I promised to write something about surviving A’level..right? Here it goes!
Bear in mind, I think this post is gonna be so boring but thanks for stopping by anyway bye! *waves*
But for those of you who decided to stay…
I’m not gonna write about surviving O’level because well, the process wasn’t as challenging as doing A’level (Even though I did 9 subjects for O’level & only 3 subjects for A’level, most people in this country experience the same thing). For O’level I only managed to get 6A’s and 3B’s, I was a bit sad that I couldn’t get a single A* but it didn’t stop there, I knew I had one more chance & it was to do A’level. Doing A’level was my only plan after doing O’s, I mean, I never really planned to do foundation or something else after that. It was kinda already planned for me since I was a fetus.
For O’level I did 2 Maths, 3 Sciences, Languages, Islamic Religious Knowledge & Principles of Account. That time I’d already decided the 2 subjects I wanted to do for A’level, they were Maths&Physics, because I hated the rest of them. A month before registration for A’level, I was told to decide for my 3rd subject. Initially I wanted Further Maths because, again, I hated the other subjects but no one was allowed to take F.Maths as the 3rd subject, it had to be the 4th. So in the end I had to pick my least hated subject and it was Chemistry. I didn’t get to do F.Maths btw because, one thing, I only wanted to do 3 subjects.
Out of all 3 subjects, Maths was the easiest and Chem was the hardest (duh) but I worked hard equally for all 3 of them.
Maths was easy for me probably because I did Additional Mathematics for O’level and also, I had an awesome teacher. He was so hilarious, he made me excited to go to Maths class everyday. He shared a lot of his amazing stories. He loved to annoy us but probably because we annoyed him first. Whenever a question couldn’t be solved, he’d go,
“Students, if your working is too long, it’s clearly screaming TO-LONG! TO-LONG!”
(HELP! HELP!, get it? so lame I know but that didn’t stop me from laughing)
and whenever he saw someone being lazy or tired, he’d go,
” Tired? Okay, take off your tudong, wave the white flag & say ‘I surrender’“
He was quite savage at times too like this one time there was this stubborn guy in our class who stapled his test papers on the right side and my teacher kept on telling him to staple them together on the left side, this went on for a while and it stopped when the guy received his test paper one day and he found out that my teacher had stapled all four sides of his paper (He couldn’t even see his marks hahahaha).
He was undoubtedly a really fun teacher, there was always something to laugh about every day but sadly, he had to leave 3 months before my exams because well, he’s already 60+ years old. He could’ve stopped earlier but he really enjoyed teaching & that’s why he didn’t. I gave him a mug that has “Laugh” written all over it as a farewell gift. Before he left we asked him what was he gonna do now that he’s free from teaching and his response was,
” Oh no, I am not gonna stop teaching, I’m gonna teach wherever&whenever I can” (something along the line)
His passion for teaching is clearly an inspiration to us all.
He never really stopped keeping in contact, every once in while he’d send us his greetings from Darjeeling,India. He wished me happy new year while I was in South Korea & reminded me to keep myself warm because the temperature was too low that time & was similar to his country and he also sent his greetings for Chinese New Year for the ones celebrating. I really hope to see him one day to thank him for being my teacher and for making my A’level experience not as dull as I thought it would be.
For Chemistry, it was my least favourite (it wasn’t even a favourite) subject so it was harder for me to do it compared to the other 2 subjects. Chem O’level was hard and omg I can’t even describe how hard Chem A’level was. It was horrible. Period.
But then again, I had an awesome teacher. Even though he was much much younger than my Maths teacher and had only a few years of experience, I can’t really compare their skills because both were good. The only difference is that my Chem teacher wasn’t as playful as my Maths teacher (or as savage). I would ask him A LOT of questions after class and he never showed any discouraging sign, he was so eager to explain every single thing. In class, he would explain in detail and with simple words. Whenever we gave him our puzzled faces he would re-explain everything without a slight frown.
There were ups and downs obviously because, again, Chemistry is not an easy subject, not everyone can easily grasp the concept and not everyone cares about achieving high grades and lastly, not everyone has the motivation to drive him/herself to do well. Remember, even the nicest person’s patience has a limit. A few weeks before AS Chemistry we did lots of past year papers and he spent his time explaining every single question in the MCQ section! His hard work made me realise how I shouldn’t give up and how I should give him the best grade I could.
Physics, I loved this subject and I loved my teacher. She was the cutest and bubbliest teacher ever and she was never angry or displeased throughout the 2 years she was with us. As for the subject, it wasn’t extremely easy because I needed as much help as I did for Chemistry but it was definitely easier to understand. I enjoyed the class because of how lively my teacher and the classroom were. My teacher was so nice that she gave us angpao each during Chinese New Year hehehe, she even gave us chocolates (Toblerone heheh) for winning the small group ‘project’ and one time, she ordered lots of pizzas and pastas so I asked her what was the occasion and she said “nothing” with a huge smile plastered across her face. How amazing is she????
Okay for the subject, I did the same thing as the other two; ask questions. Again, this teacher was so patient with me, I would send her pictures of questions from the past year papers that I couldn’t do (through Whatsapp) and she would respond to every single question, sometimes with a super long paragraph. She made me appreciate her more for that. She inspired me when she told me that she went to Imperial College London to do her degree in Physics but when I told her I wanted to go there too she told me it’s best not to (but that’s not the main reason why I didn’t get to apply there).
Besides my teachers, I spent my time studying endlessly not just 3-5 times a week but every day (okay, maybe not everyday) mainly because I refused to go for tuition. I went to look at my old planner recently and I realized that I studied 10 months prior to my exam, mahn..I really wanted those grades huh. There was no shortcut to do this, I kept on telling myself repeatedly that “It’s just 19 months” “I only have to suffer now” “I’m not gonna regret it” and here I am sitting down, typing on my laptop seated next to my Outstanding Achievement Award trophy for obtaining 2A* 1A
(A for Chemistry psssssshhhhh a bit disappointed with this but overall I am so happy)
Alhamdulillah
I am not sure how long am I gonna keep this here but if you are a student, O’s or A’s or anything lah, good luck with everything and don’t give up!
(I should probably read this in the future when sitting for my Uni exams)