Smarter Or... ?

Just about a week ago, the SPM results had been released. The media headlines were of successful students scoring perfect strings of A's... might I say not just A's but A1's. Pictures of young school leavers were scattered across all major newspapers with dazzling smiles portraying their great happiness of achieving something they had worked so hard for. A guy had scored 16A's, parents sharing double happiness with twins' results and TKC emerging as the best school yet again. Even statistics showed that the number of straight-A achievers had risen. Which brings me to the point... are students becoming smarter or the grading lenient?

I remember a guy of a higher seniority mentioning, "4A SPM sekarang dengan 4A SPM dulu tak sama..." How far is it true? It's unfair to say that the standard of the examination has declined because it definitely has not. Questions are rarely repeated. They might be similar but hardly the same. During my time, I had only taken 9 subjects and that was already a load to carry, but what... 15 and16? And all A's on that too? Are these students the products of vigorous tuition-attending? Or... has the grading really become more lenient?

I rest my case. After all, who are we to be the judge of that. For all I know, I'm probably the one getting dumbER.



I think the world is run by C students. --Al McGuire