Maths & Science Anyone?

In my last posting, I talked about how I learned and tried to master English, from scratch. Some readers may misunderstand the piece and conclude that I am a brilliant learner. I was in fact an average learner. Until form 1, I am quite OK with Mathematics and General Science. My trouble with the two subjects started in Form 2, when I found it almost impossible to understand what were being taught by the two subject teachers. My interest in the subjects waned henceforth until I reached Form 5. I hate Arts (Lukisan) and I dropped it from my MCE (Malaysian Certificate of Education) exams. Considering that I was weak in Mathematics and General Science, my prospect of passing the MCE looked bleak. That was very alarming, considering my less bright friends in the primary school days passed their SPM (Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia) a year earlier. It would be koman for a supposedly brighter student to fail the MCE....

With the bleak prospect, I resolved that I must pass my MCE. My reputation had to remain intact. It was a scary scenario for me in that year...i.e. 1977. Slowly I created an Action Plan. Action no. 1: I used the compulsory prep-hours to practice mathematics together with my friends from the Science stream; Action no. 2: I read the Science books from the Science Stream.

Action plan does not guarantee success. I was lucky to have two excellent teachers teaching the two subjects viz. Mrs. Phua and Mr. Fong Fook Ming. Mrs. Phua spared the last 5 minutes of her class at my desk. She checked my exercises, guided me through them and praisde me for managing to finish about 40% of the homework that she gave me in the previous classes. Mrs. Phua would be at the door before Ustaz Mahmud ended his Islamic Studies class. That left me with no room to skip her class.

Mr. Fong Fook Ming was too patient with slow learners like me. He always checked on me...in his class. He would ask if I could follow his teaching, to which my answer was always an emphatic yes. He drew on the blackboard, examples - not on experiments but - of every science concept that he taught. I still could remember his drawing of a moving express bus with me seating on the bus toilet seat when he wanted to explain on relative speeds.

To cut the long story short, I managed to score C3 for both subjects in my MCE, a great feat for me enabling to come back from the brink of failure. In case that does not mean anything to you, I got a C5 for my Pengetahuan Agama Islam subject!

By the end of the year 1977, I saved my reputation among my kampung friends by passing my MCE with grade 1! You can imagine my sighs of relief then!