To complete A-Levels, students beat odds such as dad's sudden death, repeating 1st year of junior college

SINGAPORE — Even though he had to repeat his first year of junior college after switching from the science stream to the arts stream, 20-year-old Max Lim Zhen Jie was pleased with his final results, including several As and a distinction for his General Paper (GP).

Mr Lim, who is now serving his time in National Service, returned to St Andrew's Junior College where he finally received his results after three years in junior college instead of the typical two.

While he still needs to complete his time with the army, Mr Lim is excited to embark on the next chapter of his life — enrolling in university to study a humanities-related major that might carve a career path related to his favourite subject, history.

He was one of 10,899 candidates to receive their Singapore-Cambridge General Certificate of Education Advanced Level (GCE A-Level) examination results on Friday (Feb 23).

More than 10,238 of these candidates who sat for the examination last year attained at least three H2 passes, with a pass in GP or Knowledge and Inquiry (KI). Students may select subjects at three different levels of study: Higher 1 (H1), Higher 2 (H2) and Higher 3 (H3).

Even though it took him one more year to get to the finish line, Mr Lim is grateful to the support at St Andrew’s Junior College, helping him to transition smoothly between the science and arts streams.

“The teachers definitely checked in on me a bit more to make sure that I was coping all right, and it also helped that I had friends who understood what I was going through, encouraging me,” he said.

Like Mr Lim, 19-year-old Liow Xuan Rong’s years at Temasek Junior College were not without challenges.

She spent six years there, as part of the school’s integrated programme, but the sudden death of her father during her third year resulted in her grades slipping “very badly”.

Despite that, Ms Liow was able to pick herself up, with the help of her teachers, to get back on track to junior college where she focused her energy on school and associated responsibilities.

TODAY spoke to Mr Lim and Ms Liow on Friday to find out how they overcame these various challenges to complete their junior college education.

FINDING WHAT WAS RIGHT

When Mr Lim left secondary school, he did not really know what he wanted to do and decided to “go with the flow” since he qualified for junior college.

He opted for the science stream at St Andrew's Junior College, because he noticed other peers selecting that as an option.

However, a few months in, he realised that he was not cut out for science-related subjects.

“My interests waned and my grades were falling, and things were not looking too good. I also began to think junior college was just not for me.” 

He added that being in junior college was also a “high stress” environment and because he was already behind, he did not want to burden his classmates.

“I was lost and I also didn’t know where to start to ask for help. So I think that made things harder to find someone to talk to about studying.” 

Even though it was difficult to speak to people about the subject, he was given another option when a teacher suggested that he switched streams.

It might have been a tough conversation to have with the family about this, but Mr Lim said that his close bond with his parents made it easier for him to approach the topic and engage in an extensive discussion.

“It was a major decision for me but my parents were quite supportive. They told me that no matter what I decided, even if I didn’t want to continue with junior college and go to a polytechnic or something, they will still support me.”

Being the middle of a school year at the time, he was not able to change streams immediately and had to complete the year before he repeated JC1 the next year in the arts stream.

Even with the fresh start, Mr Lim had difficulty overcoming the stigma of repeating the year, afraid that people would think of him differently.

His fears were eventually put to rest when he sat through orientation, for the second time, and met new people who also happened to be in the same situation as him.

“We became each other’s support system through this transition, so to speak,” Mr Lim said with a chuckle.

He added that this newfound camaraderie helped shape his journey through junior college and made his outlook on college life better, even if it was a bit unconventional.

He also said that his time in junior college taught him a valuable lesson to not just be prepared but to make sure that the subjects he takes really interest him.

“Because if you lose interest, I think you will hurt everything else including your morale and your determination to carry on with the task.” 

SHIFTING PERSPECTIVES

For Ms Liow, losing her father when she was in her third year at Temasek Junior College was not easy.

Around the same time as his death, in March 2020, she was elected as a vice-president of her school’s student council, a role that came with multiple responsibilities.

This, together with the grief she endured, left her feeling lost as she struggled alone without the emotional support she would have received if she had been in school.

“I remember at the time that my grades went down and dropped really, really badly so I had to get one-on-one lessons with my teachers on top of the supplementary lessons from school because if you don’t do well, you have to go for extra lessons,” she recounted.

The support she received from her teachers was what eventually helped her to self-reflect and shift her mindset to know that in addition to what was happening at home, she also had responsibilities at school.

“I didn’t think it was an excuse to neglect all the responsibilities I had in school because these were the things that other people entrusted me to do, and I needed to fulfil my duties,” she said.

As she juggled school and home life, Ms Liow began to realise that she was more capable than she thought and the loss of her father had changed her perspective of things.

“I think I grew to be a more introspective and maybe a more perceptive person, and I think it really built my character.” 

She then went on to become the student council president during her junior college years, where she helped plan and run various college-wide events and activities.

She was also selected for the Temasek Humanities Programme, where she could take part in research projects and write research papers.

Despite staying focused on her academic journey during junior college, Ms Liow said that she will be looking at taking a gap year to figure out her plans for the future.

“Using my gap year, I’ll try different internships in fields... and see what I’m most interested in. I might just take some time to rest because the past six years have been quite a fast-paced journey and I think I just need a bit more time to slow down.”