PETALING JAYA, March 15 — Adversity proved to be a student’s greatest teacher when he became one of the 8,436 students who scored straight A’s in their Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examinations.
Zarif Azri Azizul, 18, always had a problem with Additional Mathematics, scoring a measly 38 per centile in the notoriously difficult subject for his first exams last year at Maktab Rendah Sains Mara (MRSM) in Taiping, Perak, mStar reported.
Yesterday, after receiving his impressive results, the teenager took to Twitter to share a snapshot of his low marks accompanied by an image of his most recent achievement.
“I’ve always had a problem with Additional Mathematics. Honestly, I’ve never gotten a good mark for this subject since Form Four.
“Only God knows how low I felt in comparison with friends who did much better than me. During the SPM trial examinations, I only got a B+,” he told mStar Online yesterday.
Reminiscing about the time he received 38 out of 100 for Additional Mathematics, Zarif admitted he was scared at first to share the news with his parents because he was worried they would scold him.
Lumrah manusia, semua mesti akan merasa kegagalan. Failure itself is subjective to every one of us. What makes us different is how we bounce back.
— fazir (@goodlittleboi) March 14, 2019
Untuk siapa yang tak dapat expected results tu, it's normal untuk bersedih, but jangan lama lama. Heads up, and hit back hard. 🤘🏼 pic.twitter.com/7vJHfCSJNH
He was relieved in the end as his parents were supportive, advising him with words of encouragement to improve his weakness.
“I spent time to master Additional Mathematics and it involved sacrificing some things. I used to play rugby every evening but I reduced time spent on it.
“I paid attention to this subject. If I studied topic A today, it’s topic B tomorrow and the next day I will revisit the topics prior to those to see how far my comprehension is,” he said.
The eldest of three siblings certainly did not expect to get an A+ for Additional Mathematics.
“I was confident in getting a better mark but I did not expect to get A+ for the subject I was so weak in. Thank God.
“Thanks to my parents and friends who supported me,” he said.
Zarif also told the Malay language portal that failing was part of being human experience, but one has to rise and work hard to achieve success.
“Failing is normal, everyone has experienced failure including me but we have to push ourselves to be better.
“If you didn’t get a mark you wanted don’t be sad for too long. Instead, think positive and pick yourself up to improve your weakness,” he said.
Zarif intends to pursue Actuarial Science.
