Ode to my nephew: What's next after O-Levels?

Time Flies.

My nephew will be receiving his O-Level results tomorrow. The O-Level exam is a milestone that leads to the beginning of another journey ahead, and the choice he makes on Monday will have a major impact on how his life turns out. The clock will start ticking upon receiving his results. His time slot to register for his institution of choice starts from 3pm on Monday, 11 January 2021 and ends at 4pm on Friday, 15 January 2021.

I'm sure the feeling of anxiety and excitement will be the same. What is different from my time, if he decides to go the Junior College route, is that entry will be solely based on his O-Level results, instead of his Preliminary results (no more luxury of "trying it out for 3 months").

Given the gravity of the situation, I'll like to suggest some questions to consider as he plans for the road ahead, as I reminisce on my own experience:

What is my personality?

Personality refers to the combination of characteristics or qualities that form an individual's distinctive character. In Workplace Big Five terminology, we classify these traits into 5 groups: Need for stability, Extraversion, Originality, Accommodation, and Consolidation.

Consider this common scenario at some premier secondary schools. In a bid to challenge the students, exams and assessments are consistently set at a high standard, making it near impossible to score a distinction. Some students thrive under such pressure, while other collapse and fall into depression.

I had a score of 32 for my L1R5 (1 language, 5 subjects) for my Prelim exams. (For the un-initiated, this score is tabulated from our aggregate score for each subject A1 - 1 point, A2 - 2 point etc). As a benchmark, during my time, a typical premier Junior Colleges requires a score of 6-12 for entry.

I ended up with 10 points for my actual O-Level exams, shaving 22 points off my prelim score. How did I do it? To be honest, I am not sure. I only realised years later that this can be attributed to several of my Big Five subtraits, such as being extremely low on "worry". "rebound time", while being extremely high on "Drive" and "Concentration". I was terribly hurt when my Principal humiliated my mum and made her cry by declaring me a disgrace to the school. It was my fault. And I guess I took ownership to correct it.

We are who we are. Would you thrive as a big fish in a small pond, or would it be better to be a small fish in a big pond?

What do I value most?

Personality traits are based on both genetics and experience, both nature and nurture. Values are based only on experience—they are learned. Therefore, they can be unlearned, replaced, or modified. True, one’s values can be influenced by one’s traits, but they are not dictated by them.

For example, a strongly extraverted individual might express their outgoing nature by embracing the value of helping others. Or, they might express it through the value of Activity, which is making sure that they always have a full schedule.

How well does the value of your future school align with yours? In the context of Singapore, why does it seem that more bureaucrats come from certain education institutions? How about entrepreneurs?

School is not just a place for gaining new knowledge, it is also a place for building relationships. The meaningful relationships you build will have an impact on your journey down the road.

What are some of the things I take pride in? What helps me to unwind?

What are some of your interests outside of academic pursuits? Do you have a love for playing music instruments? How about a talent for certain sports? All work and no play makes Jack and Jill dull persons!

For example. do we participate in sports to accumulate Co-Curricular Activity (CCA) points or notch a higher level of attainment under the Leadership, Enrichment, Achievement, Participation and Service (LEAPS) 2.0 framework; for direct school admission (DSA); or for a shorter Basic Military Training?

Stress is part and parcel of student life, and I see CCA as an integral part in helping us to develop more holistically and as as way for us to relieve the stress. This is in line with the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Singapore, as they replaced the term “extra-curricular” with “co-curricular” in 2000. Let's pick a destination that allows us to fulfil our potential beyond the textbook!

What are some tasks I enjoy or dislike doing?

I was very certain I was not cut out to be an engineer given my relative disdain for the likes of trigonometry, differentiation or any form of abstract calculation. However, I realised I could be very fast and accurate when dealing with numbers and dollars, so I decided to opt for a Junior College that offered a Commerce stream.

I think this early awareness of myself helped me scrape through my Junior College years, as I have friends who are in the same situation as me, but decided to enroll themselves into a Science stream to keep their options open, but ended up failing their first year study, before switching streams, or transferring to a Polytechnic. Academic fit is just as important as Job fit.

Which careers would I like to explore? What would I like to work as?

This is a question that I was well placed to answer, as I spent my time working while most of my friends were studying in Junior Colleges during the "first 3 months". I leveraged on the time I possessed to try out several jobs, ranging from telemarketing, logistics delivery, waiter to administrative jobs.

Given that my O-Level graduates do not have this opportunity to try it out, perhaps it will be worthwhile to consider John Holland's famous "hexagon" of career interests. According to his theory, a person interested in the job content on one point of the hexagon would be unlikely to have much interest in the job content opposite to it. For example, in the hexagon below, a person interested in Realistic content would typically show little interest in Social content, and vice-versa.

Brief Definition of the 6 Holland Career Interests

1. Realistic jobs typically involves technical/mechanical pursuits, working with your hands, working outdoors, and typically more physical than mental.

2. Investigative jobs typically involve some manner of describing the "truth," perhaps through scientific research, journalistic inquiry, police detection, or laboratory experiments.

3. Artistic jobs typically involves creative expression, whether through language, music, dance, theatre, crafts, visual arts, or other media.

4. Social jobs typically involves those that serves society, whether through teaching, social work, counseling, health care, politics, or other roles.

5. Enterprising jobs typically involve making, selling, and managing products and services for profit.

6. Conventional jobs typically involves business and office operations, such as office management, support and administrative activities, financial transactions, information technology etc,

This last question, in my humble opinion, is the most important consideration. Why?

If you are having difficulty assessing your interest based on the 6 Holland Career interests above, going to a JC might buy you some time to think. On the other hand, if you are already very clear on your career aspirations, and more inclined towards hands-on projects, teamwork, communication, instead of academic theories, going to Poly might give you more opportunities to score using those skills.

Furthermore, as compared to my time, more university places has be set aside for Institute of Technical Education (ITE) and polytechnic graduates, which decreases the opportunity cost of opting to enter a Polytechnic. Universities also offers exemptions on relevant Polytechnic modules, which sounds like a good deal to me!

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Knowing more about your personality, values, preferences and what you are good at will help you make informed choices. But most importantly, no matter how well you perform, do remember that the results you achieve will not define you for the rest of your life. All the best for your O-Level results!

If you need any advice on how to move forward, feel free to reach out to me.

Weixi Tan helps clients to implement impactful change initiatives by addressing the human side of change through the use of psychometrics such as Workplace Big 5 and Strength Deployment Inventory. He also facilitates sessions using award winning online simulations that highlights important principles of change management. All interventions can be conducted in a virtual instructor led environment. He can be contacted at [email protected].