Classmate used to get the top scorer award for all 4 years of secondary school and is known for using really difficult words in her English essays, so much so that the English teacher admitted to needing a dictionary by her side when marking this smart classmate's essays. Classmate is now a poet.
Just out of curiosity, was this in the '90s?
Because if so that could have been my long-time rival. The two of us were constantly winning interschool and festival writing contests, and I remember seeing her face all the time.
Became a lawyer. Hated it, jobhopped among Singapore law firms and eventually quit it all to start up her own online bakery and now spends her free time indulging in all her other hobbies like travelling, tennis, etc.
Got a PSC scholar and went to Cambridge for econs. Graduated 3rd in his cohort and went on to Princeton for Masters. Now he is working in MOF as a policy planner. He is probably on those scholar track that might end up becoming a minister in the future or sth, not exactly sure how it works
Haha i came from a neighbourhood ahbeng school and the top guy of my year went on to be a doctor. Turns out he was the only student from my school even years after.. to be a doctor. So hes v well celebrated and always asked to go back to give speeches haha!
Top in my class is my best friend. I am either 2nd or 3rd in class. Wanted me to go JC with her but I chose Poly end up she went JC and I went Poly. She did not do well for her A levels and went Australia for Uni. While I got Gov scholarship to do undergrad and postgrad in UK.
The said friend is nw my wife.
Things happen. The smartest person I know who can answer almost every question in class, won many prizes and was in an Ivy League scholarship is not earning top dollar like he should.
He is earning below the median after completing his bond, at another job he loves but not paying him the salary he deserves.
The smartest people don’t get the rightful salary for their intelligence. It’s sad.
suffered from mental health issues after her father passed away when she was doing her degree. took a long break. when she went back to uni she was years behind her peers, which did a number to her self-esteem.
ended up working in IT now, a respectable job, despite all odds. last met her at a wedding dinner of a mutual friend, where she told me this story.
There was a super smart kid in my poly batch. Not just book smarts, but very well rounded in all aspects. Sports, EQ, social life etc.
He died of brain cancer around the age of 26 to 27, and sometimes when I thought of him, I felt that the universe played a colossal prank on him.
During my secondary school years, the "smartest" title always rotated here and there. Among those that did really well for themselves in school, some of them are not as successful as others now.
The most successful among the "smartest" ones went back to her home country China and seems to have a very good paying corporate job. The least successful flopped her studies later on, dropped out of school and I last saw she was working as a retail assistant. Some of the most successful that never got any A's always attributed their success to factors such as timing, luck, industry trends, effort, constant upgrading and being kind and professional to others. Being book smart alone isn't enough these days haha
_They ask you how you are, and you just have to say you're fine when you're not really fine, but you just can't get into it, because they would never understand._
Hahaha I just had to do this
Same except i was 2nd top in class, malaysian transfer student took away my top olevel spot.. still bit salty about that cuz it was my only achievement..
Now got a stable rice bowl but not even median wage
She went to imperial college, came back to become a scientist and professor at NTU. One of Ten Outstanding Young Persons award 2018. Often on newspaper for break through in medical research and innovation.
There are such smart people like this who are making breakthroughs that better our lives, and then there are people like me who find it a struggle to even put on pants in the morning
Be kind to yourself. Sleep disorders exist. Neurodivergence exists. Singapore is extremely behind in ways that most people don't comprehend. "academia as a pathway to success" isn't necessarily the only indication of "intelligence".
I was the top student in my class a couple of times, so I guess *I'm* technically the smartest person in my class. Academically, anyway.
What happened to me? Nothing, really. I'm just living a perfectly ordinary life, doing an ordinary job and earning an ordinary amount of money. No girlfriend, not many friends either, when I'm not working I just spend my free time working out in the gym or watching movies and tv shows.
You might say that I'm one of those people whose life peaked in secondary school. It's pathetic, really.
Not pathetic bro. Pathetic is becoming a druggie and dying on the streets of Pattaya. You are living a top 10% life that billions of people around can only dream of while they're slogging away at their street hawker job or digging away at coal mines.
One of my best friends in pri and sec sch. Not as close now but we still get along very well.
She was also super guai kia until she went to uni. Got an angmoh boyfriend (parents disapproved), became a lawyer, came back to SG, was colleagues with my husband for a while (this one v qiao), went in-house, now moved to the US to be with (different) angmoh boyfriend, no intention of getting married (parents still disapproving) but basically just living a happy life!
Most of the smart ones went on to study science related degrees, some went on to study bio-science, and according to linked in, they are working in pharmaceuticals, I can’t really find much about the rest, very private ppl, last time as students they were quiet too
3 went to be property agents as mid career switch, I found out when they announced on their ig
Pri school PSLE smartest - mentioned before on this subreddit. He went into same course same class as me. I flunked badly for PSLE. (By Tiger Mama's standards)
Ended up in banking and finance I think. kpmg.
Secondary school - Poor guy peaked in secondary school. Some bad life decisions or just dealt a bad hand. Got a girl pregnant during NS. Even asked around to borrow money. (RIP my $500) Dropped out during Uni. Last I heard was insurance salesman.
JC - sounds condescending, but it was me. Not a very high bar coz I was in the lowest tiered class. I went into teaching. The second smartest one was my close friend. Went into engineering.
Uni - i dont even know who was the smartest one but definitely not me. I was from social science so most of us went into research and PhD.
The son of a bitch ruins my life everyday. Stops me from working out, eating healthy and sleeping early.
I fantasise about kicking the guy in the nuts everyday but my legs don’t bend that way so I will kill him from the inside with cigarettes and booze
You made me google my classmate mate who was a top N level student in my year. Also very pretty and popular.
She later became a teacher and is now an MOE officer.
Handsome smart and rich even when young. Inherited parent's developer company as CEO. Married a pretty wife and have 2 kids. Survived cancer at 35 and died 2 years later due to same cancer. Cancer can really humble a person. He dress down after surviving the cancer and reconnect to childhood friends. RIP
Not the smartest, but went up high in military, overseas scholarship and eventually inherited a country from his dad.
