The Chronicles of Examinations: PMR and SPM

It's the same with every major examination. You start off, in Form 1, or Form 4, wherever you are in. Either way, the huge exam looming at the end doesn't seem so bad. As you adjust to school life through Form 1 and Form 2, you generally don't pay too much attention to the lessons. You're just trying to finish your homework, stay out of trouble and try to have fun. (It's probably habitual residue from primary school. The teacher usually spoon-feeds you and gives you tons of homework so that you'll be prepared for UPSR. And then you turn around and grumble at the amount of homework. How ungrateful.) You forget about being pro-active. PMR is 2 years away. No wait, 1 year. Hang on, 279 days. Then suddenly, it's mid-Form-3 and you haven't done a single thing with your studies! You quickly try to flip through your notes and then, you turn your head to the sky and scream "where the @#$! are my notes!!!" And then you remember. You never made them. The next three months are crash-and-burn courses. You stay up until 11pm to study. You wake up at 5am to study. The notebooks and revision books never leave your hands. And then PMR comes and suddenly, it's over and you are hitting yourself for not studying. Then, out of the blue, it comes: STRAIGHT A's! You jump so high, you almost become the next Malaysian into space! And then you plant your resolve to study hard from now on.

Yeah, right. It's Form 4 and you're still on honeymoon. You joke around and essentially try to have a ball, convincing yourself that you're gonna be OK. And then the first monthly test comes and @#$! What the--? Your scores are so low, they're practically single-digit numbers. And you realise that the difference between the Form 3 syllabus and the Form 4 syllabus is like the difference between a basketball game in the school basketball court and the NBA finals. So you pull in your concentration and try hard. And all of a sudden, it's Form 5, three months to SPM! Where was your honeymoon year? And then you realise--again. There was no honeymoon year. You were supposed to be--gee, I don't know--studying. So now, you are facing the greatest battle of secondary school life.

How will it end? I don't know. But I will try my best to win my own personal battle. And, with God's help, success will be mine once again. Ganbateh!