“It’s Just A Piece of Paper.”

Assalamualaikum, and hi 🙂

[This post was a post I wrote for InTeen Blogazine, under the column InStudies. Since I haven’t posted anything in this blog for quite some time, I’m just gonna repost it here for you guys]

“Your SPM results doesn’t mean a thing in this stage. It’s just a piece of paper.“

Harsh? Yes. The truth? Absolutely.

Two years back, when I was sitting for my SPM, the only thing I had on my mind was to score 9A+. 9A+. That was all I could think about. Nothing else matters. Like a robot, I read all the textbooks. Like a machine, I answered endless numbers of past year papers and trial papers from different states. Like a photocopier, I rewrote my notes on different topics.

I worked my pants off just to get my hands on that one piece of paper. Just for that one slip of paper with that 9A+ printed on it. Just for that one measly paper.

Now you have it. What are you going to do with it?

When you get to college, you’d realize that nothing you did in high school works. In high school, you’d have your teachers to give you the notes. In high school, you’d have your teachers telling you which chapters to read for the examinations. In high school, you’d have your teachers to tell you where you went wrong, and how to correct them. In college?

You only have yourself.

Sure, your lecturers would be there to guide you. Your lecturers would be there to help you understand. Your lecturers would be there to provide some tutorial questions and help you out if you’re stuck. But, in the end, it all depends on you.

It doesn’t matter if you get 20A+ for your SPM, but it was all down to the fact that your parents and teachers pushed you to study every night. It doesn’t matter if you were nominated the Best Student in Malaysia if you can’t even speak your mind out. It doesn’t matter if you are able to memorize millions of facts in your brain, but you can’t even organize them to produce an ace essay.

This is the time where discipline plays it’s role in determining who you really are. Would you be able to focus on your aims and goals? Or would you succumb to the temptation of being in college and away from your parents’ eyes? Would you be able to study and do your own research without the lecturers’ telling you to do so? Or would you be one of the people who wait for the lecturers to spoon-fed them?

For all you who would be sitting for SPM, not only this year’s candidates, but the following years too, prepare yourself for college life. Train yourself from now to study independently. Discipline yourself from now, so you wouldn’t have much troubles coping in college. Start now, so you wouldn’t regret it in the future.

There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure. -Colin Powell