Day in the life of an 18 year old in Singapore

Whether Singapore is a stressful place to be in depends on one''s mindset. In a country with strong law enforcement, reputable and affordable healthcare(under the medicare scheme), there is an ease of mind in knowing that it is safe to walk on the streets alone and be taken care of by professionals. Furthermore, with a near non-existent poverty rate, I wake up to my alarm set by fitbit watch at around 6 in the morning.

Like most other 18 year olds, I have to sit for my senior high school exam (also known locally as the GCE Singapore 'A' level examinations) at a junior college. Some may go to vocational schools(like institute of technical eduation(ITE)) or polytechnics. Polytechnic is actually a more common route, with most of my friends going there. To be statistically precise, 50% of people go to the 5 polythecnics compared to 40 and 10% for JC and ITE respectively. That being said, the chances of getting into a university via polythecnic is less than JC, with most JC having a university admission rate of 99%.

Unlike international GCSE or British 'A' levels, Singapore 'A' levels is set at a relatively higher difficulty. While not as well known as the infamous 'GaoKao' in China, or the numerous exams in America, such as the SAT,AP, and internal school exams, I would say that my exam was just as difficult.

I travel to school in 30 minutes via a very efficient public transport system(you can find out more by searching our Mass Rapid Transit (MRT)) . Due to the declining birth rate, and small population of A level students, there are only a dozen or so such schools offering 'A' levels. Most JCs have about a 1000 students per level. However, my school is rather small with the cohort size being only 450, which means that most people in my school know each other and get along very well.

My school starts at 8.30 and ends around 4.30. Most people however decide to stay in school way longer. This can be due to Co-curricular activities to socialise and boost their portfolio, or to study in multi-story library. During exam season, the seats in the library can be as much as 80% occupied. Personally, I stay until 7 or so, before returning back home for dinner.

Occasionally I play online games such as Overwatch or applications like Plato, which contains a lot of mini games inside which I highly recommend. Unfortunately, due to the bulk of content needed to study, I spend more time on a study apps such as "Forest" and "Yeolumpta" where there is a countdown timer for however long I study.

At around 11pm, I begin to procrasinate after a hard day's work. If there is a football match or Formula 1 race, i may set aside time to watch it. The local sporting scene ain't that strong, with such a profession simply not being as pragmatic to maintain a living. As such, my attention turns towards the popular leagues such as those in England, Germany and of course the major tournaments like the World Cup and the Champions League.

By then, I call it a day and go to sleep at around midnight. Where i get 6 hours of sleep and I do it all over again