Jennifer Chen
Editor

Having been educated overseas, I had no such score. But being immigrants, my parents pushed me to achieve – a ‘B’ grade for a subject was a disaster and that drove me in my younger years. In retrospect, education can take many forms – school grades don’t measure risk-taking, adaptability or sociability, which can contribute greatly to one’s success.

(Previously debated: Is it better to give or to receive?)

The company one keeps matters, and your grades are an indirect determiner of that, limiting your secondary school options. We are at our most impressionable in our teens, and, though I wouldn’t say my PSLE score alone led to where I am today, it did mark the start of crucial years of study culminating in me pursuing my passion, language.

 Adeline Wong
Sub-Editor

While my PSLE score gave me the freedom to have options, the big breaks in my career were precipitated by a confluence of sheer luck, timing, and the kindness of superiors who took a chance on me.

 Denise Kok
Features Editor

(Previously debated: Just how much should men shave?)

Lynette Koh
Watches & Fashion Editor

Yes and no. On the one hand, a good PSLE score helped me get into schools that gave me a solid education as well as a possibly more important intangible – cultural capital. On the other hand, being grade-aware for most of my juvenile years means that, even now, I can’t shake that desire for numerical approbation: I get peeved when I don’t score well on a health exam.

My PSLE score is definitely not a determining factor in where I am or what I do today. Despite the lack of school options I had due to my score, I’m happy with the neighbourhood school I went to. In a society where your schools, grades and education level are still things many people judge you by, I think they are not everything. What school doesn’t teach is a sense of contentment. If you’re able to be contented with what you have, then life is definitely worth celebrating.

 
Fazlie Hashim
Art Director