The thing about taking your O's in Brunei is, they never explain the criteria you need to get you where you want. Communication is key. I remember when I was done with my O's, I headed to all the polytechnics in Singapore, and tried my luck getting into Mass Comm, and a few other courses. The first question they asked was, Do you have a credit in any humanities subject? What the hell is a humanities subject, I thought.

Only later did I realise, when I chose Computer Science over POA for my O's, I decided my fate without realising it. An unfortunate fate which led to me not being eligible to enter for almost all the courses I really wanted to get into. I mean, look at it this way. You're in Form 4, you have a few excess subjects you wanna get rid off to concentrate on the core ones. I dropped Religious Studies (duh) and I wanted Literature (but nooo.... only 1 student out of the whole SAS intake in my year wanted that, so why waste manpower on me right....). I was left to choose between Computer and Principle of Accounts. Besides that I already had 3 pure sciences, chem, bio, physics, add math, d math, english and malay. I had to make the 8th choice. So I chose Computer, since, I thought, we're in the modern age (and the sight of the thick POA book threw me off). No one told me POA was a humanities subject. No one told me Computer wasn't.

I was left with Chemical Engineering, Nursing, and all the courses not worth mentioning. Halfway through Chem Eng, I realised I HATED it. So, all that was a waste of time.

I propose a compulsory counselling session for Form 4 students in Brunei before they blindly choose their paths, like I did.