Education

Sunday February 26, 2006

‘A’ is for attitude

Success in life does not depend on scoring straight As in exams, but rather on another kind of ‘A’, opines ZAHIRA TIARA SHAFIQ.

I WAS a good student in school. Could have been a straight-A student, if only I had heeded my teachers' admonitions to study harder.

I did well enough in the Penilaian Menengah Rendah (PMR) examinations to qualify for the science stream, but opted to study literature because I wanted to follow my heart. I knew I wouldn't enjoy science at all, so why go through the anguish?

In school, I was very active. I was in the school’s debating team in Form Four. We emerged district runners-up and even wrote the lyrics of the song for Teacher's Day celebrations that year.

Tiara (right) teams up with Japan’s Miho Koshimura in another World Expo project at the Thomas J. Pappas High School in Phoenix, Arizona, in the US.
I also became a major fan of Channel [V]'s By Demand and created a fan website for them. They loved it, and I soon made friends with the crew and the VJs.

However, when I was in Form Five, I was diagnosed with panic disorder and depression, and had to undergo treatment for both. My headmistress was sympathetic and asked if I wanted to take a break from school.

My family and I said no. I continued at school, but was appalled to see how teachers cared more about the number of As students could score than their welfare.

They relaxed this stance when one of my peers passed away from a heart affliction, but within a month, it was back to the mad frenzy for As, without regard for health or anything else.

Some of my friends were so stressed out over the impending Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia examinations that they went into depression. A classmate suffered a bout of hysteria and was transferred to another school.

My teacher’s response?

“I hope she doesn't take her SPM results here; she would only bring down our perfect grade record.”

Eventually, I scored five As in the SPM exam. However, those five As were meaningless as I did not qualify for scholarships.

Not to be deterred, I took a year off after secondary school and did lots of things. I travelled, enrolled in dance classes, joined BRATs (even did an interview with Asha Gill which made the front page of Ole Brats) and took a Radio DJ workshop.

I also designed and launched Asha Gill's official website AshaGill.Com as well as set up my freelance production company Blessed*Be Productions.

Mind you, all this had nothing to do with my SPM grades.

Later, I enrolled in university. I did well and was a volunteer with Amnesty International. I was even selected to interview our Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, and the Democratic Action Party’s Lim Kit Siang.

I was also a semi-finalist for the Hitz.FM Radio Icon.

It was while I was in university that I started looking for alternative opportunities to education, and I stumbled into the Up With People's WorldSmart Leadership Programme which offers successful candidates an inter-cultural global educational experience involving travel to seven countries around the world, with plenty of experiential learning.

In the application, they did ask for “high school results”, but that was not a priority to them. What mattered was leadership and communication skills as well as the willingness to learn and be flexible.

They asked me many things in the interview but nothing about the SPM results.

I applied and became the first Malaysian in the WorldSmart Leadership Programme in its 40-year history.

I spent a semester travelling through the US, Japan, and Europe with people from 27 different countries, doing community service, learning about the region, working on internships and projects, and living with host families.

Due to my active involvement, I was elected Crew Representative for my group.

I am now on a hiatus from university. In a few days, I will start a new job with Channel [V] International, thanks to the fansite I made when I was not even 16.

And I realise that whatever I have achieved so far was done without the scoring straight As in the SPM.

In fact, the SPM results did not matter at all.

All that stress and panic for nothing.

I have been in touch with friends from school who scored straight As, and while they are doing okay, they sound envious of me.

I even gave a talk at my former school about the opportunities out in the world and the students were amazed and inspired.

It is not difficult to get enriching experiences.

All you have to do is to look out there and be open to new things. Opportunities are there if you look hard enough.

Some people say you need As to get scholarships. That is not necessarily true.

FastWeb's Scholarship Search, a big online database for American scholarships, offers plenty of scholarships where priority is in creative and critical thinking, as well as life experiences.

They have scholarships that require you to make a short film, write essays, analyse books, write a science fiction story... but there is no mention of exam results.

There is no point in getting straight As if that is all you are good at. Even Harvard encourages its students to take a year off and get some much-needed experience before enrolling.

Employers do not care how many As you have as long as you get the job done. As for self-employment or entrepreneurship, that definitely has nothing to do with your SPM results (just ask Bill Gates).

There are so many opportunities out there that do not depend on exam results.

Why stress yourself out over something that, in the long run, does not really matter all that much?

Why put yourself at the risk of mental trauma, or even suicide?

Really, SPM results are not worth worrying over.

There is so much more to the world out there than just As.

Go out and learn.

Experience.

Have the right attitude.

The world is much bigger than that slip of paper with your results on it.

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