My Deepest Secret About My Education

Recalling: I was a terribly lazy student. I didn't like to study. I actually hated studying. I thought I was the dumbest student in class.

Even when I was in my Primary school days. To tell the truth, the good grades I got when I was in P1 and P2, were all due to cheating. *Haha* It was this classmate of mine who is quite good in his studies and coincidentally, he was sitting right beside me. All I did was to pretend to think, see location of teacher and what is he/she doing, sit up straight, glance to the right, and I can memories all the MCQ answers with that glance. Just put it down onto my paper and I can start pretending to attempt the questions before my next "sit up straight".

Think it was at the end of my P2 days, when they decided to use dialect name instead of our hanyu pinyin name as our name list. That day marked the end of my cheating. Gone... They guy sitting beside me? Is a goner himself... Sigh... What luck.
There goes my results, plunging into the deepest and darkest water...

With that, what follows is plenty of scoldings, canings, tuition...

I did quite badly for my PSLE and ended up landing myself in Anderson Secondary School (Normal Academic). However, I never regretted going into Anderson. I started out my 1st BGR relationships there. *Hehe...* I was still doing badly in most of my subjects. I grew to hate Mathematics especially. I could never understand what the teacher was saying. I shun the thought of practising maths. I hate the teacher and I refused to do his homework. I rather be punished, stand on the chair behind the class, look out of the window, hoping to catch a glimpse of the school mate I had a crush on. *Hoho*

It was only till Secondary 4, when I got this tuition teacher whose name is Vincent. Great guy. Before he came, I was wondering to myself, "Oh no. Not another... More homework. Sianz...". But when he came, he sat down, introduced himself. I started flipping the textbooks. Surprisingly, he took the textbook away from me and pushed all the textbooks away from me! Huh? What is this guy doing sia? Instead, he started a conversation with me, asking me what are my worse subjects, why I hate maths, what kind of books I like to read, what kinda of games I play, VDO games, how long do I take to practice playing the game till I perfected the moves and able to defeat the virtual opponent...

He was making friends with me. He was building trust. He was understanding me. He was making out what was going thru my mind. He then told me," Maths is the same as playing 'Street Fighter'. The more you practice, the better you are at it. Formulas are just like super powers that comes along to assist you in defeating the opponent." I was stunned. Practising Maths equals playing Street Fighter?

Then he asked what will I do immediately after this tuition session? Go to my room, lie on my bed, watch tv lor... He then told me that he will not give me a lot of homework. *Heng ah...* I only need to do 10 MCQ Maths sums from the N level 10-yr series. Like that ah? Ok lor... see how.

The next tuition session came. I did not do my homework. I simply hated maths. I couldn't see myself taking up the 10-yr series and started doing... Totally out of my mind. Cannot. Impossible. I thought Vincent would be angry, but he didn't. He gave nme a warm smile. Asking me if I were too busy watching tv and forgot about his homework. I nodded my head sheepishly. He laughed. HE WAS NOT ANGRY??? He then told me to do my maths while watching tv. Hmm.... I said ok.

The next tuition session came, I still did not do my homework. Thought he would erupt but he din!! He just simply told me to do the same set of 10 MCQ sums again. And I am suppose to do 1 question during the tv commercial break. Hmm... Sounds resonable. Watch tv, do 1 sum during commercial break... Hmm...

After the tuition, I went to my room to watch tv. Feeling guilty that Vincent have been so nice to me and I did not do his homework. I took out the Maths 10-yr series, opened to the page I was assigned to do, watch tv, waited for the next tv commercial. I carried on watching tv. Until the 3rd tv commercial, I suddenly realised that I haven't even attempted the 1st question! I then started reading the 1st question... Hmm... Seems easy. Hmm... *Bite pencil* Hmm... This one plus this one... That one... Hmm... *Scratch head* Hmm... *Punch calculator*... DONE. So easy... Commercial haven't finish... Haha... Not bad... Ok... Show start le...

I finished my homework. Wah... Wah... Wah... I actually finished my MATHS homework... This went on for weeks, months... I finished all the MCQ sums in the whole 10-yr series! I was solving maths sums on my bed with the tv on and I am not watching TV! By June, I finished the whole book! I was getting confident in Maths. My results showed. By end of June, I am already starting to do O levels 10-yr series.

Results for my other subjects improve also. I was scoring the highest grade for Maths in class.

There... This is what happened that enabled me to choose from all the course in all the polytechnics in Singapore. Eventually, I chose Electronics, Computer and Communication Engineering in NYP.