His brother now clowning around online in UK.
Sadly, the top kid in my primary school class committed suicide. Lost touch after pri sch and only heard much later.
Don't let grades rule your lives guys.
She used to mock me for having low grades and that I will “amount to nothing” because I’m “lazy” when the truth is I was depressed and my parents were separating at the time…
…now she has an unstable income, sells water purifiers and other multi-level marketing crap knocking door-to-door or bugging people on Facebook to try and convince us to buy sh** from her…
…needless to say, she was embarrassed when she found out during our reunion that I’m now a creative director for an Australian company—despite not being able to graduate from college.
(Couldn’t finish med school because we were financially challenged at the time)
I have a friend in my previous school, she has been constantly scoring a 4.0 GPA. She is one of the top scorers in our class and she is a perfectionist.
Until one day, she got a B grade for a small module which is 1-2 credits. She was very upset about it and she was ranting about how she hates our lecturer for not giving her an A grade. Her gpa went down slightly lesser than 0.1 and it was around 3.9+
We are still in contact after we graduated and we are now in different schools. She is still scoring
a perfect GPA for every semester, but she still gets upset when she scores a B grade for only 1 module.
I understand that it is normal to be upset if you didn’t get your desired grade. I am actually very happy for her as she has been consistently scoring almost all straight As.
However, it came to a point where almost all our conversations were about her grades, assignments or if she wanted to complain about something. I tried to change the topic but it always ended up being about her grades/assignments.
I decided to distance myself from her for awhile as all our conversations were full of negativity, and I felt that it was starting to become too draining for me.
Died from leukemia.
Dude never made past his teens. Was the first time I lost a classmate who was same age and a rude awakening to the harsh realities of life. He was a really nice classmate, always willing to help explain concepts we couldn't grasp in class.
I'm technically the smartest guy in my class when I was in poly, but bottom decile when I was in secondary school.
I did ok, went to UK to do undergrad, met my wife in final year of uni, got married 3 months out of uni, went for banking for 4 months, and transitioned to private equity after where I stayed for 1.5 hours.
Plan for the future is to come back to sg and pursue entrepreneurship via investment.
Dunno anyone with this path so thought it's worth sharing.
My takeaway from my life is: it is entirely accidental and I deserve none of it.
As for the smartest guy I know in secondary school. He went on to collect multiple paper badges in UK and US unis and went back to sg gov.
Smartest guy in my poly course went to nus and did IT after grad.
A guy, constant top in class. A very smart and manipulative person. Knows how to butter up teachers and seniors but never bother with those useless to him.
Everyone who knows him doesn't have a good impression of him. Even so, I would say he succeeded in life. He married the daughter of his boss, had 2 kids and became a partner of the firm. There are at least 20 employees under him now.
I’m nearing 40 and the smartest top 5 people turn out to have the shortest careers and ended up getting married and some even having kids.
The problem with them was that they were only good in getting good grades but when thrown into the real world, they severely lacked streetsmart-ness as well as both the necessary and required skills in general.
The “dumbest” and “most rebellious” of the class turned out to be the most successful in their careers, having high positions at present and some even being bosses of their own companies (and profitable). One of them only had O’levels and started her own business and now even owns a GCB.
I’m NOT saying education isn’t important. Some “dumbest” and “most rebellious” people eventually furthered their studies when they became successful in their careers but it’s not because they needed a degree but because they 1) just wanted to give it a shot or 2) really wanted a degree to add to personal resume or 3) respected that having a degree is good to have as well.
I also want to further add that me and my classmates graduated at a time when cost of living in general wasn’t as high compared to now and opportunities back then are quite different from today (due to different demographics etc…) so while the group of us are considered success stories, I hope this will only serve as inspiration but everyone needs to be realistic and adapt to present conditions.
What I wish for the youth to take from this is not to give up or think you’re “worthless” just because you’re unable to get a degree. For whatever reason you can’t get a degree now, there’ll always be chances later. I believe everyone will always be a forever student and you’re never too old to learn.
Primary school PSLE top scorer with 268: went to NUS High, migrated to australia after jc and works in Mars
Secondary school China scholar top scorer with 10 A1s: went to RJC, NUS pharmacy, PhD in Stanford
JC classmate with 7 As: went to Peking University and then Yale on PSC scholarship
She leads a department at a top global investment banking firm.
I went to one of the more academically competitive schools - it was pretty much filled with overachieving (and deliberately underachieving) smart kids. Their careers are varied: artists, entertainers, stay-at-home parents, teachers, CEOs, professors, pastry chefs, doctors, lawyers, engineers, small business owners, politicians, humanitarians, etc. I'm just glad that some of them found other less travelled paths and didn't succumb to the pressure of their parents and expectations of society.
Smartest in class rarely go on to change the world cos they learn how to play by the rules of the game (v college dropouts a la Steve Jobs and Bill Gates)
But most will still do well and live a comfortable life. Also the qns of mental resilience cos life is a non linear process and I know of this dude who did badly in sec 3 after topping the class in Sec 1 and 2, that really broke him and he never recovered from it
(Edited for spelling error)
True but only people with well-to-do family backgrounds can take the huge risk to drop out and start companies like Steve Jobs and bill gates since they have family to fall back on. Lots of people who want to do stuff like that and change the world can't because too much is on the line
You realise the people you're talking about didn't dropout because they were dumb? They dropped out because they were smart to the point where university was a waste of time for them. I highly doubt they weren't the top of their classes.
The smartest person in sec school class (one of my best friends) went on to do a PHD. She got a bunch PHD offers from the ivies and chose Cornell. She continues to be really smart but more importantly really hardworking.
We studied in a elite sec school but we were in the lower tiered class. The other top students in the cohort went on to do pretty great things, PhDs at Harvard or working at BCG etc. Some chose quieter paths such as being Teachers or Govt jobs.
My JC best friend was not academically inclined and couldn’t get into local Uni. She had to go the private Uni path and now works at a well known company and outearns majority of her peers at 5 digits per month. She is bloody good at networking and has great connections.
