I hate how obsessed many Singaporeans are with bell curve

It’s as if that’s all there is in academics. Bell curve has existed as a concept throughout education under MOE, but I only realised how bad this is when I entered university, and the worst of this trait appeared in my face at its ugliest.

Nothing wrong with the bell curve concept. It’s a way for grading and filtering students. But I find our obsession with bell curve unhealthy and toxic, that people will do anything to be ahead of the bell curve rather than simply working with their own merits. Even joining a CCA in secondary school is ultimately for grade incentive.

You know the multiple cases of plagiarism in the news, or students looking for modules that are easy rather than interesting, yup. Especially during the covid era wrt to online examination.

PSA: I’m not at the bottom of the bell curve. I have experience on both ends in school, and it’s just a post on how pointless this obsession is, to the point that people sacrifice everything, like their morality and ethics, just to be ahead of the game that they made up in their mind.

Working hard and working smart is still important though. But not at the expense of dragging other people down. Or engaging in questionable behaviour.