ABOUT THIS SITE

How did this site get started in the first place?

Can I copy stuff from this site into my essays?

I don't come from Singapore -- so what's all this 'A' level / JC / Chao Mugger stuff?

Who are you anyway?

I'm a geek -- so what were you thinking when you coded this site?

How did this site get started in the first place?

Long story! At the tail end of 1996, my classmates and I were taking our 'A' levels. I thought it would be nice if we could actually read those brilliant photocopied essays in horrible handwriting, that our seniors had passed down to us. So I retyped them, and put them on the Net where everyone else could get them ... and for some reason I just carried on with the site after the 'A's were over.

That first lot of essays was actually on history, the bane of my academic JC life. My juniors in the RJC History Society kindly took over that awesome subject early this year. This site would never have commanded so much of my enthusiasm were it still about dead kings and gory wars.

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The answer is yes and no. YES, copy ideas, because these essays are here to help you with your research. And NO, copying word for word is called plagiarism -- or cheating.

Copying ideas means that you understand what someone has written, and say it again in your own way. This way, you will understand the concepts better. Then you'll write a more convincing essay, because you have made the ideas your own. Check with your teacher whether you should state where you got your ideas. There's nothing wrong with admitting that they're not originally yours -- understanding other people's ideas is called research.

Copying word for word is not just cheating and taking advantage of some very nice people who have donated their essays to you. It's also stupid. Why? Your essay topic is going to be different from these essay questions by just a few words. You may think that copying will give you a grade 'A'. But the reason that these are 'A' essays is that the writers paid careful attention to every word in the question, and answered straight to the point. You can't answer your own essay question sensibly if you just lift straight out of Chao Mugger essays.

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CHAO MUGGER

Singaporean slang term (Singlish). "Chao" means "stinking" -- "mugger" is someone who studies far too hard. An insult or joke.

'A' levels & 'S' papers

Singapore used to be a British colony, so we take their standard exams. The 'A' levels are taken just before entering university. American universities usually consider them equivalent to the first year of university, or the Advanced Placement (AP) tests.

If you are certifiably insane, you can take an 'S' paper in one or two of your favourite 'A' levels. 'S' papers have crackpot questions and virtually no syllabus.

Fun stats on 'A' levels: You can take 4 'A' level subjects at most and (unless you're a genius) 2 'S' papers. (We won't go into 'AO' subjects.) Why? For my English Lit 'A' level, I did 10 essays in 9 hours, all in the exam hall. For my 'S' paper, I did another 3 essays in 3 hours. Arts subjects are pretty much all like that -- Science subjects, not much better.

Grade	Marks (S'pore)	Marks (US)
A	70+	90+
B	60+	80+
C	55+	70+

Grading system ('A' levels)

As of 12 October '97, all the essays on this site were contributed by Singaporean 'A' level students. All of them are grade 'A', and I believe would earn a grade 'A' anywhere that 16-18 year-olds are taught. However, Singaporean teachers are trained to be stingy with marks ...

Junior College (JC)

Junior colleges are the last two years of studying beore you go up to university. For the British, they're the same as 6th Form -- for the Americans, roughly equivalent to Grades 11-12. They are not "community colleges"; JC is where you take your 'A' levels and prepare for university. There are 14 JCs in Singapore; most contributors and I are from Raffles Junior College (RJC).

My juniors and seniors

I know that Americans call their 3rd-years juniors, and 4th-years seniors, in junior high, high school and university. However, in Singapore, when I talk about my juniors at RJC, I mean all those kids younger than me who are still there taking their 'A' levels.

Streams: Arts/Science/Commerce

In Singapore, junior college students must pick a "stream". I have mixed feelings about this. Yes, I had great preparation for the humanities classes I'm taking at university, but being reunited with Chemistry is a somewhat painful experience. The danger is that we end up rather one-sided very early on.

Want to learn more Singlish? Try Ah Kow's Ingglish Dicksionairy.

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I'm female, I took my 'O' levels at CHIJ Toa Payoh, my 'A' levels at Raffles Junior College in the Humanities Programme, and am now in the Directed Studies programme at Yale, pursuing an English Lit degree. And that's all you'll find out here! Write to me if you want to know more.

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Please realise that this site was created by a non-programmer -- but I tried to make it as presentable and accessible as possible. There have been many compromises. In principle I would love to use style sheets in preference to the infamous <FONT> tag, but I don't yet have the knowledge. The Accessible Site Design Guide says a lot about what I tried to do here, though I couldn't live up to everything there. If you want to create accessible pages, you might want to try these HTML checkers: Bobby (accessibility for the handicapped) and A Kinder, Gentler HTML Validator.

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Back to the Chao Mugger front door, or visit

The RJC History Society  |  Siew Lian's Literary Decadence  |  My Ng SiblNgs hMepage  |  My Caliriel - Eyrie of Calligraphy.

Your comments are always welcome.