It has been more than a year since I graduated from Secondary school, but I can still remember how much anticipation I felt waiting for the confirmation email that I had been accepted into PFP. While I knew that I was definitely going to get in (I have a nett EMB3 of 3 points heheh 😎), some of my other classmates were not so lucky. One of them unfortunately scored 13 points and had to do DPP instead. I can’t say whether he enjoys his current life in ITE now, but it must have been such a disappointing jinx for him since he used to joke frequently about obtaining 13 points raw for his N Levels.
Anyway, this article is focused on PFP, not DPP. Out of all my classmates who managed to be successfully accepted into PFP, a few of them also made it to NYP. One of them is Ezer, who is currently in SAS studying Chemical and Pharmaceutical Technology. I decided to interview him to get his thoughts on how he finds PFP compared to his life in Secondary School.
It should be noted that we were joined by two of our Secondary school friends who also made it to PFP: Fan Yi from SEG, and Ethan Lim from SDM. I also did the interview while Ezer was eating mala, to explain any eating sounds in the recording.
Generally, I agree with what he said. However, the experience I have with my classmates is in direct contrast to his. I find that I’m able to connect with most of my classmates and can easily collaborate with them when doing group work. This is despite how my classmates come from different Secondary schools and have different studying habits. Generally, it is encouraging how we can connect and bond with our PFP classmates irrespective of where they came from or how they get things done.
That aside, I do agree with his points about having more freedom in Poly, which I feel brings about the scheduling issues he mentioned that most PFP students tend to face. I also agree with him that the Secondary school habit of hanging out with his friends after lessons makes polytechnic life way more fun. Hanging out with friends is always nice, after all.
The transition from Secondary school to PFP is generally a significant one, which brings about more freedom of choice at the cost of requiring greater self-responsibility for planning your schedule. For me, I noticed that my time management issues in Secondary school became much more prominent, resulting in me pulling many late-nighters in a row and subsequently draining myself of energy in the days after. However, I am finally able to not only have the opportunity of trying out activities I wanted to but never could before through CCAs, such as singing and wushu, but I also got to explore what actually interested me which I have never considered before, such as emceeing. This wouldn’t have been as memorable an experience for me if it weren’t for the protected time brought by PFP thanks to its measured pace of learning. And as PFP draws to a close, may Year 1 be as memorable and hopefully as enjoyable as Year 0. See all of you in Year 1 in April!
Thank you for being patient enough to read this far into the article (I trust you didn’t skim through this mini-article and directly scroll down here from the top 👀). As a reward, I shall present to you this bonus round of questions I had with Ezer:
Austin Ho 
Hani Marsya 
Brandon Sapitan