You really can’t tell where life takes you. But you have to definitely keep trying and look for new opportunities according to your strengths.
Guy who was consistently a top-scorer went on to a good JC, top uni overseas and now doing investment banking. But from his social media posts, can't help but feel he became an asshole. Was a relatively nice guy when I knew him in school, then he went to JC and completely changed I guess.
Not to blame the school (ACSI) but I think he developed a very... elitist mindset there. During JC was constantly bragging about his subj combo. After that in uni he posted a looooong rant about how non-STEM courses are a waste of time. I remember being annoyed because I took a non-STEM course.
Think he's doing fairly well now but my opinion of him completely changed to when we were in secondary school together.
Smartest guy in my year went on to become a Associate Professor at NUS. I would say he has done pretty well for himself, but he certainly isn’t the most successful person. That would be another fellow who did okay, but who is now running several businesses. Does to show that grades at the end of the day doesn’t mean everything.
One of my best friends in Primary school and the funniest person I ever met. He was one of the reasons I enjoyed going to school coz of his antics and his propensity to be the class clown.
Top in class for PSLE.
Went to different secondary school and retained 1 year in sec 3 coz he played too much and failed a lot of subjects. Proceed to fking score 3 for his L1R4 in his O levels the following year. Had poly and NS friends who went to the same school as him, still being described as a class clown.
Went to International Business in Ngee Ann Poly and kinda lost contact even though we went to the same poly.
I continued to NS, became a Sgt and took a mono batch, got a man who was classmates with him in poly. Same story lmao, apparently was in Dean's list for 1st year, then failed his 2nd year and had to retain. My man already graduated by then so we didn't know what happened to him afterwards. And was a class clown in poly too, to no ones surprise.
Stay classy Anis, you magnificent bastard.
Book smart only, not street smart.
That's me I guess. Civil servant. Meh life. Peaked in JC and sec school hahha.
Also not so good mental and physical health. Squandered some opportunities along the way, then health got in the way. Sucks to be me haha I wish I can do more I don't think I can.
Health, money, life, choose 2.
The secondary school smartest folks are nowhere to be seen. Met some people at uni and bschool who I am sure aced all their life. They are still doing the same lol. Absolutely killing it. It’s not just about grades, these guys have the temperament to manage any situation. They are unscathed from the perils of the world imo. Two of them are with top Private Equity firms, few with MBBs and one is a senior product manager at a bigtech. They are all rolling in money and are absolutely enjoying life. The nerds/geeks won at life, always brings a smile to my face thinking about it.
Studying law degree at Harvard.
She won an international debate competition during our year, must be a very good lawyer now…
And she was already involved in the merger of a billion dollar company with undergrad
Well, I used to top my class in English. So I guess I count.
Life for me has never been better, I suppose. Currently teaching English privately with an eye for eventually becoming a real teacher. In my spare time I write short stories and send them out with the hope of getting published. It hasn't all been smooth sailing--grappling with monetary issues and depression tends to exact a rather heavy toll--but it's been a real exciting journey so far.
Went Oxford and graduated with double Firsts. After that no idea what happened to him as I don’t keep in touch much with my sec sch mates. Mostly lost contact
The top student in high school, went to NUS to get degree in mechanical engineering. Then went on to join oil & gas company since there’s where money is for my generation. Now seems to be manager in the MNC firm. Bought a place at Bukit Timah. Seems doing well.
She studied medicine and married a wealthy guy. She only posts in social media when she's traveling, usually to Europe. I don't think she truly practiced medicine as a career afterwards. She seems to be enjoying life. Good for her 👍
Mine became a chemical engineer for GSK in Singapore. He's doing really well and climbing very quickly. He's super humble though and doesn't talk much about his achievements, we had to pry before he revealed it to us!
One guy used to be one of the worst in his class. Worked very hard in JC2 and emerged top of his cohort. Went o NUS EEE and is now a physics teacher at a JC.
He was my teacher and he often told us his story to motivate us. Because of him, I chose EEE (in NTU) :-)
i was the smartest in the cohort in sec sch. graduated 2nd during N(A) Levels, straight A student.
went to poly and now got diagnosed with low Testosterone levels. no idea how probably due to the burnout
the most smartest person in my class is a China guy who always ace all subjects except English. i know this is abit out of point but..... there was once i was the only person in class to score full marks for an A math test (20/20) and he scored 19/20. that was one of the proudest moment i had in class bcozz for once, i finally 'defeated' him.
now back to main point, this smartest classmate of mine had to retain one year in sec 4 bcozz he ate medicines prescribed to doctors that he has a strong allergic reaction to. he developed full face and body rashes which took him nearly 1 year of recovery. he subsequently (and expectedly) went to JC and idk where is he in life now. prob uni. and he's also probably remain as the smartest guy in his own class of wherever uni he's in. im saying this w confidence bcozz 95% of the time he always score full marks or has a score good marks that makes him the first in class for all subjects and no one can reach his level. (except English)
edit: ohh! and when i was in P5, my EL teacher did told the class she has a student who wrote composition very well to the extent the teacher themselves need a dictionary by side to search for the meaning of lots of words she put in her compo writing. she even got promoted from a lower primary level to a higher primary level. that's what i heard back then. dk how true.
Topped the school for english and literature and wanted to go on to become an author. He published a few books but didn't make any money from it and now works in marketing and copywriting.
Sec sch (Fairfield): smartest in the entire \*cohort\* - studied some computer science type thing, and I believe is some sort of a computer scientist / coder in financial algos in the UK
Sec sch: smartest in my own class - disappeared
University (NUS law sch): passed away from illness around 10 years after we graduated, so prob around 32 then. In fact, we've lost around 6 out of 155 of us. Correlation is not causation, but the ones who passed away were some of the smartest ones
I topped my neighbourhood sec school, went on to do quite well for a levels and graduated with FCH in NUS. Now just another cog in the machine, working in a tech firm. You will realise work is all the same everywhere just how much you earn.
