I studied in Raffles Institution from 1961 to 1965. The school was located at Bras Basah Road.
I cannot remember much about my days in Raffles. I did well in my studies but was not the top student in the earlier years. I might have been the top in a subject or two in some years, but it was not outstanding.
Surprising, I did well in secondary 4 and was top in the school preliminary examination. In the final examination, conducted by Cambridge (predecessor to the GCE O level), I came second in Raffles. The top student was a Malay.
In that year, a few students from other schools did better than Raffles.
I left school to work as a clerk in an insurance company and to pursue the actuarial studies.
A few classmates remembered me more. One classmate told me that he saw my primary school report book when we were in secondary 1. I had full marks in several subjects in most years. He was intimidated by my result.
I had lost lost the report book. I wondered if that classmate threw it away! Most likely not.
I met my secondary 2 math teacher after 30 years. He recalled an incident that I had forgotten. He was explaining a problem to the class on the blackboard. He got stuck. I went up and helped me to explain the solution to the class.
A few years ago, I attended a reunion of my cohort in Raffles. I saw the school record of my results. My own report card had been lost.
I was surprised to see that I did rather poorly in some subjects in some years. I only scored good marks in some subjects.
Those were the old days. In recent years, many top students scored straight As during their years in secondary school. This was not the case during my time.
I preferred the old days when schooling was to learn something useful, and not to score As.
Tan Kin Lian