poly affair

Aiyo. I’m sneakily blogging again. Just needed to get this off…

I have yet to receive my enrollment package. Recently, there was an article in the newspapers, I can’t remember which one, about students with very good ‘o’ level grades applying for polys, and ‘snatching’ other student’s places despite the others not doing badly themselves. When I went to work, my colleague pointed out that I was guilty of the offence (we were engaged in a joking banter). Actually, I know many people (many of my friends who applied for poly), are like me. Haha. They also did very well for their ‘O’s, and have secured themselves places in their various courses in poly. Actually, there’s nothing wrong about applying for poly despite getting good grades. Most people deem that people who scored less than 20 points for l1r5 will or should apply for JC. But why? It’s not like JC is the ideal route. Sure, it’s the straight route to university but it does not mean poly students can’t go to university too. In fact it would be harder for poly students to go into university don’t you think? Top 10% gets to apply for university unlike JC, it depends very much on yourself, and you’re ‘A’ levels marker. And the thing is, I think people who go to JC are either people who are very good in academic studies, don’t really know what they want to do for the rest of their lives to earn a living yet, simply don’t want to make a such a tough decision in life yet, are just following what their parents want, or are just following the crowd.

But that’s my opinion la. So don’t flame me! BLEH.

Actually, I have no right to say all that too, cos I’m also uncertain of what I want to do. I don’t know if I’m doing the right thing, applying for htm. Hmmm. It’s gonna be really tough, with odd working hours. When my friends are free, I’m busy. When I’m free, they’re busy. It’s that bad. It’s about like now, currently. =S

Back to the topic. I really think there’s nothing wrong with people with lets say 8,9,10 points going to a poly. It’s a fair fight. Besides, poly may offer courses universities don’t have, hence the choice. And also, it’s more hands-on, it’s a different kind of stress from JCs. But for those who simply do not want to carry on a similar, more difficult and more stressful secondary school academic life, then why not poly? Lets call JC applicable pple JCA. I understand that everytime a JCA applies for poly and secures a place, there is one place less for people who are not JCA. It’s really subsets. But then again, it’s so difficult to get into JCs now too. People with 9 points raw score can’t even get in TJ. People with 13 points raw score cannot even get into MJ. People with 10 points raw score cannot even get into SA. People with 5 points, after deduction for everything may not even get into VJ. Worse of all, now RJ only accepts 2 pointers. What is the world turning into?!?!?

See, it’s so difficult. So if you can secure a place in a school, why not? That’s why poly becomes a popular alternative. In poly, everyone has a fair chance at getting a place in uni since it’s so different from secondary school life. To me, it’s kind of like pre-u, since the system about the GPA is alike uni.

So if people with lower l1r5/ l1r4 scores and entering polytechnics, how come the common perception of polytechnic students is “People who cannot make it to JC?”
Truthfully, I know many people still have this misconception that poly students “bu hui du shu” (cannot study) IT’S A LIE!!! It’s not fair to make such judgments. sometimes, it’s quite obvious if you watch people’s mannerism. Before I got my results and I was still deemed as a 19-pointer (ya, that’s what I got for prelims. For mid year, I did even worse, 29 points ok… I seem to have something with the number 9 haha)
When people ask (actually, everyone asks), “So how did you do? Where are you going?”, I would say, “I want to go poly.” And not dare to say my grade. But I’ll also say, “I can get into JC, but I don’t want to go there.” (HAHA! Make myself sound smart right? But it’s the truth. This is called speaking in riddles. TIP #1. Speak in riddles so either people don’t understand you or put yourself in the better light. But don’t lie.)

Continuing… Even when I say that, people will be like “Why?” At that time, I still couldn’t boast about anything with such pathetic results. So I prayed very hard I would do well for ‘O’s, to make my parents proud, so I feel a sense of achievement, to make God proud, and to prove that poly students can do well for poly too! (at that time, I had already made up my mind about going to poly.) I thought I would get 15 points, I told people I hope to get 13, secretly, I wanted to get 11 points, and instead I got 9!!!!!! WOOO HOOO!!!! GOD HEARD MY PRAYER. =) I was elated! Of course la, who wouldn’t be right? I thought Mr Wee gave me the wrong piece of paper. Haha. My mom and dad thought I counted wrongly. yup. That was how surprising it was. But what a pleasant surprise indeed. =) So again, another reason why people who score well choose poly, because they have never expected to score well in the first place! For a short time, I actually did consider JC after receiving my results. Even Momo considered it! But, eventually, we decided on following out initial plan, poly here we come. We had planned everything out, and to change a decision because of an unexpected event is simply too rash. There must have been a reason we considered poly in the first place right?

anyway, even so. when i tell people who ask me "where are you going?" *notice, they do not ask you how did u do, they ask u where you're going. they deem it as a direct question to how well you did. so when you say i'm going to poly, they'll think "Oh...." and they give you this, chey feel. BLAH. the nice ones who care will ask you about your course and encourage you. =)

ending my complaints here. i keeps saying i wanna write to the newspaper, but i never do simply cos i'm a bag of lazy bones. ciao.


and the transcripter goes home.