SPM: 1,676

There were 1,676 students in Malaysia (SPM 08) who got similar results with me, or better. Big deal. When I got my results, I didn’t feel any burst of joy or anything. One of the reasons was probably because a friend told me my results before I got it, so I was like, “Damn I wanted to find out myself!”. I did pretty well in SPM. So what? I’m still a rock star. I got my rock moves. And I don’t need you… Eh, eh, wrong song.

Either my soul and mind is still lagging and not yet realizing the magnitude of my small achievement, or I didn’t care about my SPM results, because somehow I don’t feel anything. Maybe that’s because I think that SPM results aren’t really an indication of how successfully you are or you will become. In fact, the most successful people in the world have meager or average academic results. What counts is passion and motivation, and lots of hard work. Talent or smartness or ability to solve an Add Maths equation is just an inconsequential small part of life, really.

Nevertheless, I must say there are plenty of thanks to go around. First of all, I want to thank my Mother whose positive criticism, nagging, unspoken praise and high expectations made me strive to do better and better. I want to thank my Dad for his advice on how to write essays, as well as his motivation and support, especially in financial incentives. I want to thank people like Daniel Chong, Anders and my darling sisters Hosanna and Esther who had encouraged me and given me tips to face exams, whether or not they were used or useful. Thanks to Esther for the additional pressure to do well and make the family proud.

I want to thank my teachers, especially Mr. Chia, who made Chemistry and Biology so easy to understand. I want to thank Mr. Pala (Moral tuition) for giving me tips and advice. Without him, my Pendidikan Moral would have failed because my school teacher sucked real bad. No offence. Thanks also to Mr. Tay (Physics tuition) for making Physics so interesting and entertaining. Thanks to Mr. Rama for Add Maths. Actually, I didn’t really benefit that much from Mr. Rama because he feeds too much. His spoon-feeding style of teaching actually forced me to go deeper into Additional Maths and figure stuff out on my own. Thanks to my class form teacher Pn. Jemaayah who is very warm and friendly but unfortunately not too good a Modern Maths teacher. Many, many, many thanks to Pn. Umadevi who taught Sejarah and inspired me to make the best notes and work hard for Sejarah. I think she’s one of, if not the best teachers I had in Form 5. Thanks to Cik Zainon, my BM tuition teacher, who together with Nathanael, Mahendran, Tejhpal and Isaac made BM tuition so, so entertaining. Oh and she actually taught very well too. However, no thanks to the not-so-efficient teachers, we know who they are but I hope you’ll improve, for the sake of the future generations who will suffer under your care.

For some reason I have a feeling that none of the above mentioned teachers will ever read this, but what the heck.

Thanks to Nathanael Long. I don’t know how, but I just feel that he made me do better, although we hardly even spoke to each other. Maybe it’s because I always wanted to beat him. No, not in the physical sense. It's like I was trying to make up for what I lack in size... Thanks to Tejhpal for bringing the book “Study Smarter Not Harder” which was very helpful to me, and for being a weird, funny and sometimes annoying friend who sat beside me the whole of last year. Not forgetting my good friends Matthew Lee, Lik Pin, Erica Lee, Sonia Chay, Boon Fang and Hong Shen who made school life less boring and more bearable. Also, thanks to all my smart-ass peers like Jeremy Lim, Ryner, William Tan, Ernest, Shiau Shuang, Kai Yuan and Kim Soon, who made me try hard to be as good or better than them. Congratulations as well for the excellent results. Thanks to my many Indians friends like Maha, Mine, Mena and Suga for being... interesting people to talk to. By the way, I had a classmate, Naeresh, who I thought looks like the main actor in Slumdog Millionaire. Just a little bit. No thanks to the people in my class and the next class who constantly intentionally aggravated and annoyed me. We meet people like these all the time in our lives. Thanks to my classmates who voted me as class monitor. That gave me lots of confidence and involvement in class.

Thanks to all the examiners in Malaysia who gave me good marks!! Whee!! I was actually quite worried about Moral and EST because the questions were so weird. And, I wrote like 5 or more pages in EST essay! I thought, sure die one, but somehow the examiners were either very kind, very experienced, they appreciated good quality and quantity English, or they were blown away by my unassailable levels of English in Science and Technology. Yeah, right. God’s grace, really! Not to be proud or anything, but I wasn’t expecting the other subjects to get anything less. XD

Thanks to the SPM invigilators who were quite funny to watch during examination. Thanks to my good health for not deserting me throughout the SPM exam. Thanks especially to Lik Pin and Sze Teng and everyone else for studying with me in the last minutes before exam, especially Sejarah. Thanks to all my classmates who keep telling me how “geng” I am, which bloated my ego and made me more confident. Compliments are cheap, but they go a long way. (Ever watched the video called “Validation”?)

Thanks to the GFS church members who prayed for me. If any one of you actually did. Thanks to EBC church members whom I miss at the moment, for… I don’t know. I just wanted to mention you guys here. XD If anyone even reads these lengthy things. Thanks to Auntie Lizzie for the stern “encouragement” in the guise of a lecture ON MY FIRST DAY OF CHURCH which really scared and scarred me for life… but it was worth it.

Oh no, did I forget to thank God? You see, I believe in this amazing God who loves each and every one of us. Without Him, I would be lost. He made me to be who I am. All glory be to God!

For you secondary school students, stay tuned for my very own tips to success in SPM! Meanwhile, my SPM song is still available for listening. XD

Some statistics to ponder upon:
- There were 442,936 students who sat for SPM in 2008.
- 6,277 students scored all A's.
- 1,676 students scored all A1's.
- Three students scored 16A1's. Damn! Xo
- There were 111 subjects offered in SPM last year. Strange number...