From Homeschool to Polytechnic

By Zephan Chin, THG Alumnus

Hey everyone.

It has been a long time since I came here and shared. But today I have come back to share a bit about my poly life after one semester is over. I’ll be sharing a bit more informally today because I missed those times where I can share whatever I want without the fear that it will be “contributing” to my poly GPA. Even what they call mock presentation might still have a slight impact on my grades.

First and foremost, I’d like to thank all of you here for the public speaking experience. I can’t imagine how I would perform in SP without all these experiences. Without an audience, there won’t be any practice. Surely, one can practise in front of a mirror, but that is not as effective as gaining real experience. This place is also a very safe environment where mistakes are almost “encouraged” so that they won’t be made again in the future.

Secondly, being in the business department, the school of business, presentations are everywhere. When other people take their test or exams quietly on papers, we, the students from the business department, on the other hand, also have pieces of papers, but it’s all up in our brains, memorized. That was how my cohort was assessed—presentations. For the end of semester exams, I had five presentations and only one written paper, which is a pity because I tend to do better on written assessments.

Lastly, on my general poly life, I guess it’s not that bad compared to secondary school because waking up before sunrise does not happen too often and I’m hoping that it will stay this way. The food there is great as well since it’s cheaper and that includes famous fast food chains. But the one thing that I feel that I need to improve is the teamwork part. Since presentations are almost the epitome of business school, teamwork is almost compulsory for students. But I’m quite positive it will be better when I develop a deeper bond with my classmates.

Before I end my sharing, I’d like to share with you my journey of being accepted to poly. Two years ago, I attended many polytechnics’ open house. When asked what was the minimum grade that we can use to apply to that poly, the answers were often the same—grade 12. Two years later, despite the requirement of grade 12, we decided to just apply to all the polys using my grade 10 certificate. To our surprise, SP gave me a chance to be admitted through an entrance exam. And by God’s grace, I passed the exams and was given a spot.

So even though you might dislike the fact that some of your Friday nights are spent learning public speaking, it will not go to waste. You might even not feel like you are improving, like me when I was here, but that is because I compared myself with the rest of you who are improving as well. However, when I started poly, I realised that I was heads and even shoulders above some of my peers in terms of public speaking abilities. Even the basic public speaking tips that have been etched into me since a long time ago earned me some brownie points from my teacher since I was subconsciously already applying it. So I’d like to implore all of you here to learn and gain as much experience as possible. And that concludes my sharing.