Secondary school days... Though it's a mere 4 years, it seemed much longer than the 6 years of primary school education. And it's precisely this, I need more time to write this secondary school days entry... The previous 2 posts are there just to buy me time... If you did the questions and get all wrong, don't despair. On the other hand, even you got all correct, don't be too happy... That's only a "commercial break"!
Alright, back to my secondary school, CCHSM. It's not my first choice, neither last, nor 2nd, nor 5th, nor 4th... So, it's my 3rd choice (Did you manage to get this right?). This was the place where I was forced to make a lot of decisions. Decisions of actions that made an impact, not only to me, but those around me were made at this point. I would say this place holds an important role in my life.
Now, since this period of time (Secondary school days) is what I considered as an important or crucial stage in my life, I will split it into sub-parts... On school academics life, ECA (Extra Curriculum Activities) and post secondary school (Yes, post secondary school... A lot more stories on it too).
My secondary school classes as follows: 1C, 2C, 3D, 4D. CCHSM is a SAP (Special Assistance Plan) school. No. Not the "Special Assistance" that you are thinking of... SAP schools are schools that preserve the Chinese culture and tradition. Meaning, Higher Chinese is available as a subject in this school.
I did not take up Higher Chinese, so I was an Express student. OK. For those who are not sure about the Singapore education system... Back in my time, there were 3 main streams of students in the secondary schools. They were "Special", "Express" and "Normal". "Special" and "Express" students were similar, took 4 years to complete secondary education and attempt the GCE 'O' Levels at the end. The difference is "Special" students took up an extra Higher Chinese subject. "Normal" students had a much slower pace of curriculum. They would take the GCE 'N' Levels at the end of the 4th year, and then the GCE 'O' Levels 1 year later.
Anyway, back to myself. Secondary 1 was already full of activities. Well, for the sake of keeping my entries short and neat, I'll leave the non-curricular stuff for the other entries. Academic-wise, apart from English and English Literature, other subjects were pretty alright. Class 1C was the first Express class (1A and 1B were for the Special stream students) and hence the pressure was already pretty high. A couple of smart lads in this class as well. So competition was really tough. it's also this year, unfortunately, that I was arrowed to be the Class Monitor. Well, having been a class monitor for a couple of years in primary school, I was thinking, how hard can it be... It turns out... Insane. Class Monitor in secondary school was like a maid. And rather different from primary school.
Secondary 2 was again, the same old thing. This time, apparently, the classes were sorted into the order of merits somehow. We will be stream at the end of this year, into Science stream or the Arts stream. As I realised that I'm more science and mathematics inclined, I would go all out to get into the Science stream, which is, of course, tough and challenging. However, it's English that's giving me the most problem. Getting "A"s for the other subject and a "C" or even "D" for English. And again, for the 2nd year, I was being saboed (A term used in Singapore, meaning being purposely "elected", for a task, which is normally tough or difficult to accomplish. Commonly used in negative aspect) to be the class monitor. Sigh... Anyway, at the end of the day, I managed to get into Science stream. I can opt for the triple pure science, but I go for the double. Just to save up some time for me to brush up my command of English. (At this point, do you find my entries difficult to comprehend? If so, you'll probably know why my English is poor, since then...)
Secondary 3... 3D. 3A is for Special stream triple Science class, 3B for special stream double Science class, 3C for Express stream triple Science class, 3D for Express stream double Science class, and so forth... And it is this year where I truely understand what "Express" stands for... Things were going hard and fast! I took everything in double. Languages (English & Chinese), Sciences (Pure Chemistry & Pure Physics), Mathematics (Additional Mathematics & Elementary Mathematics) & Humanities (Geography & History). Study, study and more study.
Secondary 4... The final year. The final leg of the 10 year education system. After which, we would part ways and head towards a different route… JC (Junior College), Pre-U (Pre-University), Poly (Polytechnics), ITE (Nope. It doesn’t represent “It’s The End”, but Institute of Technical Education), Uni (University)… … … Eh… University? Yes… Social University… In other words, working… Majority will opt to go to JC so that they can enter Uni after 2 years of JC studies and getting the right grades for the ‘A’ Levels. A minor group will choose Poly, and then to the Uni. Some will opt for Pre-U, where curriculum-wise, it's similar to JC, but instead of 2 years for GCE 'A' Levels, they will take it after the 3rd year.
The difference between parting ways after PSLE and GCE 'O' Levels lies in the communications with friends. After PSLE, we could only get each other's residential phone numbers or even addresses to keep in touch. Most of the time, there isn't much calling as talking on the telephone is considered as a luxury (Unlike the children today!). For secondary school friends, we kept in touch by giving each others' pager numbers (Yes, pager! Those days, carrying a pager is the best that a student can get. And the latest model then was one with alpha-numeric functions!).
How many secondary schools had you still kept in touch with? And how many primary school friends?
