How my daughter almost missed her chance to excel at a British university

After one year as an exchange student in Japan under the Rotary International Student Exchange Programme, Cheng was tempted by the 6-month Foundation Course which prepared her for the London School of Economics twinning programme at HELP Institute.

Besides having to compete with students who have done their A-levels in Economics, she found the subject in particular too dry. Though a voracious reader, she dreaded reading Economics books. It was not surprising that she managed to only scrape through the first year examinations, which got her a Diploma in Economics.

Her original intention was to do an Economics degree before Politics but she decided to switch after the uninspiring and demotivating first year.

After researching British universities offering degree courses in Politics, she decided on University of Essex. With just the mediocre results from LSE, her application was rejected by the Admissions Officer who thought her poor results for Sociology and Economics was due to her inability to write good essays.

I can still remember how disappointed she was when she received the email. I was certain the officer had incorrectly assessed her writing ability based on examination results of two subjects which could have been due to lack of interest.

I told her that if she were considered not good enough, then many other students would have problems. Incidently, she obtained 1A in English in her SPM and 2A in GCE English and was top student in Batu Gajah in year 2000 with 11As. I can imagine the blow to her self-confidence, not to mention the insult to her language ability.

In retrospect, I was surprised my suggestion, that she forward an article which she wrote to the now defunct website, SuaraAnum, criticizing the Universities and University Colleges Act, was so effective that the Admission Officer changed his mind within 24 hours, saying: “I enjoyed reading your letter enormously and believe that it illustrates both your commitment and ability to study politics.”

I can still remember asking her why she could not wait till the next day to appeal as she was already dressed to go to work at the Japanese restaurant in Nikko Hotel. She replied that she had to get it done immediately. What a fateful decision it turned out to be! When she returned from work late that night, she checked her email and exclaimed that she was accepted! When the Admissions Officer mentioned that he was due to go on a one-year sabbatical the following day, we could not believe our luck! Would the person taking over his position have reconsidered her case favourably?

That she had found the right course of study was without doubt, when she was awarded, Best First Year student in Politics, followed by Leatherland Book Prize for Best Performance in the second year Undergraduate Degree in the Department of Government.

I am proud that she had just received her results which qualified her with Honours Class I. In addition, she obtained Jean Blondel Prize for Best Undergraduate Degree Result (Department of Government) and Oscar Arias Prize for Best Undergraduate Dissertation.

We will be attending her convocation on July 21 and we expect and hope to meet the Admissions Officer to thank him for his timely change of mind, which made it all possible. It showed he was willing to admit he might have made a mistake in his earlier assessment.

The moral of my story is that the use of examination results has its weaknesses. The main problem seems to be that it does not indicate anything more than performance at a particular examination. It requires a further test in essay writing on a relevant topic to reveal the applicant’s grasp of the language and whether he or she has the passion for the particular field of study.

Admittedly, the advent of the internet, has made it all possible as the scenario would have stopped at the stage of rejection by snail mail. The telephone conversations also helped in revealing that she could communicate with a native speaker without any problem.