happy and proud of them! Because they really worked for it, and usually they're so unnoticed.

So there were those with 9 a1s. First they showed those people in 4A1(the class) that got 9a1s, that was Grace and Fang Ni. 4A2 had Juliana, Magdalena and Louisa Lim the head prefect, so it was typically expected. And then there was 4A3, and Ms Kon read out the name and I was like :O. After what seemed like forever I realised I was supposed to stand up and I was the only person in the class and I was so dazed I didn't even stop clapping. Blah. :P

And when I sat down, Chunny was like, "I told you you'd do well, Alaris. :P" And I was on the verge of crying, except I didn't want to cry when the rest hadn't got their names listed as topscorers yet, and I was really worried for Chun's marks (don't tell her this). I thought it was some sort of cruel mistake. And because I take 9 subjects and not Higher Chinese, that meant I got an A1 for EVERYTHING. After that they listed the 8a1s - Cherlynn was there, and Tamara and Josephine and Joanna Tang and Fenny and Yuhan and Xin, I think, I'm not so sure about the facts, I was kind of disoriented. The 7a1s - of that I only remember Lynette.

Cherlynn said, "I told you you'd beat me someday," but she wasn't really sad, because she got b3 in Higher Chinese which is really good, and another b3 for Social Studies/Literature, which she didn't think she was any good at anyway.

***

Chun asked me to read her marks for her, because she was scared of them. So I did, she got 6 a1s exactly, all that she can count, so she's a sixpointer as well. :) I was practically dying for her inside when I took her results slip, because Chunny has much higher expectations than I ever had. I got my results slip and checked them and thought, "Xin was right after all." There was this time she said, "Charmaine will be the only one in the class to get all A1s," and I never believed her.

Deborah got typical marks but I think she's happy with them, she got 5 a1s and an amount of a2s and b3s, so she's a sevenpointer.

Later Cherlynn and Lynnie and I had to go to the boardroom to take pictures. :) And I got lots of chocolate because Chun got me Maltesers and Mrs Choo gave us BARS of dark chocolate. I was startled by how many people there came from my secondary one and two classes - it's like they had sectioned out who was to get good marks the moment we entered secondary school. It was sort of weird - for example, I was in the same primary 2 class as Lynette, and I never dreamed we'd be friends now, actually being THERE for being topscorers.

***

We went to King Albert Park to sit and talk and talk. Lynette was upset, because she was aiming for 10 a1s. I don't see how people can aim so high, but she was sort of quiet, and we tried to make her feel better. Deb told me that she thought I could get 9a1s, that it wasn't impossible, because I had that spark of brilliance about me. :P Well, she phrased it differently. She was like, you understand more easily. But I do put in effort - I stayed up until 2 countless nights trying to remember things. Whereas Deb just settled for going to sleep at 10 or something. Deb just doesn't extend herself enough sometimes - like she takes sleeping as 10 almost for granted. She studies, but she doesn't have that sense of urgency about it. I hope she's happy, anyway.

On the bus back home I saw one of my elder sister's friends who's in the second year of JC in NJ. So I told her jubilantly. :)

Plus it was raining on the way home and I shared my umbrella with this guy who was waiting at the traffic lights. Usually when people wait there they're walking into Dairy Farm, so. Anyway, I told the stranger about my O level results. :) *laughs* I don't think it was really worth the sharing of an umbrella to have to listen to me scream about them. Then he was like, " :O You're past Sec 4? You look like you're in Sec 1!" Thus reducing me to four years earlier. Alex in Maths class told me I looked like I was still in Sec 3. I seriously don't have a baby face or anything, I guess it's just me behaving childishly. >_< And the last person who shared my umbrella last year told me she thought I was in Sec 2.

