Academic Trends

This morning, read on the papers that increasingly, more students with an L1R5 of 11 points and below are choosing Polytechnic courses for their next level of education. It does not surprise me as 5 years back there have been this trend of students who qualify for JCs opting to go to Poly. In the past, I couldn't understand why they do that, but now I realize they are goal oriented knowing what they want to be at an early age.

It is glad that nowadays Polytechnics are not for those who do not meet the criteria to go to JC anymore; instead it is as competitive as any of the 17 JCs in Singapore.There are increasingly less stereotypes of JC students and Poly undergraduates; afterall the motive of education is not to boast about how great one is, it is about gaining knowledge. Indeed, choosing to go to a Polytechnic requires more hands on ability and team work than JC students require, but I somehow feel that a Polytechnic is like a mini university, with many schools and many courses to choose from. No wonder students who do well in their O levels chose to go to Polytechnics.

For me, I never regretted entering JC as I know if I was to be in a Polytechnic environment, I would not achieve much because I am the type who is more passive and rigid, I prefer having a more uniform lifestyle. Perhaps like many JC students, I am more concerned about tests and exams than projects, that is why often people term JC lifestyle as stressful. It depends how you look at it, I have seen people having more than 2 CCAs, yet are the top scorers in my JC. I just want to say that be it in JC or poly, it is the individual who gives himself stress and often not the environment.

Increasingly, JC students are opting for not very much related courses in their University. I don't know if it is fair to say that I was being deprived of a place in local University because of this trend. During my brother's time, most JC students chose to go to engineering and business schools, but now there are a lot of students opting for courses in FASS in NUS, the new SPMS in NTU and courses in SMU. I heard that FASS used to be not so popular, but in my year, it was so popular that I did not get into it. Can't blame anyone except that if I would have done better, I might have gotten in, this type of thing is very unpredictable.

It is important that you do your best in whatever desired institution, that will leave you with no regrets. Alright, I end here now.