What do you credit for your progress in school - good teaching methods, your own ability or just purely good luck?

When parents look for schools for their children, they base their search on a few things: the quality of the teachers, the reputation of the school, as well as the annual results obtained in the GCE 'O' level examinations. But to a student, progress at school is not so easily narrowed down. Instead, it is a combination of individual ability and good teaching rather than good luck.

My first two years in secondary school were halycon days for me but hell for my teachers. I was in the school netball team and thus spent all my time practising at the game. Furthermore, most of my team-mates were comparable to me in their school achievement, that is, we were not top of the barrel in the academic results, which made me feel that there was no need to try too hard in my studies. The teacher in charge of netball in school was also an english teacher, which made me proficient only in that area. In fact, my best friend and I were so often at the bottom of the class rankings that we actually began to feel quite proud of our consistency!

However, things changed when Miss Loh became our form teacher in Secondary Two. She was a warm and gracious lady who was also firm in her belief that students must develop their potential to the fullest. Thus began her reformation of me. She talked to me quite often to tell me how capable she thought I was and how much I was wasting my own ability. But I always relied on the excuse that netball training left me no time for much revision. Only when she was about to leave for Japan to further her studies did I realise how much her encouragement had meant to me. In the end, I decided to give my studies a try.

Lo and behold! I actually scored marks good enough to be selected for the best class in the following year! I was ecstatic and infinitely grateful that she had opened my eyes to what I could really do. I began paying attention in class and realised that the teachers were really good. As long as I listened in class and did my work diligently, there was no problem with understanding the lessons. Out of this experience came my discovery of two qualities I possessed that went a long way towards academic achievement - my good memory and quick understanding.

Through my secondary school years, my progress at school was the result of my own hard work and the teachers' efforts at teaching. Their examples inspired me; even when my classsmates were all dozing off because the teacher was boring, I remained attentive because I had realised that beyond the monotonous tone was a wealth of knowledge that I wanted to know. That really kept me going, for until today, the sense of curiosity that was sparked by my attentiveness in class has not left me.

Luck has never been a factor in my studies. If I did well, it was because I had studied hard and thus did not need to be lucky to have 'spotted' the right questions to study for. Once I am prepared for the test or examination, luck was of no importance. Hence, my progress in school has always been a potent combination of good teachers and my own ability rather than mere luck.

(Extracted from SAP model compositions)