So, I told myself to sleep at 1 plus. The time now is 3:38 AM. HAHA, been doing some Chemistry with Lay Ping the past hour or so. Managed to solve 2 MCQ questions. Feeling so happy right now, and thankful that she is here to help me!

Anyway, been giving my life some thought, and honestly, there are many sayings that tell us things like 'If it makes you happy, do it. If it doesn't, don't.'. Stuff like that, you know what I'm saying? Sayings and quotes that tell us to live the life we want, the life that makes us happy, makes us look forward to a new day. But really, is that all even possible in the context of our society? Students, like you and I (I'm assuming my blog only has students as readers), we are stressed out by the education system. For some, the stress comes at a young age, where they have tons of stuff to do. Enrichment classes, programmes, tuition, etc. Piano, ballet, computer lessons, art classes, calligraphy class, Phonics, tuition, the list goes on. For others who are more lucky, they don't get tied down by such stuff. But the education system here in Singapore will take its toll on each and every student at some point in time. Be it PSLE (yes, for some, PSLE is a major stress factor), O levels (definitely, without a doubt), and also A levels (JC students will understand this). For Poly students, there are projects (I don't really know about the Poly education system, oops).  I haven't had much difficulty during secondary school days, probably due to tuition and the self-discipline to start revision for O levels early. I started mine with Humanities in June. Basically, I had a pretty solid year because I was rather consistent with my work. But all that didn't carry over once I entered JC. I couldn't understand much at the start, especially for Chemistry since I'm from combined science instead of the majority who are from pure science. Hence, I couldn't understand much of what was going on during Temporary timetable period (the time where the fixed timetables weren't out yet and students had to attend lectures according to a temporary timetable schedule). So, I couldn't do my tutorials on time, and slowly I started giving up on them.

Things became a snowball effect. Cannot understand > Tutorials unable to be completed > Fall behind the class > Fail exams > Fail Promos > Repeat year 1. That's exactly what happened to me. I couldn't catch up after a few months, and bam, I ended up failing my Promos and had to repeat year 1 again. I didn't know who to turn to for help. I tried to attend consultations, tried to understand as much, but things just aren't falling into place. And for the first time, I actually cried because of my studies.. Because I was scared of retaining. It was a tough year.

But why? Why go through all this when it isn't in the slightest bit, making us happy at all? Why study things that have absolutely no use to us in future? (unless you become a teacher of that particular subject). Why bother suffering so much just for a good job in the future? The education system in Singapore isn't all that bad, but it is definitely far from perfect. I mean, look at how stressed out students in Singapore are because of what we have to learn. Seriously? Why? Why can't we just go out there and do something that makes us happy instead? Why must society work in such a way whereby those who aren't able to survive the hectic life of a student will eventually lose out and get kicked to the bottom of the pile? Why?

And we students have gone from asking 'Why?' to just plainly memorising stuff for exams. We don't question anymore, instead we just copy and paste whatever we read from textbooks and notes. Is that the true meaning of what education is all about? I don't get it. Why make us memorise stuff if we don't even understand it at all? Students are now 'programmed' to just 'accept things as they are', and not question whatever they are reading, whatever information their brains are processing. The ability to question, is no longer there anymore.