Personal Reflection and Goal-Setting

Name:
Student ID:
Course:
Class:

Mark Chong Yun Seng

1301A21951
Cambridge A-levels (January 2013 Intake)
1301PM1

Write a personal reflection on your academic goals and journey. You may write
in any style or format. You may use diagrams, drawings and colours.

The end of one journey is just the

beginning of another

Foundation, Diplomas, STPM, SAM, CPU, Cambridge A-levels... All of these came
across my mind even before the SPM examinations started. Well, picking the right choice of
pre-university programmes isnt easy at all. But at last, I chose to take up the Cambridge Alevels (CAL) programme.
Why am I in this programme? Of course, one of the main reasons is that CAL suits
my aspiration to study medicine in University of Cambridge after my pre-u studies. Not only
that, CAL is highly recognised by most of the universities throughout the world. Although
originated from the United Kingdom, students that obtain excellent grades are able to enter
prestigious universities in United States, Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia and so forth.
I have chosen Chemistry as one of my 4 subjects as I would like to pursue my studies
in the medicinal field. Medicine, dentistry or biomedical sciences, these fields requires
chemistry because chemistry plays a crucial part in our body. For instance, cellular
respiration is the natural process that is always occurring in our body throughout our whole
life. By using the knowledge in chemistry, I am certain that I will be able to get in depth with
the reaction that is occurring during this process. Thus, it is vital that I take up chemistry as a
subject in my CAL programme so that I will get a better understanding with my studies later.
Chemistry has always been my well-liked subject ever since Form 4s. WHY? I
havent figure out any answers to that question yet. Maybe I love to mix chemicals and see
the result of it. Haha. Or maybe is my curiosity towards the natural phenomena. No matter
what, chemistry has made a great impact to my life and thinking. I remembered when I first
stepped into the science laboratory during Form 1s, I would just stare at the results of the

experiments of the seniors did and felt marvellous about it. It was just COOL looking at the
change in colours of the chemicals. I had no idea how they did it and why the chemicals
reacted. I was curious and I had many question marks in my head.
Fortunately, I got half of these questions answered when I stepped into my Form 4s
and 5s. It was fun to watch looking at the results of my experiment. Regardless of planning
experiments or doing calculations, I love every part of chemistry. I believe that in my CAL
programme, chemistry will be much harder than it was during my secondary school but I
hope that it will still be as fun as it was before in my secondary school.

Next, I would like to elaborate on my strength and weaknesses. One of my strength is

that I am curious and I will always try to learn more than what I have learnt in classes. For
instance, every day after lessons, I will search the net for more information or read the
reference books for more information although that info may not be in our syllabus. This
applies to most of the science subjects including biology and chemistry. Next, I would like to
outline my weakness. Well, sometimes I get too over confident of myself. Especially when
doing exercises, I always think that my answer is the right one. Now, I am trying to get rid of
this bad attitude as I believe no one is perfect. Everyone makes mistakes and I should also
listen to my friends opinions and views towards something.
My goal from this CAL course is to achieve all As in my subjects besides having fun
with friends. With good academic results, I believe I will be able to enter to one of the top
universities in the world and pursue my studies in medicine. Of course, achieving a goal isnt
easy after all, but I am certain that with great determination and faith, nothing fails and the
path towards success will always be there for me.