Risky choice forces me to STUDY HARD
LIKE almost all my classmates, I really enjoyed doing Knowledge and Inquiry (KI).
I enjoyed the intellectual challenges, the discussions in class and the free rein our teacher gave us in pursuing our own areas of interest.
There was an eclectic range of independent study topics in my class - ranging from criminal behaviour to propaganda to art.
But I felt a twinge of panic when I got an e-mail midway through my J2 year.
Forwarded by an MOE official, it said MOE had made headway in persuading some top UK universities to accept KI.
But there were still institutions which would not consider KI like the other usual subjects, in their conditional offers.
This meant that universities, when making their offers based on A-level grades in certain subjects, would not take KI into account.
The implication was that I would be disadvantaged as universities would not look at my grade in KI, my strongest subject.
They would instead look at my grade in economics - my weakest - and the other subjects.
I felt more than a little let down.
My friends and I had some idea that some universities would not accept KI when we first chose to take the subject.
But it was only with the e-mail that the full implication hit home - taking KI was essentially a risk.
Nonetheless, I went ahead with my university applications.
Meanwhile, I scaled up preparation for the rest of my subjects.
At least I still had three months' notice to do so.
PROVE MYSELF
It was good that I was forced to study hard for all my subjects, instead of banking on some.
It was a disguised challenge and chance for me to prove myself in areas other than KI.
And last month, I was more prepared for the conditional offers that I got.
Out of five universities, three would not accept my KI grade.
These were the London School of Economics and Political Science, the University of Warwick and the University of Birmingham.
But I was grateful that I got offers from them anyway.
My batch was the first KI 'guinea pigs', so to speak.
If we got through fine, subsequent batches should be all right as well.
However, that may be a fallacy known as 'hasty generalisation' - another thing we learnt in KI classes.
But looking back, I think it worked out in the end.
Should my KI grade turn out to be the deciding factor that causes me to lose out on university offers, the joy I got from taking KI would still far outweigh the disappointment.
Despite the possible closed doors, I would still have chosen to take KI all over again.
Link:- http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/st...58351,00.html?
Further news related.....
KNOWLEDGE & INQUIRY
NO, SOME UK UNIS DON'T RECOGNISE NEW SUBJECT
But others like Oxford & Cambridge do
Link:- http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/st...58353,00.html?
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