Sunday, May 18, 2008
The 2nd hurdle.
Okay, today is another big day, I have been selected as one of the few for the 2nd round of tests. Yes! I heard there is a third round before you are confirmed as one of the coveted elite.. So I am actually quite glad the list has been shortened down tremendously!
In the morning I was headed to CSC for a slew of psychometric analysis tests. Basically it's a series of tests to test your leadership, problem-solving and cognitive ability. The room was furnished with study desks that were rather immaculate, and had a air of a professional classroom about it. We were first given a cognitive test, where you had to decipher the next possible shape in sequence.
It got progressively harder and there was barely enough time. Next was a terrible math test that was harder than SATS. The questions werent difficult, but it was long and tedious! You had to convert from different units in the same questions or to different values, time-zones or currencies, all without a calculator. I couldn't finish that section and just randomly filled in the last few questions.
I later found out that it was a common sentiment and the other guys faced the same difficulty as well. The last cognitive test was a reasoning and logic thinking test, somewhat similar to the error-finding in SATS.
After that we had a group discussion, where were role-played and made mutual decisions in a fictional futuristic situational scenario and how our responses and decisions were made would then be judged by the observers and 2 accessors from CSC.
I wasn't the first to arrive, and I wasn't the last. There were 6 of us. So these are the other potential candidates.
They've met all the dangerous criteria, not sharing of critical information, keeping quiet to themselves, not being socially open or friendly, not introducing themselves willingly...
They will be major competitors, if we do become colleagues in the near future, after all we're all vying for the same prize. The same goal...
We must be something to have come to the 2nd stage.. I am very sure of it, each of them probably have had equivalent or better academic results as mine, and probably with similar other CCA or leadership achievements to have even come to this 2nd stage.
Am I even in the same league?
They are all notably younger, with the girls a full 3-years younger than me. I am the only poly student to have made it so far!
Poly VS A-level students. Am I reaching for the stars here as a poly student? Why is it only the A-level students get so far and it's always an uphill struggle for a poly student? Maybe the stigma against poly students are still there, and maybe that's why I am finding it harder when compared against other candidates.
Posted by MK at 1:59 PM