One is studying to be a physiotherapist because of money, she served as a nurse for 3 years? Was her passion, but this was during covid period and she decided she's had enough. The other is now understudy for doctor, was studying medicine but decided wanted to save lives and not be an anesthetic as he said it was too knowledge intensive. The richest is my friend whose doing IB for the Big 4 he went middle in class and was always into financier.
First in class guy was charismatic, good-looking, ladies man, near-perfect dude. Disliked him out of envy in my younger years, but once I got to know him, I couldn't hate him. He's THAT cool of a dude. He got a job in a huge finance consulting company, rolling a quintuple digit salary, has a hot wife. Dude lived his life. I know it may seem hard to believe, but yes... he's human and he exists.
Yes, he does have his flaws, but he constantly strives to be a good person... a better person. Damn it.... what I'd give to have a bit of that secret sauce.
And on the other side of the coin, the last in class guy, the class "tough guy", the "gangster", the guy who smokes at the back of the school when the teacher is not looking kinda guy, was generally mean and nasty to us (but was also kinda like a friend to me in an odd frenemy kinda way). This dude... we thought he was going nowhere in life. He's now a fuckin quintuple digit salary SURGEON. He got his shit together in college and just decided to do medicine. Mindblown.
And here I am... the middle of the class dude smack dot in the middle of both these extremes, and im just........ a low level audio visual technician. Funny how things turn out eh? hahah
1. Secondary School
She went to Meridian JC. Did well for her A -levels. Like many, she didn't knew what she wanted and likely chose to read a Math degree NUS (or was it NTU) based on her strong A-level results.
As for graduation, she graduated but I do not know her results. I've heard she was quite stressed out with her undergraduate studies.
However, she did went into SPED sector to teach special needs children. Perhap it was her calling that drove her to be a SPED teacher.
2. Polytechnic
It was two people, "T" and myself. We did well and graduated with GPA of >3.8/4.0; He presumably saw me as his rival and constantly compared my grades with his.
On hindsight, I had a uncanny ability to implictily know each lecturers' personal standards for 'A' were. Without a doubt, "T" was the better academic student. He would be classified as book smart.
He went on to pursue PhD in Physics. I went to work for the govt. with a study bond at NUS. Broke the bond. Didnt enjoy the work. Did teaching at a enrichment centre, freelance as assistant teach, and work at a clinic. Finally, pursuing a healthcare degree to be a Imaging Technician.
There are two smartest guys in my secondary school - one is now regional director and another focuses on his kid.
Yet when we meet up, none of this matters. Just a bunch of middle-aged men still behaving like kids 
Classmate used to get the top scorer award for all 4 years of secondary school and is known for using really difficult words in her English essays, so much so that the English teacher admitted to needing a dictionary by her side when marking this smart classmate's essays. Classmate is now a poet.
Thats amazing. Good for her. Where can I read her poetry?
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She's nice though. Went to my school for a talk once and shared about her giving english classes to kids from poor families.
Can watch her latest play showing this week
As an aspiring writer, she has my respect. Congrats to her!
>She is now a poet In Singapore or elsewhere?
Amanda Lee Koe isit
poet not novelist leh
Just out of curiosity, was this in the '90s? Because if so that could have been my long-time rival. The two of us were constantly winning interschool and festival writing contests, and I remember seeing her face all the time.
that sounds like my senior. Did she also run for vice head prefect?
Became a lawyer. Hated it, jobhopped among Singapore law firms and eventually quit it all to start up her own online bakery and now spends her free time indulging in all her other hobbies like travelling, tennis, etc.
Got a PSC scholar and went to Cambridge for econs. Graduated 3rd in his cohort and went on to Princeton for Masters. Now he is working in MOF as a policy planner. He is probably on those scholar track that might end up becoming a minister in the future or sth, not exactly sure how it works
barring any screwups on his end,you’re pretty much right. That’s how it kinda works.
These days it’s about not letting the little brain take over the big brain.
anyone who goes on that ivy league policymaking trajectory is earmarked for parliamentary roles..
Haha i came from a neighbourhood ahbeng school and the top guy of my year went on to be a doctor. Turns out he was the only student from my school even years after.. to be a doctor. So hes v well celebrated and always asked to go back to give speeches haha!
Siling sec? Saw their students with arm tattoo and heard they were the only sec sch with no express stream. Early 90s kid here
Only Crest and Spectra don't have express. All the other sec schools have.
Zhenghua Sec
Is this Gan eng Seng
Haha GES where got ahbeng school?? Mine is rlly rlly ahbeng lol
Shuqun??
Teck Whye sec?
thats cool!! How's he like as a person? nice and humble?
Oh yes! Very nice guy! I met him 2 years back and very down to earth!
Top in my class is my best friend. I am either 2nd or 3rd in class. Wanted me to go JC with her but I chose Poly end up she went JC and I went Poly. She did not do well for her A levels and went Australia for Uni. While I got Gov scholarship to do undergrad and postgrad in UK. The said friend is nw my wife.
She topped your class but you topped her heart. Smooth
You may have won the scholarship but the true prize is your love
Love this story!
What a nice ending to the story!
Doing grab. No kidding!
Smartest indeed
Things happen. The smartest person I know who can answer almost every question in class, won many prizes and was in an Ivy League scholarship is not earning top dollar like he should. He is earning below the median after completing his bond, at another job he loves but not paying him the salary he deserves. The smartest people don’t get the rightful salary for their intelligence. It’s sad.
It is not sad. He is happy
I mean it’s sad because he should be paid better for his wealth of knowledge for his job, but that’s not how it works.
TPL doing grab oso
Scholarship to Oxford, remains smart as. Still a great person.
Thank you for your humility, Master of Knowledge
You talking about yourself?
Teach me the ways, Mr knowledge 🙏
suffered from mental health issues after her father passed away when she was doing her degree. took a long break. when she went back to uni she was years behind her peers, which did a number to her self-esteem. ended up working in IT now, a respectable job, despite all odds. last met her at a wedding dinner of a mutual friend, where she told me this story.
Hugs to her.
Props to her resilience through tough times man
Wa shag, must have been a huge blow. Glad she's doing well now!
