If you’re lost or struggling, read this. I hope it helps.

By: Naaman Tan (Class of 2018)

Just a reminder (in case): unclench your jaw, loosen your shoulders and relax your eyes.

My name is Naaman, and I graduated from NJC in 2018. Due to a mix of personal, academic and family difficulties, my two years of JC were among the toughest in my life. I’d like to think I’ve come a long way since then, and I want to share some of the lessons I’ve learnt with you. I hope you might find some value in them, and that’s why I’m writing this.

I have four main points I want to make.

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First: your grades do not define you, but good grades are important.

Don’t give up. At my lowest points, I often found it uninspiring that we are measured by our grades and CVs. Reduced to the sum of our productivity and economic value. But aside from the fact that it is one of the most logistically efficient ways of indicating competency, it is also the way the world works right now. If you want to improve it, you will need to thrive in it and understand it, before you can find like-minded people to transform it with you. In any case, good grades are important.

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Second: no matter where you are right now, know that you can score well for the A levels. It’s really difficult, but certainly possible.

Maybe having proof of it may help, so I’ll share my experience.

J1 was a tough year. Hit by a mix of personal struggles, health issues and family problems, I spent most of J1 absent from school. I missed about three out of five days on average. At home, I wouldn’t have the energy or emotional capacity to study or do homework. At school, having missed lectures and not understood much, I would be totally and embarrassingly lost in class. I would often be hit by overwhelming feelings of guilt and uselessness. “I should be doing better”, “I should be working harder”, “I’m not as good as them, so why should I try?” were frequent thoughts. They would fuel a vicious cycle of terrible mental health, social relationships and academic performance.

In J2, shortly after the release of my CT results – 3Bs, 2Es I think – I broke down one day at the benches near the JH classes. But with that low point came some important questions – if good grades were so difficult to get, why did I want them so badly? If getting my life back in order was seemingly impossible, why was I still trying? If there wasn’t a point to all this pain and strive, why hadn’t I given up yet?

Was there a point to all this? What did I really want? How would I get there?

I had a rough inkling but nothing concrete. But at the very least, I knew with certainty that I did not want to be trapped. I wanted to have the opportunity to decide my fate, when I found it.

So I made myself a promise. It was nearing my birthday – and I told myself that come my next birthday, I would have tried my very best at turning things around. If I didn’t do well, I’ll figure it out then – but I would have no regrets, and I would not blame myself.

I would commit to studying in every spare moment outside of the meaningful things that kept me going and taking care of my physical and mental health. Life would (after a lot of effort and time) get better. Prelims would be 3As and 2Cs, and I would achieve straight As in the actual A levels.

I understand the contexts might be different – but I hope this short recount gives you some belief that there is hope, however difficult.

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Third: these were the things I did that helped me. I hope they help you too.

1. Recognise where you are now.

If you want to improve, you must wholeheartedly embrace the idea that you’re not where you want to be. That means understanding what isn’t working for you and coming up with strategies to overcome them.

Are you procrastinating too much? Why? How can you cope with it? What are your weaknesses? Are they fair assessments? How can you work on them while leveraging on your strengths? So on and so forth.

Doing the same things over and over again is not likely to bring results. So look at yourself honestly, recognise your areas of weaknesses, and work on them productively and optimistically.

2. Sleep.

There’s plenty of sleep research out there that basically says: sleep good, don’t sleep bad. If you ever have the time, ‘Why we Sleep’ by Matthew Walker is a really good book to find out more.

Primarily broken down into non-REM and REM sleep, our sleep improves learning. The former consolidates your memories for the day into long-term memory (aka things you’ve studied), the latter creates connections between concepts (aka helping you to apply learnt knowledge more creatively).

Sleep also improves virtually every aspect of your life, from physical health (immunity and alertness) to emotional health (emotional reactivity and being able to manage your emotions).

Get good sleep habits. Sleep 8 hours every night. Find some strategies here.

3. Be organised and disciplined.

With limited time means the need for efficiency and productivity. You need to spend your time meaningfully. So plan your time out (even if loosely), and be disciplined enough to follow it. What worked for me was to divide my days into mornings (before assembly), after school (the entire afternoon), after dinner, and then loosely plan what I would do in those times slots, be it resting or working.

There are many strategies to manage procrastination that you can find here. Check them out, I hope you find them useful.

4. Really understand the concepts.

The trend in A-level papers appears to be moving towards more application questions. You can do alright by rote memorisation, but it is much more efficient, enjoyable and meaningful to truly understand the concepts you learn.

For example, rather than memorising the marking points to a ton of questions, it is clearer (both for you and the examiner) and less likely for mistakes to be made by understanding the premises (eg. high temperature increases vibrations of particles) and the reasoning (eg. increases frequency of collisions between electrons, thus increasing electric resistance) to answer questions as they come along.

How do you build understanding? Ask questions and think if things logically fit. If someone tells you A->C, think if that makes sense, and ask what B is if you feel something is missing. Keep asking, keep being curious.

5. Seek support from everyone. Loved ones, teachers, friends.

When you are at a low point – in your academics, emotional state, whatever – support really goes a long way. Reach out to people.

Need help with clarifying concepts? Ask a teacher. Ask friends. Even ask unfamiliar classmates if they’re good at it. Need someone to talk to? Tell someone who’s willing to listen. Teachers are always there.

It may be scary to reach out, because you fear embarrassment, seeming vulnerable, and so on. But if you need help, you need help, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. People can’t read your mind, it’s not your fault or theirs. Be brave enough to send the first text message.

If people aren’t willing, it’s okay. Try again. Don’t lose faith, there are plenty of lovely and helpful people out there.

6. Be kind to yourself. Slip-ups are okay. Just never stop moving.

As with all improvements and behavioural changes, there will be moments of relapse and failures. It’s natural. Don’t beat yourself up. Take some time to manage your emotions and then make sure you understand what went wrong – what could you have done better?

Learn from it and move on. Don’t look back or second guess yourself. Believe in yourself not to make the same mistake again. The key is to just keep moving.

7. Take care of yourself – physically and emotionally.

Studying all the time is bad. This point especially goes out to those who are working really, really hard all the time. Staying physically and emotionally well keeps your energy levels up and your mood stable. This makes everything easier – including studying.

Working hard is important, but working too hard results in a loss of productivity and misery for yourself and those around you. Take the time to rest. Eat well. Exercise a little. Celebrate small successes.

It’s hard to let go of that I’m-not-studying anxiety, but it makes a difference.

8. Don’t lose yourself or sight of your ‘why’.

Fundamentally, nothing had changed for me from J1 to J2. My grades were still terrible, I was still lost in class, I still had many low points. But the key difference was the realisation that I didn’t want to live like this forever. It served as my pillar whenever my faith in myself wavered, whenever I had to make a difficult choice, whenever I felt afraid. It gave me something to think about other than the difficult challenges.

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My final point: start thinking about who you are. What do you believe in? What makes you happy? Where do you want to be in 10 years?

Why is this important?

The greatest among us are rarely defined by their work ethic or their intelligence – but by their beliefs, their values, their vision. We are drawn to them because we share similar mindsets, we trust and follow them because they very clearly and consistently believe and act in a certain way we agree with.

Know who you are, what you stand for, and you’ll know how to make the difficult choices – because either they align with your values or they don’t. A lot changes after JC. There’s less structure and more personal responsibility. Knowing who you are and being able to thrive in a dynamic environment is crucial to riding life’s difficult challenges.

So if there’s anything at all I hope you take away from this article – apart from hopefully helpful tips – is to find an answer to the question: what inspires you?

Disclaimer:

The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed in this post are those of the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of the school’s.