Seeing my friends getting busy preparing for the SPM reminds me of PMR a little while ago. Somehow the tension is building up, and the worst part is I haven't gotten any motivation at all to study. Which, according to most people, is bad.
Maybe it's not myself to blame anyway, because years ago, before PMR, there were the teachers, guest motivators, and generally the society itself stressing how IMPORTANT PMR was. PMR was the center of all our actions. Playing, having fun and generally most of things were forbidden to us, in order to prepare for PMR.
They used to say, "Play all you want, after PMR. Get good results, and do whatever you want." Some lucky kids even get large sums of money,or cool gadgets from their parents and families after scoring so well in PMR.
Ironically, the first thing they said to us when we entered Form 4 was, " DON'T ever think that your PMR results will get you anywhere." Hey, what? Before PMR you said it was everything, and now you are saying it's a piece of trash. And because of that, I have lost faith in getting straight As cause it won't get you anywhere. Once the result comes out, even if you get straight As, well, maybe the limelight will be on you a little while, but soon, it will disappear. The same struggle to get into universities, studying to get flat pointers, freaking and exhausting life of a student, repeats all over again.
So, my point here is, try to take things as they are. So what if you don't score so well in PMR? Or SPM? It's not the end of the world. Because the most important thing is how would you take opportunities. Yes, maybe these exams are opportunities, but remember, it's not the tool, but the hands that use the tool. A deadly gun could be useless in the hands of a blindfolded man, but an innocent pen can be the sharpest blade if wielded by an assassin.
Instead of struggling to get straight As, try to make those results beneficial to get what you want. Put in simpler words, don't take more than what you need. Don't push yourself to get straight As if you don't really need it. Except, if you really need to score in all of the subjects to pursue the career you desire the most, then, go ahead. But I don't really think that you really HAVE to score on all subjects. For example, a pure science student pursuing a career in medical field does not need advanced physics. All that is needed is some knowledge on that matter, but not extensive knowledge that may burden the student. That is why university courses are offered with specializations in only one field.
But then again, it's the education policy to blame. The education system is full of uncertainties. That is why they make us study all subjects and specialize later. When growing up,we may develop a lot of interest in a lot of subjects and this may cause confusion in choosing a career.So, when they made us to wait until Form 4 before choosing the desired stream, it's causing a dilemma in students. They don't know what to choose. Even worse, some students are forced to study what they don't want to. This happened to my cousin, where she scored straight in her PMR, and with that result, she is put inside the science stream, which she disliked. In matriculation colleges, students applying for science stream is being "thrown away" to other courses, which, might not be their choices.
The thing that we should do is nurturing the interest and ambition in our future generations since they are young. That is what they are doing in UK and some other places right now. So, there won't be any problems concerning the choice of courses when entering high school. The interest is developed during their early education, and they are given the choice of taking the subjects they like, instead of trying to become the Jack of all trades, but as the Malay saying goes, "Yang dikejar tak dapat, yang dikendong berciciran."
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