Is Old Turtle A Loser In Singapore Education System? PSLE Score: 182 – No Problem

Don’t worry – You are not going to witness a turnaround story of a stupid turtle that went on and became a PHD, Medical Doctor or Lawyer.

There has been much talks, discussion and debates on PSLE
scores and how it “shape” and “pre-determine” your future.

Much had been said around PSLE examination over the years
and Old Turtle was one of the product (or victim) from the past and existing Singapore educational system.

https://www.businessinsider.sg/one-by-one-singaporean-celebrities-are-revealing-their-psle-scores-in-support-of-the-lifebeyondgrades-movement/

Education Profile:

Primary School - PLSE: 182 (6 years)

Secondary School - Normal Academic (5 years)

Polytechnic Diploma (3 years)

National Service (2 years)

Bsc Degree (4 years Part time studies)

MBA (18 months Part time studies)

I remembered when my mum saw my PSLE result, she said,
everyone in our family was studying 4 years and you were the first one studying 5 years. I kept silent but in my heart, I knew she was disappointed my result and more importantly worried about his only child’s future in this competitive Singapore economy.

I kept going in secondary school and as usual, I am not very smart in taking examination and I am extremely bad at English and Maths and as you know, both subjects are key in our Singapore educational system. 

I am good at subjects like Chinese, History and Geography but unfortunately they were deemed less important in our educational system.

(Parents, please don't compare your children with other children as every kid will excel in their own ways. It will just make your children feel demoralized and caused a lasting impact in their childhood. Give more encouragement and less comparison)

Key Milestones:

• Parents lost their business when I was in polytechnic and rely on savings to survive and they were only early 50s. I am quite lucky my mum was a saver back then else our family would be in trouble.

• Went to OCS in National Service and managed to save 80-90% of allowances, not a lot back in those days but were significant to me. Managed to save around 10-15k.

• Started working at age 23 years old (starting salary not even enough to apply for credit card) and started contributing to the family’s expenses.

• Concurrently took up part time degree at SIM after work for 4 years and paid off the school fees annually using savings from NS and Salary.

• Lost my first 5 digit figures in investment in one stock post GFC 2008. ** Lesson learnt and life goes on**

• Cash savings and investments hits 200k-250k at age 30 as I had a high savings rate of 80-90% in the first 7 years of the job and together with some “luck” in investments mainly in Singapore blue chips that generates 4-5% annual dividends.

• Age 30: Got married and savings rate falls to 20-30% as kids came along together with other household expenses

• Age 31-33: Had our first and second kid.

• Age 35: Cash savings and investments hits 520k and CPF hits 136k. Passive income hit average of 1.3k per month. 

• Age 35: 4-Room BTO HDB (cost 260k) fully paid off in 5 years. No more debt from now on.

• Age 35: Dad passed away made me even cherished my family even more even if I have to give up career advancement to spend more time with them.

Values

Moral values are more important than your exam grades in life. Like stock investing, true value may not be always be the same as price (aka your exam grades).

My purpose of sharing my personal story is to inspire students that did not do well in their studies not to give up in themselves in any ways.

With honesty, hard work, grit and perseverance, we can still
survive and make it in this competitive Singapore economy.

PSLE 182, never mind one la, Old Turtle managed to survive in
Singapore, raised and fed my family well and still able to prepare for retirement.

I knew my mum is finally feeling proud of her son even though he went a longer route to achieve what others had achieved. I knew back then she was worried about my grades because she felt that I might not be able to survive in Singapore with such lousy grade. I guessed I had proven her wrong that grades are not everything.

If I can do it, you can too !! Do not give up in yourself !!

Do you have any inspiring story to share with me?