By Darren Wong (24S03C) and Shanice Foo (25S03A)
Your resident Aunties and Uncles are back with our Ask Aunt Agony and Uncle Upset column, this time as a collaboration between Raffles Press and Peer Helpers’ Programme (PHP)! Ever wanted to rant about that someone you just can’t stand? Overwhelmed with too many feelings? Submit your confessions to https://tinyurl.com/RIAAUU and we’ll give them our best shot. This column will be published at the end of every month.
“How does the academic workload in JC compare to secondary school? How much time would I have to commit to studying after school to attain decent grades?”
Wondering Wilbur
Dear Wondering Wilbur,
We’ll level with you here. JC is tough. Really tough. Like a mountain climber who has just scaled through Year 4 (or if you’re a JAE student, O Levels) to get to base camp, you wouldn’t have had the time to pop your champagne and celebrate before the next climb began—JC.
In the context of climbing a towering mountain towards success, with JC being one of the final checkpoints before reaching the summit, it is expected that with each step, the air gets thinner and the path becomes steeper. It is important to understand that unlike secondary school, the runway towards the A-Level exams is much shorter (halved, actually). JC waits for no one.
Just as you’re beginning to get used to the change in altitude and environment, you are rushed to start embarking on your next arduous journey. With a greater depth of content to cover for each subject, your load may start to feel much heavier. Each step forward may feel like a great feat.
Since it is an uphill climb from here on up, there might also be less opportunities to take a breather. Compared to secondary school, where all the teaching is done within curriculum hours, JC requires much more time and discipline outside of school hours to fully absorb the content.
With the path upwards becoming more narrow and harder to navigate, it is only natural to feel that one wrong step might just cost everything.
Mountains of Work
Navigating JC academics can feel like diving into the deep end of a pool you weren’t quite ready for. Suddenly, you’re juggling multiple subjects, countless assignments, extracurricular activities while simultaneously trying to squeeze in a social life somewhere in between.
When faced with a mountain of work (as we often are in JC), ‘time management’ and ‘motivation’ become like an elusive Holy Grail that we’re constantly trying to chase. It often feels so much easier to just flop onto your bed and leave everything for tomorrow.
But ‘tomorrow’s and ‘later’s build up, and eventually you’ll end up with an even bigger mountain of work than you began with. In turn, this makes starting on the work even more daunting, and it gets even easier to put it off, one more tomorrow, one more later—and that’s how your workload snowballs out of control.
Surviving the Avalanche
It’s a tough pill to swallow, but the most concrete solution to managing your workload is a detailed and organised work plan.
Try prioritising tasks by breaking them down into smaller, more manageable chunks, and create a realistic study schedule that allows for regular breaks and downtime. Utilise tools like planners or digital calendars to stay organised and ensure deadlines are met.
Now comes the hardest part. Actually sticking to your schedule. Take it one step at a time, and try not to get hung up on overrunning past a scheduled block. Remember that your schedule isn’t set in stone, but rather a guide as to how you should spend your time. It’s meant to help you, not to stress you out.
However, schedules just don’t work for some people, and you may find making a schedule stresses you out, or even decreases your productivity.
An alternative method to organising your work is to create a daily or weekly to-do list. Decide what you want to get done in that time period, and use apps or a planner to mark it down. Checking things off a to-do list is a universally cathartic experience, and that boost can help motivate you to get things done.
There doesn’t have to be a set amount of time you need to spend on studying after school, but it is important to ensure you have a systematic way of tackling your studies so you can keep on top of things.
The Friends We Make Along the Way
An overlooked part of managing your academics is having a strong support system. Surrounding yourself with a network of friends that you can lean on during tough times can help motivate and encourage you through the journey. Remember that you’re all in it together, and helping each other out will benefit all of you.
Don’t forget about your teachers either! In the self-directed learning environment of JC, the onus is on you to start scheduling consults and asking your teachers questions. They’re here to help you, and they will do their best to, but you can make it a lot easier for them to help by reaching out first.
Look Back, Around, and Up
When the climb to the summit seems too overwhelming for you to handle, take a step back, and admire the view.
Look back down, all the way to base camp, and see how far you’ve come. Look around, at all the people around you, and treasure the relationships you’ve built. And lastly, look to the summit, and remember that you can, and you will, reach it eventually.
Sincerely,
Aunt Agony and Uncle Upset
If you need anyone to talk to about any issues you might be facing, do drop by My Rest Space near Marymount gate and talk to one of our peer helpers! We’re open on Tuesday from 2.30 – 4.30 p.m, Wednesday 11.00 a.m. – 3.00 p.m., Thursday 2.30 – 4.30 p.m. and Friday 1.30 – 4.30 p.m. If you would like to meet a peer helper on a regular basis, do email us a request at rafflesinstitutionphp@gmail.com or fill in our request form at our website https://rafflesinstitution5.wixsite.com/rafflespeerhelpers/peer-helping-request!
As a student who just graduated from RI last year, I think the points raised in this article are valid and really true. Great article!
I’d like to add on to the point of having a strong support system. Be sure to make friends who REALLY will support you and help you maintain a positive outlook during rough times. Try to avoid those who are toxic and self-centred. In particular, avoid the complainers. These are people who keep moaning and groaning about how much work they’ve got on their plate (and life in general). It can initially feel good to be around them because their words capture the JC spirit – that life is an endless and dreary slog. And yeah, we’ve got to face the reality of JC and not try to sugarcoat it. It does feel rough at times. But with time you realise, they don’t care about finding a SOLUTION. They just want to complain and have everyone else listen to them.
The worst part is when their lives are, objectively, going much more smoothly than others, but they still complain! While members of the class are struggling with H2 Math, they whine, “Oh no I only got 90/100 on my Math CT when I normally get 95+”. While others struggle to finish their Econs essay, they grumble, “Oh no I only managed to churn out 5 pages for my latest Econs essay, when I normally churn out 8.” If you know someone like this, you know exactly what I’m talking about. They complain when, to most of us, there is nothing to complain about – and there is everything to be celebrated!
It is undoubtedly emotionally draining to be around such people. Instead, you want to be with people who listen to you and are willing to work with you to find solutions. That’s the best kind of friend to be around.
Don’t get me wrong. Someone who keeps complaining could really be facing challenges in life that most of us could never fathom. In that case, lend a listening ear and be a good friend. But you know it when someone is an attention-seeking prick and just wants others to entertain them.
When you encounter people like this, do NOT entertain them. The silent treatment is the best approach. Even better, just tell them directly that no one wants to listen to their whining.
(And yes, I am speaking from experience, hence the impassioned rant above.)
who hurt bro