Exam Results Day: Down Memory Lane

You know, with all the STPM and SPM results buzz going around, I feel like sharing all my experience when I obtained results for most of the major exams in my life. Allow me to start from young…. Here we go:

6 1/2 years old: Pre-school Final Year Results Day

I have no idea how it felt like receiving my pre-school final year exam results because it was so long ago. But I remember I flunked my Mandarin classes because my family didn’t and still doesn’t speak Mandarin. I also remember I got spanked for no reason – Lao Shi said it is wrong to put your head below a girl’s skirt. But where got???

*Please don’t get the wrong idea here. I have since repented.* =)

9 years old: PTS Results Day

I bet most of you have friends who sat for SPM, and they are like one year younger than you. And you ask them, “How is that so?” and they reply, “PTS ma.”

PTS stands for Penilaian Tahap Satu, which is a government assessment test to identify and accelerate the learning of bright young students. During that time, I was really playful (till once I fell and my earlobe bled because it was sliced by the table edge), and have low self-confidence.

I remember my class teacher reading a list of names of students who passed the PTS, and thus were given the chance  to skip Year Four. I was paying close attention to every name, but not mine.

Then, suddenly I heard, ” sonnn…. lee… ” Next, I turned to my friend, “Hey dude, did I hear wrongly or did Pn Faizah just mentioned my name?”

After that, I asked, “Cikgu, betul kah saya lulus PTS?”

“Ya Winson Lee, kamu berjaya!”

That was PTS results. By the way, I forfeited the chance to skip Year Four because I thought I was stupid and wouldn’t survive the brunt of Year Five. *Now Black Cheongsam, you know more about me huh* =)

12 years old: UPSR Results Day

UPSR is basically Primary School Assessment Test where everyone in the whole country does the same papers.  If my memory is not deceiving me, I took Malay, English, Maths, Kajian Tempatan (Local Studies), and Science. So the story was:

“Krinnggggg….. “

I answered the phone, “Hello.” “Mum, yeah what’s up?”

“Son, my friend works in the exam department. Do you want me to ask her to check your results before everyone gets theirs?”

“Yeah.” So I gave her my candidate number.

“Son, you got straight As!”

Upon hearing that, I was jumping over the phone. I almost did the Bollywood roll, rolling on the floor as if you’re in love and singing Kuch Kuch Hotta Hei. Wow, so unbelievable!

On the results day where UPSR results was announced for real, I was jumping over the phone calling my mum that I got 5As! I was tearing. My friends and I were screaming It was so unbelievable!

Spot the difference between the previous two paragraphs- the first unbelievable moment was real while the second was fake because my friends cannot know that I already knew one week in advance!

Answer:

Upon hearing that, I was jumping over the phone. I almost did the Bollywood roll, rolling on the floor as if you’re in love and singing Kuch Kuch Hotta Hei. Wow, so unbelievable! (Real.)

On the results day where UPSR results was announced for real, I was jumping over the phone calling my mum that I got 5As! I was tearing. My friends and I were screaming It was so unbelievable! (Fake. Monkey act.)

15 years old: PMR Results Day

I believe I worked reasonably hard for PMR. In my trial exams, I’ve got full As. So, on results day, it was expected. People would be surprised if Winson Lee doesn’t get straight As. The expectation was to that extent.

17 years old: SPM Results Day

Now, SPM was a major headache in my school career. It was complete studying at the last minute before exams. It was going through the thick reference books cover to cover.

I even took my trial exams as the real one because I wanted to gauge myself. The trials turned out well. I’ve got straight A1s in my forecast and I managed to use that to apply to millions of scholarship.

On SPM results day, I was alone. I was late because I came at 2pm. I remember wearing a red singlet with my armpit carpet, or armpit hair, exposed.

“Hi Cikgu, bagaimana results saya?”

“Ah Winson, dah expect la 10 A ni… “

Alright, it was expected. So, it wasn’t as exciting as receiving my PTS verdict.

19 years old: SAT Subject Test Results Day

I mentioned this in a post with almost the same title as above. To recap, Jonathan Mah called me up in my sleep and told me, “Winson, guess how much I got for my Maths 2?” It was a question that he asked so he can answer “800 for Maths 2!”

Mind you, 800 is full score in the SAT Mathematics 2 Test. And Jonathan had the guts to tell me “I didn’t finish the last few questions!”

I checked online for my results. It was full of suspense. The internet was so slow. I almost came to a point where I wanted to curse my monitor “wei, why so slow wan? Stupid monitor, useless la, quickly la”.

Then, it came. It was not bad. =) 2180 for Chemistry, Physics, and Maths 2. I am overjoyed, until Jonathan told me he got 2300++.

19 years and 2 months old: SAT Reasoning Test Results Day

Up till this point, I am already numbed. I checked online through College Board. Well, not bad. Above 2000. That would suffice me to apply to Singapore, I thought to myself.

19 years and 3 months old: International Baccalaureate Results Day

This one was really memorable. An hour before we could access our results online, we were all chatting through Windows Live Messenger. Everyone was so exciting and nervous. What happens if Faizal doesn’t get the 35 IB points he needs to satisfy Petronas? How would Chan Hu do since he seems to be quite relaxed throughout the whole IB? How would the hardworking ants like Ju Anne, Khairul, and Siang Hang do?

We had a countdown on our conversation window. 3 minutes, 2 minutes, 1 minute, 30 second, 10 second, 3, 2, 1, It’s NOW! Go check guys!

Then, everyone keyed in their pin number and access code.

Jonathan, Riza and I keyed in ours. We were all blocked!!!!

No access. Wrong pin code. Wrong access code. Please try again. We all three can’t access our results!

Then Jonathan proposed we called up our IB Coordinator. It’s 2am for your info. He didn’t answer. Then, Jonathan called up Mr Masukor. Jon said Mr M will call us to inform us our results soon.

“Krinnggggg… ” I answered the phone at 2.30am.

“Winson, this is Mr Masukor, I would have to say that I am slightly disappointed with you, but overall you did okay. I am glad that you have achieved what you have done in your 2 years in IB….

“Mr Masukor, WHAT’S MY RESULTS! Don’t beat around the bush! I can’t take it. I would have heart attack okay!”

“Okay okay Winson. You dropped a few points in Maths and English where you got 6 in both. You got 2 bonus points.”

“So meaning, the rest are 7s?” I did some calculation. Wow, 42 points!

Then, I started spinning on my desktop chair. The results day was on the 6th Jan.

And suddenly, I remember about dad…………..

He must be proud to see me getting this results. The next thing was, I dedicated my 42 points to my dad who went off on Christmas 2008.

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Many people feel sad when they get bad results in their exams. Some of my Form 6 friends who got their STPM results felt totally devastated. But my piece of advice to them, don’t look back and just prepare yourself for the next phase in your roller coaster life.

It’s a great feeling to be able to say that after so many different experiences in getting exam results. Thank you, God for watching me out all this while. =)