The PSLE Miracle

Ping Ye was a girl who lived in Singapore. She was in primary school and she was always worried about her studies. She was not a bad student, but she was always nervous. She would study and study and study, but when the exam came, she would panic. Her mind would go blank and she would forget everything she had learned.

Her parents were kind and patient. Her daddy would always say, "Ping Ye, just do your best. That is all anyone can do." But Ping Ye could not stop worrying. She worried about English. She worried about Maths. She worried about Science. And most of all, she worried about Chinese.

When she was in Primary 6, the most important exam of her school life arrived. It was called the PSLE — the Primary School Leaving Examination. Every child in Singapore had to take it. The score you got would decide which secondary school you could go to.

Ping Ye sat down for each paper. English, Maths, Science, Chinese. She answered every question she could. For Chinese, she said to herself, "I don't even understand some of these questions, but I will just write something. I will try my best." She answered and answered and answered, even when she was not sure.

When she came out of the exam hall, her daddy asked, "How was it?"

"I don't know," she said. "I kept answering but I didn't even understand some of the questions. I just wrote whatever I could."

Her daddy smiled. "That's all you can do."

In her heart, Ping Ye thought, "Maybe I will get 210. Maybe 220 if I am lucky."

Then the PSLE results came.

Ping Ye's score was 360 out of a 400.

Three hundred and sixty. It was an extraordinary score. It was the score of a top student.

Everybody was shocked. Her mummy looked at the paper and looked at Ping Ye and said, "Ping Ye, did you cheat?"

"Mummy!" Ping Ye said. "How could I cheat? All the girls sit far apart. The teachers walk up and down the whole time. Everyone gets a different question paper with the questions all jumbled up. There is no way to cheat. I don't even know how I got this score!"

Her daddy laughed and said, "You did your best, and everything you had studied was inside your head. You just stopped worrying for once, and it all came out."

Something changed in Ping Ye that day. She had always thought she was an ordinary, nervous student. Now she thought, "If I can get 360, I must be quite good." She became confident. Not arrogant — just quietly sure of herself.

She went to Raffles Girls' School, one of the best schools in Singapore. Her teachers looked at her record and saw the 360. They gave her extra attention. They believed in her. And because they believed in her, she believed in herself even more.

She studied without worry. She scored 80s and 90s every year. She did well in her O levels. She did well in her A levels. And then she went to Harvard University — one of the best universities in the world.

After she graduated, she came back to Singapore and got a job at Google, which in 2002 and 2003 was one of the most exciting companies on earth.

She was doing very well. Life was good.

Then one day, a letter arrived. It was marked with the seal of the Ministry of Education.

She opened it.

The letter said: "Every year, we conduct an audit of old examination records to ensure everything was processed correctly. We wish to inform you that when you sat for your PSLE in 1994, there was an administrative error. Your examination papers were mixed up with another student whose roll number was 121. Your roll number was 120. As a result, you were given the score of 360, which actually belonged to the other student. Your actual PSLE score was 180. We sincerely apologise for this error."

Ping Ye sat very still for a long time.

180.

Her real score had been 180. But she had lived her whole life believing she had scored 360. And because she believed it, she had become the person who deserved it.

The teachers had believed in her. Her parents had believed in her. And most importantly, she had believed in herself. And that belief had taken her from a nervous, ordinary student all the way to Harvard and Google.

The moral of the story is this: it does not matter so much what score you get. What matters is whether you have confidence in yourself. Confidence changes how you study. It changes how teachers treat you. It changes how your parents see you. And most of all, it changes how you see yourself.

Is this a true story? Daddy thinks it might be. But whether it is true or not, the lesson is true.

Believe in yourself — and the rest will follow.