Promotional Agony
It is now official that I have passed all my subjects in the Promotional Exam. This was really unexpected, considering all the worries which I had about failing this exam and getting retained in JC1. At least now I can be at ease knowing that I had done well.
I am in a horrible dilemma now regarding a close classmate of mine, referred to “E” in this entry. Apparently, E didn’t do well in her promotional exams and thus, she is going to be retained in Year 1. E didn’t want to repeat another year, neither did I want her to, especially since I would miss her a lot. She appealed with my civics tutor but her request was turned down straight away. There was supposed to be a sub-test which all potential retainees have to sit for, and so I talked E into sitting for it. She agreed, but her request was again turned down by the CT as her grades didn’t meet the minimum requirement for sub-test entry.
E was miserable, so was I. At this moment, I am thinking up of ways and means to help her get promoted. Currently, I have appealed with our subject tutors, CCA heads and classmates, hoping that they would put a good word in and help E out. I have yet to know the outcome, but I am willing to do anything to make them agree, even if it means threatening them at knife point. This is a young girl’s education we are talking about, and this is something which was very important to her. I am not going to sit one side and watch helplessly as my good friend is forced to remain in Year one.
E has worked very hard, and I can bear witness to that. She heads for the library after school everyday to revise and she had spent countless hours practicing questions for the relevant subjects and whatnot. But in the end, she still wound up with 4 Fs, which is a complete waste. Please… if E is given an additional chance and is promoted, I will do all I can to help her improve her grades. She had also promised that she would work even harder if she were to be promoted.
Hopefully, my appeals for her would be successful. I really want to lift her up from her misery so that she can start enjoying her JC life once again. Otherwise, she would decide to pack up and go to a polytechnic, which means an additional 2 years wasted. She wants to get promoted and I am going to make sure that she gets her wish.
It’s ironic about how I was agonising about my results last week and now I am worrying for someone else.
On a lighter note, my parents had decided to buy me a new handphone tonight for my upcoming birthday, even though I hadn’t requested for one. For some strange reason, they just want me to upgrade. I am going to miss my Nokia 3310…
Received most of my promotional exam results today, and what I have seen so far have been pretty uplifting. To think that all these days, I have been expecting nothing except to be retained in JC1 with the first impression that I would not do well. At this moment, I have 3 A and 1 AO passes, with the exception of General Paper, which results I have not received yet.
What surprised me most was Maths. Honestly, I did not even expect to pass Mathematics at all! Maths has always been my least favourite subject, and I am not very strong in it either. Mr Lim had always pointed out that my Mathematics foundation is weak, and that the number of careless mistakes which I unknowingly make would definitely kill me in the real A Level exams. No matter how much I try to be extra careful, it never works. In fact, the more I try, the worse it becomes. During the Maths promotional exam, I was rushing through the entire Maths paper, struggling to finish every single question in the stipulated time. So how on Earth could I have passed?
So miracles do exist after all.
However, passing all my papers does not mean that I can happily settle back and be satisfied with what I have. Despite having passed, most of these results did not please me one bit, especially Chinese and Chemistry, which I had just managed to scrape through. What is making things worse is the mere fact that the Chinese A Levels would be the week after next week. Have I studied? Nah! all my Chinese notes and stacked up in one corner, slowly gathering dust. Actually, I think even the dust would be much better than me in the subject, considering the amount of knowledge they would be soaking up by just laying there on my notes…
I am feeling more relaxed now, knowing that I have managed to cross this huge hurdle to head towards Year 2. I have heard from many people that the work done in Year 2 would be so much tougher and I would have to be prepared to work hard. So, I am aiming to enjoy my year end holidays to the fullest so that I can soak up as much enjoyment time before hitting the books once again in January 2004.
Sigh… Mr Wong Yew Hoong would be back in TPJC from next week onwards after being missing in action due to reservist callback. This means that my Chinese tutorial class can expect to receive a huge scolding from him once again due to our atrocious Chinese results (50% of the students in my class had failed). This would also mean that I would have to do some last minute shopping for reliable ear plugs to drown out the sound of his reprimanding. Either that, or I shall drown him out by imagining that I am watching a soap opera…
Ever since she got together with him, those two would be seen together 24/7 every single day. I never fail to spot them with each other, whether in the college compounds or outdoors. These days, she only has eyes for him, and she hardly mixes around with anyone else in the college anymore.
I used to be quite close to her. To me, she was a sweet and a friendly person and we would always be chatting nineteen to dozen whenever we are together. Saying “hi” when we pass each other in the corridors used to be a very common thing and we would make plans to take the same bus home whenever our classes end at the same time. She used to amuse me, especially the way she was addicted to “Pocky” cream chocolate biscuits. I used to ask her whether she would ever find her suitable one, and she said, “Nobody in TPJC seems suitable to me, and I want to remain single”.
However, after she found him, we stopped keeping in contact. Gone are the days when we would be happily chatting and giggling with each other. Not a single SMS would be exchanged between us as well. We would only greet each other occasionally whenever we run into each other in the corridors. Otherwise, she would simply ignore me, as well as everyone else she knows when she is the companionship of him.
That is why I am constantly telling Keisha never to get a boyfriend as I have realised this particular trend. Once a good friend finds someone suitable for her, a close friendshop would be gone with the wind and you would hardly see her as often as before. This has happened to me once too many and quite a few of my close friendships had been broken up because the other party had run away and eloped with someone else. However, I must admit that they make a cute couple, and half of my classmates agree that couple would qualify as the “Most Lovey-Dovey” couple of the year.
I have also noticed another strange phenomenon which concerns this cute couple and myself. Why am I constantly bumping into them wherever I go? I never fail to spot them at the bus stop, in the bus, in the foyer or in the canteen. Wherever I go, they would always be there. There are so many times when I would end up walking behind them in the corridor or on the footpath outside my school even though I am not trailing them. It just happens and I bump into them for no reason…
There was one instance when I wound up sitting behind them in the bus and I felt so “extra” in the presence of him and her. Just like how the big guy feels in the following photograph… Sigh…