OK, I think that's enough for secondary school days. For me, post secondary school days were rather interesting too. Don't believe me, read up on it on the subsequent entries...
Alright, back to my secondary school, CCHSM. It's not my first choice, neither last, nor 2nd, nor 5th, nor 4th... So, it's my 3rd choice (Did you manage to get this right?). This was the place where I was forced to make a lot of decisions. Decisions of actions that made an impact, not only to me, but those around me were made at this point. I would say this place holds an important role in my life.
Now, since this period of time (Secondary school days) is what I considered as an important or crucial stage in my life, I will split it into sub-parts... On school academics life, ECA (Extra Curriculum Activities) and post secondary school (Yes, post secondary school... A lot more stories on it too).
My secondary school classes as follows: 1C, 2C, 3D, 4D. CCHSM is a SAP (Special Assistance Plan) school. No. Not the "Special Assistance" that you are thinking of... SAP schools are schools that preserve the Chinese culture and tradition. Meaning, Higher Chinese is available as a subject in this school.
I did not take up Higher Chinese, so I was an Express student. OK. For those who are not sure about the Singapore education system... Back in my time, there were 3 main streams of students in the secondary schools. They were "Special", "Express" and "Normal". "Special" and "Express" students were similar, took 4 years to complete secondary education and attempt the GCE 'O' Levels at the end. The difference is "Special" students took up an extra Higher Chinese subject. "Normal" students had a much slower pace of curriculum. They would take the GCE 'N' Levels at the end of the 4th year, and then the GCE 'O' Levels 1 year later.
Anyway, back to myself. Secondary 1 was already full of activities. Well, for the sake of keeping my entries short and neat, I'll leave the non-curricular stuff for the other entries. Academic-wise, apart from English and English Literature, other subjects were pretty alright. Class 1C was the first Express class (1A and 1B were for the Special stream students) and hence the pressure was already pretty high. A couple of smart lads in this class as well. So competition was really tough. it's also this year, unfortunately, that I was arrowed to be the Class Monitor. Well, having been a class monitor for a couple of years in primary school, I was thinking, how hard can it be... It turns out... Insane. Class Monitor in secondary school was like a maid. And rather different from primary school.
Secondary 2 was again, the same old thing. This time, apparently, the classes were sorted into the order of merits somehow. We will be stream at the end of this year, into Science stream or the Arts stream. As I realised that I'm more science and mathematics inclined, I would go all out to get into the Science stream, which is, of course, tough and challenging. However, it's English that's giving me the most problem. Getting "A"s for the other subject and a "C" or even "D" for English. And again, for the 2nd year, I was being saboed (A term used in Singapore, meaning being purposely "elected", for a task, which is normally tough or difficult to accomplish. Commonly used in negative aspect) to be the class monitor. Sigh... Anyway, at the end of the day, I managed to get into Science stream. I can opt for the triple pure science, but I go for the double. Just to save up some time for me to brush up my command of English. (At this point, do you find my entries difficult to comprehend? If so, you'll probably know why my English is poor, since then...)
Secondary 3... 3D. 3A is for Special stream triple Science class, 3B for special stream double Science class, 3C for Express stream triple Science class, 3D for Express stream double Science class, and so forth... And it is this year where I truely understand what "Express" stands for... Things were going hard and fast! I took everything in double. Languages (English & Chinese), Sciences (Pure Chemistry & Pure Physics), Mathematics (Additional Mathematics & Elementary Mathematics) & Humanities (Geography & History). Study, study and more study.
Secondary 4... The final year. The final leg of the 10 year education system. After which, we would part ways and head towards a different route… JC (Junior College), Pre-U (Pre-University), Poly (Polytechnics), ITE (Nope. It doesn’t represent “It’s The End”, but Institute of Technical Education), Uni (University)… … … Eh… University? Yes… Social University… In other words, working… Majority will opt to go to JC so that they can enter Uni after 2 years of JC studies and getting the right grades for the ‘A’ Levels. A minor group will choose Poly, and then to the Uni. Some will opt for Pre-U, where curriculum-wise, it's similar to JC, but instead of 2 years for GCE 'A' Levels, they will take it after the 3rd year.
The difference between parting ways after PSLE and GCE 'O' Levels lies in the communications with friends. After PSLE, we could only get each other's residential phone numbers or even addresses to keep in touch. Most of the time, there isn't much calling as talking on the telephone is considered as a luxury (Unlike the children today!). For secondary school friends, we kept in touch by giving each others' pager numbers (Yes, pager! Those days, carrying a pager is the best that a student can get. And the latest model then was one with alpha-numeric functions!).
How many secondary schools had you still kept in touch with? And how many primary school friends?
OK, I think that's enough for secondary school days. For me, post secondary school days were rather interesting too. Don't believe me, read up on it on the subsequent entries...
