Tuesday 11 October 2016

GEP 2016

And so he did it.
 
He made it through to the next round of GEP testing.
 
No. I did not hot-house him; no out sourcing, no in-housing. Nothing. He made it through by his own.
 
Any 'studying' would be for his usual SA and CA papers.
 
That said, it is possible to hot house the kids for the first round. So for those who made it through because they have been hot house for it, well their hard work has paid off.
 
For those who made it through with no extra coaching, you know that they have what it takes.
 
I am glad that I did not hot house him. I did not give him any extra challenging papers to do.
 
I can truly say he did it by his own abilities. Now I know and I am satisfied.
 
I always had an inkling that he is a high achiever but it was only a suspicion of mine until now. Honestly, It has been a frustrating journey with him. Sonshine typically likes to play himself down. He prefers to play dumb and always appear to be the least intelligent one amongst his peers. Everyday I am left frustrated seeing other children who have lesser abilities overtake him. I feel like he is wasting his potentials away. Frustrating!

He purposely positions himself so that he will never be at the center of attention. Every capabilities of his I witness at home becomes a mere imagination (mostly mine) whenever we step out of the house. And then it shows up again at home! It is like he has two different beings in his body! He once reluctantly told me that everything he knows is a secret. He does not want anybody to know what he knows. How weird is he?
 
Heck, he did not even tell us about his GEP selection. I don't usually check his school bag but for some strange reason I did it yesterday and found the letter. I waited for him to tell me but he kept it in ALL DAY! It was only after my husband questioned him for a good 10 minutes before he finally revealed to us. He admitted he did not want us to know because he did not want to sit for the exams all because he hates the idea that he has to spend two days at school during his off days. Yep, this is my weird son.
 
This oddity of his spills over to his school papers. He did not even make it to the top 3 in his class last year but was still within the top 10% cohort in his school. I was quite stumped especially because his school papers are comparatively (A LOT, like by a mile) easier than most schools. My sister always suggests to me that perhaps he doesn't really excel in his school papers the way he should be because they are too easy? Possible logic? So, I was bewildered for awhile. I even convinced myself this year that perhaps I have over rated my child. Perhaps I was 'seeing' things. Perhaps I was the one who has  the two beings in me. One who over rates her child at home and the one who sees the reality outside.
 
Hence him passing this first round, for me, came as a confirmation- without paying the high fees to see a psychologist for testing (LOL).  My suspicion has finally become a reality after 9 years. Before this, I was always unable to reconcile his true abilities and what I see in his everyday life. I was always baffled, bewildered and lost in wonderment. There had been many questions about his behaviours that are left unexplained. Now it is all falling into place. Every oddity of his can be explained. And finally, the Great One up there is telling me I am not schizophrenic. It is amazing what a blue sheet of paper can do to a mother!
 
Anyway, I highly doubt that he will get through the second round of test. My niece is in the GEP programme and I have had a peek into what it was like for the second round. I know it is a lot harder. It is where they separate the men from the boys.
 
I am already very thankful that he got through the first round. Top 10% of the whole Singapore! Quite a feat considering he did all on his own worth!

Thank You Jesus, All Glory to you!
 
Well done son! You finally proved it. Thank you, that is all Mummy needs to know.
 
Now you can go on and continue being odd.
 
 
 

9 comments:

  1. Congratulations! I can totally understand what you feel. And yes, to make it on his own merits makes it sweeter. By the way, I realised some of my previous comments did not get through? I wonder why.

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  2. Congratulations! I can totally understand what you feel. And yes, to make it on his own merits makes it sweeter. By the way, I realised some of my previous comments did not get through? I wonder why.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Congratulations! I can totally understand what you feel. And yes, to make it on his own merits makes it sweeter. By the way, I realised some of my previous comments did not get through? I wonder why.

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    1. Was there? I only saw this! But I re-edit the post many times, did that make your comments disappear. Alamak!

      Thank you my (virtual :p) friend! I remember your no1 also made it to round 1 ya? You would know exactly I how I feel! Whooopieee!

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  4. Ahh.. so this went through. The previous comments I mentioned were in your other post - Books for Boys. I left another comment earlier on that post again.

    Actually both my boys got through to round 1. One of them made it to GEP but we decided not to go ahead. :)

    Go celebrate and focus on SA2. Does your boy's school have streaming at P3?

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    1. Pwaaaah! I can only dream of it!

      No streaming, not even at P2. The school will only start streaming at p4.

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  5. Strangely, I didn't get the other comment 😓

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  6. Oh... that means it must be something with your settings which does not allow comments to older posts to get through. Anyway, I shared that my boys love the How to Train the Dragon series too and I thought your son may also like the Nicholas series by Goscinny and the Harry Potter series.

    My boys' school streams at P3. There are pros and cons though. Streaming at p4 is more common I think.

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    1. P3 stream? That's a first!

      Great! I need more recommendations! Running out of book list for him. He's very lazy he doesn't look for the books I've to look for him but he laps it up and so deep into the books the moment I pass to him. Sheesh. Sometimes he really 😤

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