This post is longer than I expected it to be.

I was back in Penang last weekend, to take the ASEAN Scholarship selection test. If you know somebody else who took it too, please let me know!! Thank youuu =D

Anyway . . . the test was held at the Sunway Carnival Convention Centre at Seberang Perai. After they managed to have us assembled properly (Oh, what a feat!) they led us into a vast hall with rows and rows of tables and chairs. There were basically three groups of people there; those who were taking the selection test for Sec 1, Sec 3 and Pre-U (like me!) respectively.

The first paper was Mathematics. People who have taken the test in previous years have warned over and over again through forums that the test will be extremely difficult. After a first glance at the paper, I had a conclusion in mind; these people were NOT joking!! After we were allowed to begin, I frantically flipped through the paper, looking for a single question that I could answer *faints*. I found a few which were easy, but there were a total of 22 questions - and I didn't have to be a maths genius to know that I had to answer more than 2 or 3?!

So as the clock ticked away, I tried to squeeze out every single drop of brain juice (though I doubt there was much left, especially after 6 months of rotting) in order to come up with solutions. Really, the stuff they learn is pretty much the same, but what differs is that they have a much deeper understanding of the concepts than we do. The disparity in the standard of Malaysian maths and Singaporean maths has never been more obvious to me!! Most of the questions were really, really 'chim', and were much less straightfoward than the questions we are so used to answering!

Let me give you an example:

Given that a + b = c. Evaluate abc.

I was like, 'O.o Excuse me??' Okay la, obviously that was not the whole question, but it is essentially the same. They give you unknowns all over the place, some of the tiniest bits of information, and make you work your brain as if you've taken a drug that doubles your IQ. I must've left approximately half of the whole paper blank!!! Salute to all Singaporeans for their non-human cognitive abilities. I surrender *waves white flag* =.=

Apart from having neurons that can send information at the speed of light, Singaporeans have something else most of us don't - the ability to write at machine-like speed. Let me explain. We had to write a 350-word essay within half an hour, for the English paper. Let me repeat. Half an hour!! Gosh. The moment I had my points I began to start writing at top speed, but clearly 'top speed' still wasn't enough. I'm pretty sure I managed to pass the 350-word mark, but I still had to omit one point, because there really wasn't sufficient time at all. A friend told me he saw a girl who managed to fill ALL 3 PAGES of the answer sheet!! That's just . . . really crazy. My essay was only one and a half pages long. To be able to fill 3 pages, I'd have to be really high on candy or something!

Singaporeans clearly also have a much higher standard of English!! I had no trouble with the general meaning of the passage given (based on which we had to answer questions), but when they picked out specific words or phrases and made me explain them . . . it's pretty much, 'Hey, let's play a game of stand-still-and-shoot. I'll stand still, and you'll shoot.' Awful!! Just awful! *shakes head*

Something else I realized is that Malaysian students are far more pampered than Singaporean students are. We are given ample time to answer our SPM English papers - so much that I had taken for granted the amount of time that we were given to answer the English paper during the selection test. I wasted too much time on the comprehension section . . . and almost couldn't finish my summary!

Throughout the whole duration of the test, there was something I really couldn't help noticing - that the hall was getting colder . . . and colder . . . and colder!! Really, what is their problem?? Why do they seem to expect potential ASEAN scholars to be able to withstand extreme cold!? Remind me, when was the last time Singapore was covered in snow??? =.= Couldn't they have turned it down? Sure, we were told that the place would be 'rather cold', and thus it would have been advisable to bring a jacket or something of the sort. Nonsense! They should've said the place would be FREEZING US TO OUR BONES! I would've brought an electric blanket and a polar bear!!

I was out of practice in writing AND thinking, and it REALLY didn't help that it was so extremely cold in there. So not only were my brain juices frozen, but so was my hand. It took an incredible amount of effort to write as quickly as I could. Even after I had stopped writing for awhile, I could still feel my arm screaming out in pain, saying 'WHAT IN THE WORLD are you doing to me??'

There were only 3 papers, and the last one was the General Abilities test. It was basically an IQ test, and although it wasn't half as difficult as the maths paper was, I still didn't manage to complete it, having left 10 questions out of 48 undone.

Seriously speaking, if I do want the scholarship, I would've cried. And would still be crying, considering how it turned out to be. But . . . I don't want it. My father wanted me to apply for it. He really, REALLY likes Singapore. IMO, even if I had flunked the whole test . . . no biggie. The sky is still blue and I'm still happy! Anyways the results will be out sometime in August or September, and until then I will no longer think of this catastrophe!!