Sunday, March 16, 2008

Thank God it's...um...Monday?

So this is it. The white-knuckled, heart-in-mouth ride through Form Five has finally (officially) come to the end.

No doubt many of the Form Fivers have been waiting in anticipation for the simultaneous release (well, we got ours a bit late, but that's beside the point) of the slips of paper that would determine the future of every 17- and 18-year-old in the country.

Me? I didn't give two grains of rice about it. Somehow I just didn't feel the slightest bit anxious about taking my SPM results. Then again, I'm not getting something like a MacBook if I got straight A's.

Then came the 12th of March. Suddenly I was in the shoes of everyone else. Thoughts were swarming around my head about failing my Additional Mathematics yet again and getting screwed over and over by every single relative and teacher I've ever known. But it was too late to do anything about it, because Pn. Chang was already sitting there with the results slips. I therefore gulped, took a deep breath and went straight to her.

Not a 9G in sight. Good. First goal checked.

A 3B in Malay. Phew, thank goodness i didn't flunk this. I thought I'd do much better than last time since I actually finished the essay, but this was way beyond my expectations.

A 1A in English. As expected. Plus a GCE O-Level 1A. Added bonus.

A 3B in Moral. hated the subject in the first place, so couldn't be arsed.

A 4B in...wait a minute, a B in History? How the fuck did I pull that out of the bag? Not when I skipped questions and bullshitted the rest. No fucking way.

From there on forth it just got better.

A 3B in Mathematics. Could've done better, but I still can't complain.

A 3B in English Literature. Brilliant. Very, very pleased.

A 1A in Physics. Finally. A result I've waited ages to get.

3B's for Chemistry and Biology. In this company, deeply average. But there's nothing wrong with it.

And then came the show-stopper.

A 4B for Additional Mathematics.

I almost fainted. Then I compared my grade with others, and I almost cried.

But as always, there's something to spoil the party. I arrived at school expecting a 1A in EST to be in the bag. I got a 2A.

What. The. Fuck.

Alright, I'm being melodramatic. But come on, that paper was shit easy, so getting something slightly off-target when everything else was so gloriously above my expectations is a pretty big anti-climax.

That aside though, I'm extremely happy with my results. And this wouldn't have been possible without the help of everyone who guided me for the past two years. So I would like to thank my teachers - whether school or tuition - and my parents who had the patience to sit through my absolutely lackadaisical attitude towards studying and got to me and woke me up when I needed it the most.

Oh, and one more thing. Those who aren't happy with their results, cheer up. It's not the end of the world. And even if it is, there's always next year.