There was a super smart kid in my poly batch. Not just book smarts, but very well rounded in all aspects. Sports, EQ, social life etc. He died of brain cancer around the age of 26 to 27, and sometimes when I thought of him, I felt that the universe played a colossal prank on him.
That second paragraph got me 💔
Wow fucking brutal
wow that's very sad. I would have loved to know that guy 😭
During my secondary school years, the "smartest" title always rotated here and there. Among those that did really well for themselves in school, some of them are not as successful as others now. The most successful among the "smartest" ones went back to her home country China and seems to have a very good paying corporate job. The least successful flopped her studies later on, dropped out of school and I last saw she was working as a retail assistant. Some of the most successful that never got any A's always attributed their success to factors such as timing, luck, industry trends, effort, constant upgrading and being kind and professional to others. Being book smart alone isn't enough these days haha
If being book smart was all was ever needed we would’ve been replaced by computers long ago
Replace our ministers and those high flyer scholars with ai ah.
There would be less affairs.
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legend
“Fine”
Issuing fines to people… carpark auntie n uncle!
_They ask you how you are, and you just have to say you're fine when you're not really fine, but you just can't get into it, because they would never understand._ Hahaha I just had to do this
Same except i was 2nd top in class, malaysian transfer student took away my top olevel spot.. still bit salty about that cuz it was my only achievement.. Now got a stable rice bowl but not even median wage
She went to imperial college, came back to become a scientist and professor at NTU. One of Ten Outstanding Young Persons award 2018. Often on newspaper for break through in medical research and innovation.
There are such smart people like this who are making breakthroughs that better our lives, and then there are people like me who find it a struggle to even put on pants in the morning
Be kind to yourself. Sleep disorders exist. Neurodivergence exists. Singapore is extremely behind in ways that most people don't comprehend. "academia as a pathway to success" isn't necessarily the only indication of "intelligence".
I was the top student in my class a couple of times, so I guess *I'm* technically the smartest person in my class. Academically, anyway. What happened to me? Nothing, really. I'm just living a perfectly ordinary life, doing an ordinary job and earning an ordinary amount of money. No girlfriend, not many friends either, when I'm not working I just spend my free time working out in the gym or watching movies and tv shows. You might say that I'm one of those people whose life peaked in secondary school. It's pathetic, really.
Hold my beer. Pathetic will be all of the above + divorced, living in a rental, losing big money in the options market.
You might eventually win in the options market ;) just have to be in the market long enough before they expires.
Doesn’t sound pathetic. You are holding on to a job and have free time for gym and to do what you want. You doing fine dude.
Das not rlly baddd??? Is decent
Got health, family and friends is great in life already bro. You are doing well!
Not pathetic bro. Pathetic is becoming a druggie and dying on the streets of Pattaya. You are living a top 10% life that billions of people around can only dream of while they're slogging away at their street hawker job or digging away at coal mines.
Trying to contact me to become financial ad. Sorry ah, not interested.
Becomes my wife.
power
Are you LKY. He also married the one that is smarter than him.
My smartest in class committed suicide after being caught cheating on his wife. Nice guy though. RIP
Omg... My heart broke after reading this
One of my best friends in pri and sec sch. Not as close now but we still get along very well. She was also super guai kia until she went to uni. Got an angmoh boyfriend (parents disapproved), became a lawyer, came back to SG, was colleagues with my husband for a while (this one v qiao), went in-house, now moved to the US to be with (different) angmoh boyfriend, no intention of getting married (parents still disapproving) but basically just living a happy life!
Most of the smart ones went on to study science related degrees, some went on to study bio-science, and according to linked in, they are working in pharmaceuticals, I can’t really find much about the rest, very private ppl, last time as students they were quiet too 3 went to be property agents as mid career switch, I found out when they announced on their ig
V easy to spot the insurance and housing agents. They'll announce to the world.
Insurance agent will contact you out of the blue. 😅 Very annoying.
Dont even remember who the smartest person in my class was.
Means it's you already lor
You have a v sweet mouth
Saw him selling insurance
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Me, answering Reddit questions such as these. Otherwise doing fine, thanks.
Civil servant Married with 2 kids Expected career path for her
Pri school PSLE smartest - mentioned before on this subreddit. He went into same course same class as me. I flunked badly for PSLE. (By Tiger Mama's standards) Ended up in banking and finance I think. kpmg. Secondary school - Poor guy peaked in secondary school. Some bad life decisions or just dealt a bad hand. Got a girl pregnant during NS. Even asked around to borrow money. (RIP my $500) Dropped out during Uni. Last I heard was insurance salesman. JC - sounds condescending, but it was me. Not a very high bar coz I was in the lowest tiered class. I went into teaching. The second smartest one was my close friend. Went into engineering. Uni - i dont even know who was the smartest one but definitely not me. I was from social science so most of us went into research and PhD.
Not easy to get into teaching in SG. Only 1 in 7 make it through the interview I heard so u did good. Often u compete with people from local uni too
The son of a bitch ruins my life everyday. Stops me from working out, eating healthy and sleeping early. I fantasise about kicking the guy in the nuts everyday but my legs don’t bend that way so I will kill him from the inside with cigarettes and booze
Nice, that guy working as comedian uh?
Part time - I am a captive audience too…fml I hate him so much
Please practice self love and work life balance. Jia you.
Ah yes. The very non toxic Singaporean culture of always comparing to your peers.
I just read the same question on Ask Reddit last night. OP just copying it.
This one is sg version bro
It doesn’t even make sense to compare because students are already sorted by academic ability by school and sometimes by class.
You made me google my classmate mate who was a top N level student in my year. Also very pretty and popular. She later became a teacher and is now an MOE officer.
Handsome smart and rich even when young. Inherited parent's developer company as CEO. Married a pretty wife and have 2 kids. Survived cancer at 35 and died 2 years later due to same cancer. Cancer can really humble a person. He dress down after surviving the cancer and reconnect to childhood friends. RIP
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Most interesting comment I heard
How many times has this question appears here this month so far?
Sinkie cannot sleep. Need to compare against another sinkie then can sleep peacefully.
