Blog Entry Week 2 - Troublesome Times~
💥Blog Entry Week 2 – Hardcore💬
Hey Beauties! 💗 I’m back with another entry, and I have
decided, after sharing my skincare journey with everyone, to talk about one of
the most challenging examinations I’ve had to take so far, STPM. Now, for those
of you that are not familiar with Malaysia’s education system, or are just
unclear about the whole STPM deal; it is one of the most difficult
pre-university examinations out there. It’s considered to be one of the
hardest, and thus is recognised worldwide. It’s so overwhelming actually,
especially for those who have just made it through SPM (Malaysian School
Certificate) examinations, as most of the time, a lot of students get a lot of
guidance from their teachers. Gone are the days where teachers would help print
out past papers for us to do, discuss them during class, teach us tips and
tricks on what to study and how to answer the exam questions.
When I was in Form 6, my teachers did guide me, but most of
the work was done on my own. My STPM years really taught me good time management
skills, and based on the subjects that I took, I learned other skills too. For
example, I took Literature in English (taught by our beloved Pn. Suriya💝 in Penang
Free School) and that taught me critical thinking skills, besides other
creative writing skills and whatnot. Now that it’s already out, let me start
from the beginning.
Most students don’t know what to expect from Form 6, so let
me tell you how it’s going to be in general. The whole duration of study should
be about 1.5 years, divided into 3 semesters, with 6 months for each semester.
This is the current format that was revised in order to let sixth formers have
a feel of how university life is. Previously, Form 6 used to be 2 long years with
only a single examination at the very end. That way, it’s either you do really
well or you flunk really bad, thus the semester system which helps you score
more consistently. However, it is tiring as you have to continuously study, and
you will feel overwhelmed, but the results are amazing. Here's another thing to note, everybody I met in Form 6, never wanted to be there in the first place. It was our last option. So, you're not alone~ 💫
I began my STPM journey in my alma mater, St. Xavier’s Institution,
in Penang. I had already decided beforehand that I was going to take Literature
in English for Form 6, so you could imagine the surprise on my teacher’s faces
when I told them I wanted to change schools, on the very first day. The
process took about 2 weeks for me, and I had moved to Penang Free School with a
friend of mine. Before moving, I was in a class that offered the subject combination
of Pengajian Am/General Studies (this is compulsory for all students regardless
of streams), Mathematics (M), Business, and Economics. You can only imagine how
I suffered studying Mathematics(M) for those 2 weeks. Alas, I never escaped it
as I’m an Economics major now. Anyway, once I moved to Penang Free School, that’s
when I really flourished. The subject combination I was offered was exactly the
same, after replacing Maths with Literature of course.
I learned what I needed to know, as well as what I wanted to know, not just from the teachers, but from the friends that I made (and the drama involved oof). I did really well for my first semester, I surprised myself actually, as this was the very first time I was sitting for any sort of STPM examination. With that newfound confidence, I pushed on. However, in the early parts of 2020, in my 2nd semester, the pandemic started making its rounds around the globe, and as a result of that, all our classes were moved online. To my horror, they postponed the examinations for my 2nd and 3rd semester, so that now the semesters were even longer (8/9 months for both my 2nd and 3rd semesters). That is how I started Form 6 in April 2019 and only graduated 2 years later :3. Classes were indeed difficult, and it felt more overwhelming than usual, not to mention my severe acne attack that happened around the same time. (you can read about it in my very first blog entry about Skincare!)
Real talk; you’re supposed to be working together with a lot of your friends in Form 6, so whatever “kiasu” mindset of yours should be left in Form 5. Speaking from experience here. You are not fighting for positions in class or in your entire batch. That is not the end goal of your Form 6 life. Your goal is probably to enter university, because all of that effort you put in for Form 6 has to take you somewhere, right? The friends that I made in Form 6 felt a lot more genuine than most of the friendships and acquaintances I made when I was in Highschool. I attribute that to the maturity and growth throughout that period of time. Learning the ways of the world through a lens is not ideal, but we didn't have much of a choice either. Those were the days where we had curfews and a lot of restrictions.
We really did help each other a lot, with so many late-night
calls and frequent text messaging, to discussing past-year papers together and hyping
each other up for our coursework presentations. I did end up going back to
school for a few more months before my 3rd semester examinations, to
conclude my coursework presentations for General Studies, Economics, and
Business. Literature in English was my only subject that did not require any
coursework, as it was full on exam-based. That was low-key scary, but still got
an A for it anyways (sparkles).
If you were to ask me if I would do Form 6 all over again, the cliché answer would be yes, but I’m an honest angel, and my honest answer is, ✨no✨. One Form 6 period of my life is more than enough to teach me whatever I needed to learn, by having to experience and meet so many different kinds of students (and teachers iykyk) with “interesting” characters. In the end, I graduated with a CGPA of 3.84, and till this day, I couldn’t be prouder of myself for achieving that, despite the many twists and turns I had to endure. When you believe you can, you will.
I will be doing an
entry for each subject as I have a lot to recall, so do stay tuned for more! Until
next time then, see ya~
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