I'm starting my first year of JC in Singapore. Advice?

I went to NJC too! I had quite possibly the worst two years of my life, but I don't want to scare you because the problem with me was that I made rookie mistakes.

  • really try to fit in and make friends. I think a big part of why was I was socially awkward, and also foreign so didn't know the ways of Singaporeans... so I was pretty much an outcast in my class. try to find friends from your own ethnicity, it will make things easier, especially if you're not white or east asian.

  • establish a good rapport with teachers. I saw all my classmates having easy, casual conversations with teachers but I never did it because I felt too awkward. Later when I really needed teachers to be understanding of my shortcomings (I was seriously depressed all through JC), they totally weren't. They instead held me to standards higher than the other students. Teachers are human. They have students they like and students they hate. And Singapore culture means some really shocking behavior by teachers is considered acceptable. My bio teacher used to regularly humiliate me in front of everyone in class, telling me I was never going to make good grades (solid C student :P), never going to amount to anything, and more awful attacks. Nobody thought this was bad behavior by this teacher, and I was too young to know better.

  • try to learn in class/lectures, don't just blindly take notes thinking you'll understand later. do your tutorials properly. it's not easy to catch up after falling behind even just a week's worth of classes, and that can be very discouraging, and lead to a downward spiral.

  • it might not matter for university admission but CCAs are awesome for life and you should definitely participate. play to your strengths first and interests second, though, because some CCA standards in NJC are pretty high. I thought I would join the choir at NJ because I had a casual signing background and loved singing, but I was shocked to find out that almost everyone in the choir had professional training not just in voice but also in piano! I made it into the choir on the basis of my voice but the instructors were constantly expressing derision towards me that I couldn't sight-read music, so I left after a month and concentrated on other CCAs that I was really good at instead (the school mag Grapevine, the debating team, Indian dance & cultural society).

/r/singapore Thread