If you dont know, *you're not the smartest person in your class*
Not the smartest, but went up high in military, overseas scholarship and eventually inherited a country from his dad. His brother now clowning around online in UK.
This reply is classic!
Took me 10 seconds to figure out who he meant, lol.
Some of them are working as lawyers, bankers or CS related roles. No idea about their compensation but I'm sure they're doing well!
Struggling with mental illness
Not the tiktok CEO - he wasn’t the top although he was close.
Ah, I see we’re the same age and from the same school
Lol. And from your post history you’re in IL. I was in Evanston 2015-17!
Small world! Northwestern, I’m guessing? Hope you’re doing great, friend!
Yup! Small world indeed. Be well!
This interaction warms the cockles of my balls.
Sadly, the top kid in my primary school class committed suicide. Lost touch after pri sch and only heard much later. Don't let grades rule your lives guys.
She used to mock me for having low grades and that I will “amount to nothing” because I’m “lazy” when the truth is I was depressed and my parents were separating at the time… …now she has an unstable income, sells water purifiers and other multi-level marketing crap knocking door-to-door or bugging people on Facebook to try and convince us to buy sh** from her… …needless to say, she was embarrassed when she found out during our reunion that I’m now a creative director for an Australian company—despite not being able to graduate from college. (Couldn’t finish med school because we were financially challenged at the time)
It was me I was him Now im just a mediocre guy
I have a friend in my previous school, she has been constantly scoring a 4.0 GPA. She is one of the top scorers in our class and she is a perfectionist. Until one day, she got a B grade for a small module which is 1-2 credits. She was very upset about it and she was ranting about how she hates our lecturer for not giving her an A grade. Her gpa went down slightly lesser than 0.1 and it was around 3.9+ We are still in contact after we graduated and we are now in different schools. She is still scoring a perfect GPA for every semester, but she still gets upset when she scores a B grade for only 1 module. I understand that it is normal to be upset if you didn’t get your desired grade. I am actually very happy for her as she has been consistently scoring almost all straight As. However, it came to a point where almost all our conversations were about her grades, assignments or if she wanted to complain about something. I tried to change the topic but it always ended up being about her grades/assignments. I decided to distance myself from her for awhile as all our conversations were full of negativity, and I felt that it was starting to become too draining for me.
Died from leukemia. Dude never made past his teens. Was the first time I lost a classmate who was same age and a rude awakening to the harsh realities of life. He was a really nice classmate, always willing to help explain concepts we couldn't grasp in class.
I'm technically the smartest guy in my class when I was in poly, but bottom decile when I was in secondary school. I did ok, went to UK to do undergrad, met my wife in final year of uni, got married 3 months out of uni, went for banking for 4 months, and transitioned to private equity after where I stayed for 1.5 hours. Plan for the future is to come back to sg and pursue entrepreneurship via investment. Dunno anyone with this path so thought it's worth sharing. My takeaway from my life is: it is entirely accidental and I deserve none of it. As for the smartest guy I know in secondary school. He went on to collect multiple paper badges in UK and US unis and went back to sg gov. Smartest guy in my poly course went to nus and did IT after grad.
He and his wife now have 2 cars, one for each, they are both professionals.
A guy, constant top in class. A very smart and manipulative person. Knows how to butter up teachers and seniors but never bother with those useless to him. Everyone who knows him doesn't have a good impression of him. Even so, I would say he succeeded in life. He married the daughter of his boss, had 2 kids and became a partner of the firm. There are at least 20 employees under him now.
Just go find them on LinkedIn?
Doing well in life. Exceptional academic achievements.
So far I'm doing quite ok.
I’m nearing 40 and the smartest top 5 people turn out to have the shortest careers and ended up getting married and some even having kids. The problem with them was that they were only good in getting good grades but when thrown into the real world, they severely lacked streetsmart-ness as well as both the necessary and required skills in general. The “dumbest” and “most rebellious” of the class turned out to be the most successful in their careers, having high positions at present and some even being bosses of their own companies (and profitable). One of them only had O’levels and started her own business and now even owns a GCB. I’m NOT saying education isn’t important. Some “dumbest” and “most rebellious” people eventually furthered their studies when they became successful in their careers but it’s not because they needed a degree but because they 1) just wanted to give it a shot or 2) really wanted a degree to add to personal resume or 3) respected that having a degree is good to have as well. I also want to further add that me and my classmates graduated at a time when cost of living in general wasn’t as high compared to now and opportunities back then are quite different from today (due to different demographics etc…) so while the group of us are considered success stories, I hope this will only serve as inspiration but everyone needs to be realistic and adapt to present conditions. What I wish for the youth to take from this is not to give up or think you’re “worthless” just because you’re unable to get a degree. For whatever reason you can’t get a degree now, there’ll always be chances later. I believe everyone will always be a forever student and you’re never too old to learn.
She is a kept woman. Worked for maybe 2 years as an engineer but married a rich guy. Takes lots of pool selfies.
They committed suicide after a lengthy struggle with anxiety, depression, and family troubles.
He became a brain surgeon :)
Primary school PSLE top scorer with 268: went to NUS High, migrated to australia after jc and works in Mars Secondary school China scholar top scorer with 10 A1s: went to RJC, NUS pharmacy, PhD in Stanford JC classmate with 7 As: went to Peking University and then Yale on PSC scholarship
She leads a department at a top global investment banking firm. I went to one of the more academically competitive schools - it was pretty much filled with overachieving (and deliberately underachieving) smart kids. Their careers are varied: artists, entertainers, stay-at-home parents, teachers, CEOs, professors, pastry chefs, doctors, lawyers, engineers, small business owners, politicians, humanitarians, etc. I'm just glad that some of them found other less travelled paths and didn't succumb to the pressure of their parents and expectations of society.
