My Best Teenage Years Re-visited

Saturday, 2nd August 2025

My time in ACJC was the best teenage years of my life. It was super-duper relaxed.

I actually applied and got into NJC and regretted it after just 2 weeks. They would display term test results on the notice board in descending order and i would always read the list from the bottom up, expecting my scores to be among the bottom percentile.

After 3 months, I knew I had to get out of boring land.

I went to see Mr Wan (the then-principal) and remember him initially giving me a hard time when I appealed to get in, saying "why ACS boy never put ACJC first choice?" This was despite me getting 7 points for my O's (up from 9 for my prelims).

My mom knew Mr Robert Iau (then Chairman of the ACS Board of Governors) through her sister Irene (who was his corporate secretary in SingLand). All it took was one phone call from the Chair asking Mr Wan why he didn't allow an ACS boy into ACJC for him to soften his stance.

Because of that, i was the proverbial white horse that could get away with anything, including coming late and even missing entire tutorial classes in the mornings.

Mr Wan did not dare to discipline me once, despite my frequent truancy 😝

I took Double Maths and Physics, the lightest of all subject combinations, where the hours of lessons each week was less than 20. So my classmates and I from SA9 (the chapalang class of second-intakes) spent many afternoons kicking a plastic football in nearby basketball courts in Dover.

The contrast between the 2 JCs could not have been starker. In Dullsville, students were studying in the canteen; In Funsville, students were reading magazines like Smash Hits and Shoot! in the library.

My "holiday camp" mentality carried right until Aug 1985 when I sat for my prelims. My raw score was 53 for Maths, 47 for Physics and 40 for F Maths.

It was a wake-up call not only for me but many others too. Marked on a curve, 53 became a B, 47 a B and 40 was an E. The raw score  E-F-F became B-B-E.

Mr Quek (God bless his soul) told me that was the very reason ACJC held its prelims so early, and assured me that it was "not too late" to prepare for the upcoming A levels.

And so yours truly went to Bras Basah to buy all the ten-years series he could find, and spent the next 3 months mugging like never before.  Thank God, he managed to improve his As with an A for Maths, B for Physics and C for F Maths.

Fast forward 40 years on.  A handful of my worthy cohort mates organised a reunion for us today, and it was great catching up with old classmates and even getting acquainted with a handful of cohort mates who mutually never knew of each other's existence.

Here's to the next re-union in 5 year's time.

Meanwhile, I took possession of the ACJC badge and will return at the next one.