Mugging the Mugger

this is the time when a lot of Singaporean students start becoming muggers. nono... you don't have to be more afraid of dark alleys than you already should be, nor do you have to expect a spike in crime rates. that is unless of course if you are a teacher teaching in a JC... then perhaps you ought to be careful that students do not lure you to some desolate corner and ambush you for the Prelim questions.

this is the time that students start mugging for their exams. i.e. they start attacking their books with their mental hatchets, trying to cram every single iota of information into their brains, hold all these pieces of information for just long enough to vomit them out during the exam and after the exam, completely forget everything. how many Singaporean students actually remember what they have learnt after the exam? very little. in fact, i'm sure most of us have forgetten what we have learnt for A-levels, O-levels, poly, uni.

does that mean that education is useless other than to get that piece of paper? no. i don't think so.

because in order to do well in exams, one has to learn to pick up critical information quickly and in the shortest amount of time, retain that information and then at the right moment, apply the information correctly. that is a skill that, like riding a bicycle, one never forgets nor loses the moment one picks it up. in order to do well in exams, one has to develop the discipline to force oneself to sit down and do something that one might not like, i.e. study when one would rather be doing something else. such discipline would probably be put to much good use further on in life when one is faced with the choice of gritting one's teeth and fighting on or just taking the easy way out. in order to do well in exams, one has to find out about oneself, how best one works and functions. it is a journey of self-discovery, an adventure of introspection and reflection.

the exam results therefore is not just a reflection of how good one is in that particular subject. it is also a proxy measure of a person's character. alas.... it is a poor proxy. and many people have taken this proxy to be the be all and end all, forgetting that academic results, the pursuit of academic excellence perhaps should be taken as a means rather than an end. a means towards not just developing a person intellectually, but also to nurture that person's character.