echo “Calling all Form Five students of 2020! You did it!”
With the pandemic going on, 2020s SPM students had it rough. What was supposed to be a 1 year long worth of classes to prep for SPM became 14 months until SPM 2020 started. It was the SPM to be remembered through the decades, as it is the longest annual SPM in the history of Malaysia. With all the postponing and switching to online classes, this batch of students went through fire and water just to sit for this exam. And all was worth it when the results day came on 10 June 2021.
SPM, Sijil Perperiksaan Malaysia or Malaysian Certificate of Education, is a national examination taken by Malaysian Form Five students before furthering their studies to foundation, form 6, Matrikulasi or diploma. SPM usually takes place around November and lasts for more than 3 weeks. With the announcement from Malaysia’s Ministry of Education, SPM 2020 was postponed to 22 February 2021 instead. “The ministry decided to do this after taking into account the current situation and challenges faced by the SPM 2021 exam candidates, ” Education Minister Datuk Dr Radzi Jidin said during a press conference yesterday. This made shock waves amongst students and truth be told, many were caught off guard and resulted in mix reactions in social media.
There is a spectrum of views to such a postponement. Some students were grateful for having more time to study and are confident in getting straight As and making their parents proud. However, some were still pessimistic as they were not confident about the quality of online education.
Some even went to the extreme of loosing hope in getting a degree and started loosing motivation with such a postponement.
Although the situation was bleak, social media had its ways of turning students’ frowns upside down. Memers started making memes as a means to cope with the SPM stress.
But luckily, SPM 2020 didn’t prolong too long and students already had a glimpse of their results online. On 10th June, students could go to online portals or through SMS to seek their results.
SPM students have vlogged about their experience, which they described as having toiled for a long time for this final showdown. Many face their own “I could have done better” laments as they pressed the “hantar” or “send” button to release their results.
It was a heartwarming event that despite not being able to meet, the SPM students have posted online, called their friends and video called relatives to express the joy and excitement of revealing how many As they’ve gotten.
WenWei here, a youtuber with 206k subscribers, donned her uniform and showed her workout routine to keep her cool and calm before opening her results with her boyfriend Marcus. Proud of getting her A in mathematics, only one C and the rest being A and Bs although she did not reveal which results. The video ends with Wen Wei encouraging viewers that results don’t define who anyone is, and that Wen Wei herself never went to school having suffered social anxiety but the teachers, family and friends who never judged gave her courage to face school head on.
Another girl, amadaxpiong posted her results while on-call with her friend got 8As and 2Bs, happily exclaiming her A* in accounting and being surprised over how she got A in chemistry. Not particularly proud of her Moral being an A- and getting B+ for Add Maths, she decides she is happy with her hard work although she may not be able to claim for the 8As Maybank grant of Rm 200 due to Moral being A-.
Constance Goh, 115k subscribers to date, is open about her results, showing all the subjects along with their respective scores despite there being not full As. Her courage and realistic scores has led to viewers commenting that she was very brave for sharing her results and 4As were “hen li hai” or very good already. Following that, she answered a few questions in the comments and advised that for anyone choosing their path in life, do make wise choices and analyse your interests fully. If one prefers science then go for science stream. Being an Arts stream shouldn’t make one feel inferior, although this is the sad case for most Malaysians with the Asian mindset.
Finally, ima_03 currently a student in Sunway A Levels studying Economics, Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry, passed his SPM with flying colours of 10As and 2Bs. He wants to look into the 2Bs which he believes he should have gotten As for but overall he is very happy with his results and plans to take a big break and time to breathe before he tackles his A Levels.
All the best to all the SPM leavers! May this article find Malaysian students in high spirits and hope to strive for their future, whether they are taking A Levels, Foundation or Diplomas or even apprenticeships at jobs. Jia You!
Bonus:
To get a grasp of how the students felt, here are more memes, enjoy!
Written by: Maki & Twis
Edited by: Jamie