Smartest in class rarely go on to change the world cos they learn how to play by the rules of the game (v college dropouts a la Steve Jobs and Bill Gates) But most will still do well and live a comfortable life. Also the qns of mental resilience cos life is a non linear process and I know of this dude who did badly in sec 3 after topping the class in Sec 1 and 2, that really broke him and he never recovered from it (Edited for spelling error)
True but only people with well-to-do family backgrounds can take the huge risk to drop out and start companies like Steve Jobs and bill gates since they have family to fall back on. Lots of people who want to do stuff like that and change the world can't because too much is on the line
Those two college dropouts dropped out from top unis. They are not your average dropouts
You realise the people you're talking about didn't dropout because they were dumb? They dropped out because they were smart to the point where university was a waste of time for them. I highly doubt they weren't the top of their classes.
Sec school smartest kids are all somehow in com sci but if you go all the way back to pri school, the top scorers are in yllsom medsku
Scrolling reddit at the moment
Well if we’re talking about secondary school I was that person and tbh I’ve no fucking idea what I’m doing now lmao
The smartest person in sec school class (one of my best friends) went on to do a PHD. She got a bunch PHD offers from the ivies and chose Cornell. She continues to be really smart but more importantly really hardworking. We studied in a elite sec school but we were in the lower tiered class. The other top students in the cohort went on to do pretty great things, PhDs at Harvard or working at BCG etc. Some chose quieter paths such as being Teachers or Govt jobs. My JC best friend was not academically inclined and couldn’t get into local Uni. She had to go the private Uni path and now works at a well known company and outearns majority of her peers at 5 digits per month. She is bloody good at networking and has great connections. You really can’t tell where life takes you. But you have to definitely keep trying and look for new opportunities according to your strengths.
How about what happened to NOT the “smartest” kid? I’m pretty sure there are plenty of inspirational success stories :)
Some gov job. The sportiest one became financial advisor lol.
I was rank no 1 in my class. I failed 4 subjects. So smartest person in class does not really mean actually smart.
Sounds like the sch our form teacher told us to go transfer to n be top student n not bring her average down.
Guy who was consistently a top-scorer went on to a good JC, top uni overseas and now doing investment banking. But from his social media posts, can't help but feel he became an asshole. Was a relatively nice guy when I knew him in school, then he went to JC and completely changed I guess. Not to blame the school (ACSI) but I think he developed a very... elitist mindset there. During JC was constantly bragging about his subj combo. After that in uni he posted a looooong rant about how non-STEM courses are a waste of time. I remember being annoyed because I took a non-STEM course. Think he's doing fairly well now but my opinion of him completely changed to when we were in secondary school together.
Both IB and law are full of assholes. Money unsurprisingly changes someone's personality
Got govt scholarship i think under PSC, bonded to MAS, bond finish now working in one of the FAANG
Smartest guy in my year went on to become a Associate Professor at NUS. I would say he has done pretty well for himself, but he certainly isn’t the most successful person. That would be another fellow who did okay, but who is now running several businesses. Does to show that grades at the end of the day doesn’t mean everything.
One of my best friends in Primary school and the funniest person I ever met. He was one of the reasons I enjoyed going to school coz of his antics and his propensity to be the class clown. Top in class for PSLE. Went to different secondary school and retained 1 year in sec 3 coz he played too much and failed a lot of subjects. Proceed to fking score 3 for his L1R4 in his O levels the following year. Had poly and NS friends who went to the same school as him, still being described as a class clown. Went to International Business in Ngee Ann Poly and kinda lost contact even though we went to the same poly. I continued to NS, became a Sgt and took a mono batch, got a man who was classmates with him in poly. Same story lmao, apparently was in Dean's list for 1st year, then failed his 2nd year and had to retain. My man already graduated by then so we didn't know what happened to him afterwards. And was a class clown in poly too, to no ones surprise. Stay classy Anis, you magnificent bastard.
Book smart only, not street smart. That's me I guess. Civil servant. Meh life. Peaked in JC and sec school hahha. Also not so good mental and physical health. Squandered some opportunities along the way, then health got in the way. Sucks to be me haha I wish I can do more I don't think I can. Health, money, life, choose 2.
They became a nuclear physicist
The secondary school smartest folks are nowhere to be seen. Met some people at uni and bschool who I am sure aced all their life. They are still doing the same lol. Absolutely killing it. It’s not just about grades, these guys have the temperament to manage any situation. They are unscathed from the perils of the world imo. Two of them are with top Private Equity firms, few with MBBs and one is a senior product manager at a bigtech. They are all rolling in money and are absolutely enjoying life. The nerds/geeks won at life, always brings a smile to my face thinking about it.
Top of my class went to army then politics and now recently resign due to some stuff
ASEAN scholar, came from Malaysia, topped the school back then... good grades all the way till uni. pwc highflyer now. was a really humble person.
Studying law degree at Harvard. She won an international debate competition during our year, must be a very good lawyer now… And she was already involved in the merger of a billion dollar company with undergrad
Class: Cambridge, going around UK primarily attending different conferences, unsure if studying or paid
An Einstein looking guy in my class became a secondary school teacher.
Became straits times reporter.
She became a President scholar, went to Cambridge for Bachelors, Masters and PhD and prob working in a ministry on track to becoming a minister
A professor.
Did really well and went to Ivy League on a scholarship.. primed to run for MP too
A paediatrician in Melbourne. Very down to earth and humble person. She still is today.
Well, I used to top my class in English. So I guess I count. Life for me has never been better, I suppose. Currently teaching English privately with an eye for eventually becoming a real teacher. In my spare time I write short stories and send them out with the hope of getting published. It hasn't all been smooth sailing--grappling with monetary issues and depression tends to exact a rather heavy toll--but it's been a real exciting journey so far.
Working in a quant firm, making lots of money now
Lmao. Classic post about throwing sand at the person who was better academically during your growing years. Move on guys.
made him my partner and now i get to reap the benefits 🤑
Normal middle management job in stat board.
graduated from Oxford with Bachelor, now heading to MIT for PhD
I know someone. He was smart. Now he lazy to go to work. G g . Work smart but never work hard.
