by Annabel Lee (P4 2021)

        “Annabel! You should pack your school bag now. The first day of Primary 5 starts tomorrow and you are still not prepared!” my father bellowed from the living room with his arms akimbo.

       I rolled my eyes and put aside my game console. Reluctantly, I went through all my files and saw my recent Primary 4 end-of-year English examination paper. Upon seeing the large ‘100%’ scrawled in crimson red ink at the top, a smile spread across my face. Memories of that fateful incident flooded my mind as I thought about how hard I work just for this examination.

       It all started on a typical Monday morning. Ring! The shrill ring of the school bell reverberated through the air and the students jostled to their classrooms before lessons started.  Once I walked up to my desk, I greeted and smiled at Lernice. Lernice and I had always been best friends. We never betrayed one another and we were inseparable.  We went into the same classes every year. We were now in Primary 4. The end-of-year examination would begin in a month’s time and our marks would determine which class we would go to next year. Unfortunately, Lernice was a better student than I was at certain subjects. I had been worried that my probably failure would mean the end of our friendship.

       “Lernice, do you want to go to the library after school to study for our upcoming exams?” I asked. Lernice nodded her head in agreement. I could not wait to spend time with Lernice, working hard for the examination together.

       After what seemed like an eternity, the school day finally ended. We had a quick lunch and headed towards the school library. As we were engrossed in our revision, a sarcastic remark emanated from behind us: “Look at our class failure. No matter how hard she studies, she will fail all of her examinations!” I noticed that voice right away; it was our class bully, Andy. He was always teasing people, especially me for my poor grades.

       I whipped around with anger raging inside of me and replied, “I will prove you wrong!” Andy scoffed and walked away with his friends trailing behind him. Lernice reassured me that I would do well in the examinations and told me not to pay him any mind.

       No matter how tired I was, I continued to revise for our examination day and night. We were surprised by the amount of past-year examination papers from other schools that we had done within two weeks.

       After weeks of hard work, the day of the examination finally arrived. Beads of cold sweat trickled down my forehead as I stepped into the examination room. Lernice wished me good luck and reassured me that everything would be all right. I took a deep breath and started the examination with confidence. It was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. Paper after paper, I tried my very best and would successfully recall the information I had revised with Lernice. Even when I encountered a difficult question, I would apply the examination techniques to analyse the question and tried to be as detailed as possible in my responses.

       A week later, when we received our examination papers, my heart skipped a beat and I beamed from ear to ear.  No words could express my happiness.  I had scored full marks for my English paper!  I immediately turned to Lernice and asked her, “How much did you get?”

       “Full marks!” she replied with her face gleaming with joy and we squealed with excitement.  After everyone received their papers, we strode up to Andy and shoved our papers into his face.

       His jaw dropped when he saw our stellar results.  We had a peek at his paper and found out that he had only scored sixty out of a total of one hundred! Andy apologised for being rude to me and I accepted his apology.  Even though we scored better marks than Andy, Lernice and I continued to work hard. We even got the “Best Improvement Award” from our teacher. Just as we had wished before, we also got into the best class in the cohort.

       As the saying goes, ‘no pain, no gain’. I learnt never to give up when faced with obstacles.  With hard work and determination, I knew I could overcome any challenges.

       “Annabel! Why are you daydreaming?” my father bellowed yet again. His words shook me out of my revenie and I started to pack again. Seeing the examination paper had ignited my drive to do well for Primary 5 and I could not wait to meet Lernice in class the next day.

Under Cognitus Academy’s writing programme, your child can write this well, too. Find out how your child can prepare for Continuous Writing in Paper 1 of PSLE English examinations today by clicking here.