Worlds Apart

The STPM trial results are out. Well, at least for SMK Seafield. Do you hear the moaning and sighing? You probably can't but to give you an idea of how bad we fared this time round, only one "A" was awarded between the subjects Mathemathics T, chemistry, biology and, as far as my sources can tell, physics.

One "A" for four subjects. Not one "A" per subject, one "A" for four. And, no, yours truly is not the lucky person with that "A". I am on course for 4 "A-". Now how sad is that? (Editor's note : At the time of writing, my complete results were not known. However, at the time of posting, my results were out, and I did get 4"A-". Hooray?)

The results are making every Upper Sixer worth his or her salt to sweat, panic and really start studying. Needless to say, the results we will get for STPM or even for pra-STPM will be better than this. The only thing I found amusing about this entire affair were not the results I was getting, but the way these results were obtained. Confused? Let me paint you a picture.

A person's results in an exam are almost always proportional to the amount of revising, practising and study one does before an exam. As I failed to do a lot of all three, my results were, to me at least, depressing but not surprising. However, the manner in which I found out the results of the other Upper Sixers was, as I said earlier, pretty amusing.

After receiving my bio results on Friday, I proceeded to dig up what the class knew about the general results of the Upper Sixers. The following conversation ensued.

Me : How many people got "A" for Maths?

Jamie : Three people, I thought. You, Ya-Pei, Rong Gen.

Me : No, I thought Miss Goh said that no one got an "A"?

Jamie : But you three still got "A-".

Me : I mean an "A", not an "A-".

We repeated the same process for biology, chemistry and physics. Every time I asked, I was talking about "A"s, while Jamie was talking about "A"s and "A-"s. Jen Chong, who was also listening in, also understood my "A"s as, well, "A"s. Towards the end, he gave a suggestion to end the ambiguity : 4.00. Nevertheless, the confusion between whether "A"s mean "A"s only or "A"s and "A-"s continued. This is not the first time. And all things considered, this will not be the last.

When I did my SPM, I would debate with my parents for hours on whether a "2A" was considered an "A" or not. From that experience, I always considered "A"s to be the plain vanilla "A" - no minus, whether single, double or triple. As for "A+", that's another story. However, when we consider "A"s as "A-"s and "A"s differs with the situation we are in. In my case in Form 5, others were getting "1A"s while I was only getting "2A"s. So to console myself and my parents over my failure to match others in their number of 1As, and in an effort to salvage my pride, I would say that a "2A" is an "A" nonetheless. In my current situation now, barely anyone has an "A", while I have a lot of "A-"s, so an "A" to me is the plain vanilla one, as I feel no shame in admitting so. As for Jamie's case, she is within striking distance of an "A", so to her, any "A" would do, regardless of the mathematical sign behind it.

The fact is an "A" is a plain vanilla "A". When people talk about "A"s, they want top grades, not some half-decent , semi-proficient grade. We change the goalposts when it comes to what is considered an "A" because of our pride. We don't want to be seen as inferior, or as unable to be able to score an "A", or as a waste of our teachers' time. We want to salvage our pride, show that we have done something, even if it is not the result we want, at least we are within striking distance.

But the fact remains that "A"s and "A-"s are worlds apart. An "A", as anyone who is familiar with the GPA system would tell you, would say it is worth 4.00, while an "A-" is only worth 3.66. In the quest for a place in the public universities of Malaysia, not only do Sixth Formers have to contend with the most idiotic placement system in the world, we also have to face competition from Matrikulasi students and other Sixth Formers. 4"A"s are worth 4.00. 3"A"s and an "A-" are worth 3.92. In the competition for places in public universities, that is a gap few can afford, especially if one is going for "critical programs".

The goalposts for what is considered an "A" and what is not will continue to change. Different people will continue to have different ideas on what "A"s are and how important they are. The quest for "A"s, in all their forms, will continue. However, one thing will remain the same. "A"s are worlds apart from "A-"s. One is a sign of excellence. The other is only a cheap imitation.