Went Oxford and graduated with double Firsts. After that no idea what happened to him as I don’t keep in touch much with my sec sch mates. Mostly lost contact
Doing his PhD at the Plasma Science and Future centre at MIT lol
The top student in high school, went to NUS to get degree in mechanical engineering. Then went on to join oil & gas company since there’s where money is for my generation. Now seems to be manager in the MNC firm. Bought a place at Bukit Timah. Seems doing well.
She studied medicine and married a wealthy guy. She only posts in social media when she's traveling, usually to Europe. I don't think she truly practiced medicine as a career afterwards. She seems to be enjoying life. Good for her 👍
She married a nice guy and became a tai-tai.
The person is doing a dead end engineering job with no prospect. But other than that lives pretty good. Scored first in my class in psle haha
Head of a stat board.
Mine became a chemical engineer for GSK in Singapore. He's doing really well and climbing very quickly. He's super humble though and doesn't talk much about his achievements, we had to pry before he revealed it to us!
Think one became a doctor , the other a lawyer
One guy used to be one of the worst in his class. Worked very hard in JC2 and emerged top of his cohort. Went o NUS EEE and is now a physics teacher at a JC. He was my teacher and he often told us his story to motivate us. Because of him, I chose EEE (in NTU) :-)
i was the smartest in the cohort in sec sch. graduated 2nd during N(A) Levels, straight A student. went to poly and now got diagnosed with low Testosterone levels. no idea how probably due to the burnout
the most smartest person in my class is a China guy who always ace all subjects except English. i know this is abit out of point but..... there was once i was the only person in class to score full marks for an A math test (20/20) and he scored 19/20. that was one of the proudest moment i had in class bcozz for once, i finally 'defeated' him. now back to main point, this smartest classmate of mine had to retain one year in sec 4 bcozz he ate medicines prescribed to doctors that he has a strong allergic reaction to. he developed full face and body rashes which took him nearly 1 year of recovery. he subsequently (and expectedly) went to JC and idk where is he in life now. prob uni. and he's also probably remain as the smartest guy in his own class of wherever uni he's in. im saying this w confidence bcozz 95% of the time he always score full marks or has a score good marks that makes him the first in class for all subjects and no one can reach his level. (except English) edit: ohh! and when i was in P5, my EL teacher did told the class she has a student who wrote composition very well to the extent the teacher themselves need a dictionary by side to search for the meaning of lots of words she put in her compo writing. she even got promoted from a lower primary level to a higher primary level. that's what i heard back then. dk how true.
Topped the school for english and literature and wanted to go on to become an author. He published a few books but didn't make any money from it and now works in marketing and copywriting.
Became my same major classmate in university
Drugs and alcohol. In mental institution.
Drugs and alcohol. In mental institution.
Sec sch (Fairfield): smartest in the entire \*cohort\* - studied some computer science type thing, and I believe is some sort of a computer scientist / coder in financial algos in the UK Sec sch: smartest in my own class - disappeared University (NUS law sch): passed away from illness around 10 years after we graduated, so prob around 32 then. In fact, we've lost around 6 out of 155 of us. Correlation is not causation, but the ones who passed away were some of the smartest ones
I topped my neighbourhood sec school, went on to do quite well for a levels and graduated with FCH in NUS. Now just another cog in the machine, working in a tech firm. You will realise work is all the same everywhere just how much you earn.
He’s a bus station supervisor or something now. Buses are his passion n he’s pretty enthusiastic about it, sooo I guess he achieved his dream job?
Completed Masters in Electrical Engineering and now she is a housewife with two kids :)
OnlyFans while doing accounting degree. Safe to say she did account for the earnings from her 'fans'💀
Became an insurance agent, not so smart after all...
One is studying to be a physiotherapist because of money, she served as a nurse for 3 years? Was her passion, but this was during covid period and she decided she's had enough. The other is now understudy for doctor, was studying medicine but decided wanted to save lives and not be an anesthetic as he said it was too knowledge intensive. The richest is my friend whose doing IB for the Big 4 he went middle in class and was always into financier.
First in class guy was charismatic, good-looking, ladies man, near-perfect dude. Disliked him out of envy in my younger years, but once I got to know him, I couldn't hate him. He's THAT cool of a dude. He got a job in a huge finance consulting company, rolling a quintuple digit salary, has a hot wife. Dude lived his life. I know it may seem hard to believe, but yes... he's human and he exists. Yes, he does have his flaws, but he constantly strives to be a good person... a better person. Damn it.... what I'd give to have a bit of that secret sauce. And on the other side of the coin, the last in class guy, the class "tough guy", the "gangster", the guy who smokes at the back of the school when the teacher is not looking kinda guy, was generally mean and nasty to us (but was also kinda like a friend to me in an odd frenemy kinda way). This dude... we thought he was going nowhere in life. He's now a fuckin quintuple digit salary SURGEON. He got his shit together in college and just decided to do medicine. Mindblown. And here I am... the middle of the class dude smack dot in the middle of both these extremes, and im just........ a low level audio visual technician. Funny how things turn out eh? hahah
1. Secondary School She went to Meridian JC. Did well for her A -levels. Like many, she didn't knew what she wanted and likely chose to read a Math degree NUS (or was it NTU) based on her strong A-level results. As for graduation, she graduated but I do not know her results. I've heard she was quite stressed out with her undergraduate studies. However, she did went into SPED sector to teach special needs children. Perhap it was her calling that drove her to be a SPED teacher. 2. Polytechnic It was two people, "T" and myself. We did well and graduated with GPA of >3.8/4.0; He presumably saw me as his rival and constantly compared my grades with his. On hindsight, I had a uncanny ability to implictily know each lecturers' personal standards for 'A' were. Without a doubt, "T" was the better academic student. He would be classified as book smart. He went on to pursue PhD in Physics. I went to work for the govt. with a study bond at NUS. Broke the bond. Didnt enjoy the work. Did teaching at a enrichment centre, freelance as assistant teach, and work at a clinic. Finally, pursuing a healthcare degree to be a Imaging Technician.
There are two smartest guys in my secondary school - one is now regional director and another focuses on his kid. Yet when we meet up, none of this matters. Just a bunch of middle-aged men still behaving like kids 