[Junior College] 5 things I wish I knew when studying for my A-Levels, Prelims, and Promos

A few years back, I still remember staying in my school canteen till late, having my overdue dinner along with my friends. We had way more practice papers printed than we could finish and were racing against time for our revision leading up to the big As. It was hectic, anxiety provoking and stifling of sorts, but bearable knowing that my friends were going through the same emotions as I did.

It’s once again the time of the year where I see my juniors battling against the pressure of the A-levels. A couple of years back this time, this was THE DEAL after years of preparation for this major exam. Despite sub-optimal performance after sub-optimal performance in my prelims, I just wanted to pull up my socks and give it one last shot. Fast forward today, having almost graduated from university, it comes across that the A-Levels did not matter as much as I thought this one exam would (or at least, it did not justify me sacrificing other things that mattered). So I thought of penning a little piece for my JC juniors out there with some advice I wish I had back then.

Advice 1: Getting good grades is all that matters (only if you don’t look for opportunities in the right places)

After prelims, I still remember scrambling for consultations with my extremely patient teachers for not being able to pass all my subjects. During that period of time, I recall applying for universities in the US and China as well in hopes of receiving an overseas education. For me, that meant having to do decently well to receive a scholarship as well to fund my overseas studies. Needless to say, my prelim results (and eventually A Level results) did not make the cut for admission to any overseas university or scholarships. So, do grades matter? Definitely so.

However, not qualifying for any overseas university also meant freeing up some time after my A-Levels to take up my very first internship. My internship at Kingmaker Consultancy (a training company) taught me to find opportunities from the right places — finding the sweet spot between what I was good at, what I am passionate about, what can pay well, and what the world needs. Having an inclination towards the people and youth education sector, I then searched for training and development portfolios in university to explore what about the sector I liked and whether I was cut out for similar roles. Not long after, I was approached to join the Skilio team for my interest, passion, and experience for the vision that we are shipping to this very day.

In hindsight, I probably would not have been on this path if I got better grades, but the point of this is to be proactive in your opportunity search instead of being reactive and let your grades decide where you want to go. At the end of the day, there are just so many paths one can take to a certain destination, so a step forward towards these goals will already be commendable, and they don’t (entirely) depend on the grades you get on your report card.

Advice 2: Your non-academic experiences count

I still remember starting my post A-Level internship search before my exams even ended, partially because I wanted a break from studying, but also because I wanted to find out how life would be beyond A-Levels, beyond studying. It was then that I realised there was so much more that I cared about as a student in JC but did not take the opportunity to practice, like volunteering to support children which I really enjoyed; taking part in hackathons to apply things I’ve learned in school to real-world problems; or simply speaking to a senior who had experiences working in the youth sector.

When it came to writing my personal statement and going for interviews for university admissions, I found it difficult to articulate why I wanted to enroll in a course, much less why I was deserving of a scholarship. Grades aside, I felt incapable of putting forward a convincing story to justify my choice of course or industry, given my limited relevant experiences.

To be honest, there is no way of figuring out if you want a course enough if you’ve had zero relevant experience or insights from people who have been there. As much as we can glamorise our extracurricular and/or leadership experiences, scholarships and school admissions look out for fit, which can be showcased using the pattern of experiences you choose to take up while still in JC. This could be starting a recycling initiative in school if you are interested in sustainability, reading up on global trends outside of your school textbook, or even taking a few hours off each weekend to volunteer for a cause you are passionate about. There are also university taster courses and internships, which give you better proxies of which courses are more suitable for you, apart from your grades being the only indicator.

Advice 3: Focus on your positioning

Building on Advice 2, beyond just your grades, showcasing your fit means being able to position yourself as a suitable candidate for the opportunity you are applying for. This applies to not just school and scholarship admissions, but internship applications as well.

This is especially important if you are applying under the Aptitude Based Admission (ABA) scheme, in which you are considered for admission based on your passion, interests, and strengths displayed through your non-academic experiences.

Based on my observation, my peers who did not make the academic cut off for certain courses but got a spot through the ABA scheme did the following right:

• Understood what the course entailed, beyond just a superficial understanding of what it was
• Were able to articulate why they were suitable for the course, supported by relevant evidence of opportunities they took up
• Were able to highlight their transferable skillsets (eg. Leadership, Willingness to Learn, Critical Thinking) through their experiences such as leadership positions, community service, and passion projects

In essence, positioning means aligning what the course is looking for, to what skill sets you have, backed up by relevant experiences. This also means being very intentional about how you customise these applications to be suited for the opportunity of your choice, and this has proven to help most differentiate themselves against other applicants.

Advice 4: Be comfortable with uncertainty, but do something about it

Reading the above you might ask — where do I start to find my positioning? What if I commit to something I find out I absolutely hate and end up wasting my time? A good example with “wrong” choices would be my subject combination back in JC. I went to the conventional Science stream and realised a humanities or hybrid combination would have gone better for me, but don’t bad choices make good stories as well?

Post A-Levels, it was my subject combination that helped me rule out a few industries that I did not want to delve into, which then also narrowed down my choices for possible internships to take up. As I quite enjoyed working with some numbers and statistics as well, I thought Psychology would give me a multidisciplinary specialisation in the Social Sciences faculty. Definitely, there was still much uncertainty of what I wanted to do with my Psychology degree (ie. practice Psychology, go into the education sector, dabble in the HR scene etc…) but I made sure I took a breadth of modules and joined Psychology communities to find out what these career prospects were.

The moral of the story, start somewhere and seek ways to find out what works for you. I see this as a funnel of finding your calling — start with a broad range of experiences and gradually narrow down based on what you enjoy and what you dislike. Truth is, we will never get to the end of the funnel as certainty is that elusive goal that we will never attain. Yet, we can constantly seek increasing clarity, which is always a work in progress.

Advice 5: Take care of yourself!!

This might seem pretty straightforward, but it’s something I forgot to do from time to time during my A-Level preparation period. An occasional swim or a cheat day really helped with my focus throughout the study marathon. Dreaming about life beyond A Levels helped me set sights on much bigger things beyond being overly entrenched in the piles of practice papers lined in front of me.

Looking back, what I took away from my A-Level days was not so much the content I memorised for my papers, but the ability to be mentally resilient when facing seemingly insurmountable tasks, having the humility to learn and respect the people who are fighting the same battle alongside you, and be on the lookout for ways to learn productively and pick up things more efficiently. These are the transferable skills that I still hold dear to me to this day, and I hope it’ll be the same for all of you mugging for your A-Levels now!

Conclusion

And that concludes my 5 pieces of advice for my JC juniors! Hope this was a useful piece for all of you out there.

My team at Skilio is also working really hard to build a digital soft skills portfolio to help all of you out with some of the frustrations we had when we were in JC. Do check us out to find out how you can differentiate yourselves when applying for your dream opportunities post-A-Levels!

That’s all from me, and I hope our conversation does not end here! Feel free to reach out to me on Telegram (@hozhihui) if you would like to have a chat about college admissions, scholarship applications, post A-Level life, or anything else that I might be able to provide more insights on!

Lastly, all the best for your A-Levels! Always remember that you are more than your grades — put your best foot forward and you’ll shine!