Anyway, the poor boy who shared the umbrella had a weird accent. Apparently he was born in Canada and moved to Indonesia when he was a few months old, then to Malaysia and now to Singapore. How sad. :(

***

Then I had to tell all my NJ classmates and I sort of did the best out of all of them. Of course we had a lot of newly-imported scholars in our class, meaning they didn't take the O levels and didn't collect results. Jialiang called me a mugger :P and said I was trying to compete with Ritwik. And said Christine was going to Kill me on Monday. And Apurva was like, WOW!(add multiple exclamation marks) Congrats! Enjoy your weekend! And I told Amos we were brilliant and he said There's a big difference between 10pointer and 10A1s you know... xP. The RV guys all got 7 points, Jiesi and Grace got 6 points too (Jiesi got 7 a1s). Emile said, "Congrats you got straight As right? So bad never tell me... :P" Tammy called and told me to remain in NJ.

Michelle told me my name was in the chinese evening newspaper, because (as my mother says) Chinese newspapers are really gossipy and probably called up every school for names. There was something like 39 people out of the 40000+ people who got 9 A1s, I heard. But seriously, that's because the integrated programme schools (like RI and RGS) don't take the O levels anymore, so there's hardly enough competition.

I'm not really happy because I got better marks than them, but because somehow knowing that 9 A1s was difficult to get made it more appreciated. And when I thought of all the papers, and correcting them multiple times and studying every moment before the exams when Some people decided to take a nap instead, I was just so happy because I'd actually worked for it, every moment.

And then I thought of all the people who helped me, cliched as it may sound. There was my elder sister, who on one of the nights told me in a rather annoyed way, "Calm down! Just study as much as you can, or go to sleep." Which helped settle me from having a nervous breakdown. :P There's my younger sister who studied with me, when she was having her own tests. There's my little brother who was taking his PSLE and wished me good luck.

Then there's Ms Michelle Tan, my biology teacher - she really helped to connect things to get that a1. When I think of all the tests I failed in Physics and Chem and Bio and Maths and A Maths... There's Shyna, who gave Cherlynn and I that lesson in Social Studies while we were being quarantined for some lab or another(because she's brilliant at it), and helped me see how to answer questions the way people wanted instead of seeing it from a different viewpoint, which is one of my flaws.

There's my chinese tuition teacher! She taught me from the year I turned eleven. She recently broke her leg, by the way. :?

And my sraffies. :P You were like my destressing tool.

***

I don't know what to do now. I want to remain in NJ because I'll miss the people so much, and if I'm already not able to cope with my homework here (I'm the one who doesn't do tutorials and depends on not being called and copies off the board in every class), how am I to survive in places like Hwa Chong and Raffles? I thought RJ was out of consideration, as you need the bonus points from Higher Chinese to get there usually. But my mother says she "has connections", meaning she can get the last RI principal, who was her classmate, or some doctor who's head of the RJC board of management (my father's friend) or the RGS principal (my mother's friend's friend) to write a letter for me. She says it's not a backdoor method, because computers aren't smart and they wouldn't know I got a1s for everything. :P But still...

My mother says she has confidence in me, and that I shouldn't settle for less than the best. She says it's better to compete with people who have what it takes, than those who are of a more terrible standard. But she also says it's my own decision.

My father hasn't had much to say yet, because he's on a conference in China and will only be back on Sunday. But my mother says he wants me to choose what I want too.

Deb says I shouldn't settle for NJ with my results. Cherlynn still probably thinks I'd be happiest at ACJC, but my mother vetoed that option "No one goes to a worse JC when they get better results, Charmaine." Chun obviously wants me to join her at Hwa Chong.

I'm getting such a headache. I cried last night in stress because I could make the wrong decision so many ways. WHERE DO I WANT TO GO?

***

On a lighter note, my mother has told practically the whole world. I got home after my results and got a phone call asking for my mother. She'd gone out to fetch my younger brother and I told the person so, and she turned out to be my aunt who married the Indonesian-Chinese and gone to stay there as an expat. She said, "Congrats on your results," and I raised my eyebrows and asked, "Who has my mother been telling???" So my aunt asked me whether I wanted anything from Indonesia, as she's coming to visit in two weeks time. I couldn't think of anything so politely declined. :)

Then I stole my mother's handphone and checked the messages and for heaven's sake, she went and told all her friends around the neighbourhood and family friends I haven't seen in years.

Theodora Avian
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