Not too long ago, there was an online brouhaha that was sparked by my anti-protectionism stance towards higher education in Singapore. While I sympathise with parents whose kids got good grades but cannot make it into university, even after getting into university, based on my experience, I can tell you that there are more to complain about.

I just completed the requirements for a second class (upper division) with honours in social science, narrowly missing the first by 0.04. In NUS, at least in the arts and social sciences, in order to get a first class honours degree, one needs to maintain a minimum score of 4.50 and get an A grade for the Honours Thesis. Even if one gets almost perfect score but gets a B grade for the thesis, the student will only be awarded a second class (upper division) honours.

For me, there isn’t much to complain because I narrowly missed the cut-off. However, I know of a number of cases where the score was well above the minimum grade but they ended up with second class (upper division) anyway because they were given B grades for their honours thesis. To me, if these people can consistently achieve a score well above 4.50 (which translated into more than an A- average for all modules taken), it’s highly unlikely that they are capable of B grade theses. So, even if one is able to get a place in a local university, you can end up not receiving the top class of degree.

Being actively involved in student activities, I have seen a few batches of students, and most of them were fire and brimstone in when they just enter university, all wanting to get first class honours in whatever discipline they were intending to do. It’s not a bad ambition to have, really, but the thing is that first class honours is not guaranteed at all, due to the extra requirement of an A grade for the honours thesis, which can easily negate all the extra hard work that was put in to ensure that one maintains a score of above 4.50. In view of this, I have come to the conclusion that it might be better to lower down expectations one notch and aim for a second class (upper division) honours and build up a strong CV.

A good class of honours typically refers to at least a second class (upper division) or its equivalent. Therefore, a second class (upper division) degree is enough to fulfill the requirements of most jobs. After the paper qualifications, the recruiter is likely to look at your CV, and I think this is where it makes the difference. If your CV is empty, you are in trouble. I just came back from a networking session where I got the chance to talk to a number of recruiters and they all said they want to hire people who are desk ready, but institutions unfortunately somehow produce people that are not desk ready.

By desk ready, it means that you have to be able to write well, speak well, be able to give presentations well and work in teams. Some of these things can be taught in classes, but some of them cannot be taught in a lecture. You can only learn them from working in student organisations, grassroots organisations or internships. If the recruiter is able to see that you have some out-of-classroom experience in your CV, at least the recruiter is assured that you are somewhat desk ready. Of course, I don’t recommend faking a CV because it shows in the interview whether you have such experience or not. Unless you are a master storyteller, it is hard to fool the interviewers.

I pretty glad I completed university not just with a good degree but with tons of great experience from joining various organisations. I tried for the icing on the cake but unfortunately I just narrowly missed it. I wasn’t upset (my mum was much more upset than me) because it was a good attempt right down to the line and I’ve had many great experiences (and not-so-good ones of course) which I will not exchange for anything else. I guess I can say that I had fun and came out with a decent degree, so my advice to would be freshmen is to try and strike a balance between having fun and getting decent grades.

** I will be away from Singapore from today until end of next week, so I won’t be able to respond to any comments. I’ll read them (if any) when I’m back.