Anyone here in NUS during late 70s~early 80s pls verify...

[Rogue Trader]

I've heard this story from my teacher years ago and have always wondered if this really happened.

In an English Lit/Philosophy final exam, the essay topic was "What is courage?".

A student answered: "This is courage." and submitted the script. He actually passed with flying colours.

Is this story just a campus myth? Anyone here heard the same story?

 

[krafty]

ha...lol...the version I heard was from U.K., same storyline...

I've heard this story from my teacher years ago and have always wondered if this really happened.

In an English Lit/Philosophy final exam, the essay topic was "What is courage?".

A student answered: "This is courage." and submitted the script. He actually passed with flying colours.

Is this story just a campus myth? Anyone here heard the same story?

 

[Privpho]

That's creativity for you! We need more of such students so they can better adapt to the flexibility required in the working world! Graduates nowadays as inflexible as rock and twice as short sighted!

 

[Unrepented]

I heard this legend too. The student just simply wrote "This!". Seems many people heard of this too. Recently, I attended a course and the lecturer also related this story. The marker of the exam paper was an ang mo, i heard.

I've heard this story from my teacher years ago and have always wondered if this really happened.

In an English Lit/Philosophy final exam, the essay topic was "What is courage?".

A student answered: "This is courage." and submitted the script. He actually passed with flying colours.

Is this story just a campus myth? Anyone here heard the same story?

 

[Rogue Trader]

That's creativity for you! We need more of such students so they can better adapt to the flexibility required in the working world! Graduates nowadays as inflexible as rock and twice as short sighted!

Indeed. More amazing was the fact that he wasn't flunked. I would imagine the Nus culture back in those post-hippee days must have been very strict. So if this story is true, kudos to the professor too.

By the way, were uni students allowed to keep long hair back then?

 

[Rogue Trader]

I heard this legend too. The student just simply wrote "This!". Seems many people heard of this too. Recently, I attended a course and the lecturer also related this story. The marker of the exam paper was an ang mo, i heard.

did your lecturer say where this happened?

 

[Brightkid]

I really doubt it happened in NUS. Even if the lecturer was an angmo, the script would have been verified by another lecturer if it is a year-end-final paper.

I will be surprised if the student did not get a 'Fail' or ungraded grade.

By the way, were uni students allowed to keep long hair back then?

Not so in NUS. but in Singapore Poly (the only poly back then), you cannot tell the guys from the gals from the back. Though back then not many gals in Engineering or Marine Study.

 

[jw5]

I heard another story.
The title of the essay was "A Race Against Time".
One student wrote a story about the human race being faced by a deadly disease and the probability of going into extinction.
Apparently, he failed.

 

[Brightkid]

I heard another story.
The title of the essay was "A Race Against Time".
One student wrote a story about the human race being faced by a deadly disease and the probability of going into extinction.
Apparently, he failed.

Wow, if the student take his script to a movie direction, it would have been a block-blaster. And the student would have been a millionaire by now.

 

[UpYoz_olo]

I've heard this story from my teacher years ago and have always wondered if this really happened.

In an English Lit/Philosophy final exam, the essay topic was "What is courage?".

A student answered: "This is courage." and submitted the script. He actually passed with flying colours.

Is this story just a campus myth? Anyone here heard the same story?

It isn't myth or legend. The answer was

:oIo:


I got a tripos for it. No kidding.





:oIo::oIo::oIo::oIo::oIo::oIo::oIo::oIo::oIo:

 

[Unrepented]

Once I ended my presentation with a blank green transparancy (long story), and I got an "A". The lecturer was impressed because it was thought provoking. Bo Sian Tau.

I really doubt it happened in NUS. Even if the lecturer was an angmo, the script would have been verified by another lecturer if it is a year-end-final paper.

I will be surprised if the student did not get a 'Fail' or ungraded grade.




Not so in NUS. but in Singapore Poly (the only poly back then), you cannot tell the guys from the gals from the back. Though back then not many gals in Engineering or Marine Study.

 

[jw5]

Indeed. More amazing was the fact that he wasn't flunked. I would imagine the Nus culture back in those post-hippee days must have been very strict. So if this story is true, kudos to the professor too.

By the way, were uni students allowed to keep long hair back then?

Some people here seem impressed with the student and the professor.
I'm not that impressed.
If the title had been "What is effort?" and the student had written "This is not effort". Would the reaction have been the same?
Kudos for being innovative, but if this essay is supposed to be for an English Lit / Philosophy paper, the student should be expected to be able to express himself. It's not just about answering the question with a smart alecky one-liner, albeit an innovative one.
If I were the professor, this is what I would have done.
Check whether he has an outstanding student loan and his family background, specifically whether they are tight financially.
Yes, he gets a B. (A for innovation and courage, F for expression)
No, he fails.

 

[Unrepented]

The lecturer for this recent course of mine is an old gentleman in his late 50s or early 60s. He did mention NUS.

Same as what I heard many years back. Happened in NUS, arts student psychology major.

But let me qualify... all these are "I heard they say". But I don't know how this old gentleman lecturer got to know of this story though.

But the answer was sure "impressive".

did your lecturer say where this happened?

 

[Rogue Trader]

Some people here seem impressed with the student and the professor.
I'm not that impressed.
If the title had been "What is effort?" and the student had written "This is not effort". Would the reaction have been the same?
Kudos for being innovative, but if this essay is supposed to be for an English Lit / Philosophy paper, the student should be expected to be able to express himself. It's not just about answering the question with a smart alecky one-liner, albeit an innovative one.
If I were the professor, this is what I would have done.
Check whether he has an outstanding student loan and his family background, specifically whether they are tight financially.
Yes, he gets a B. (A for innovation and courage, F for expression)
No, he fails.

i think you must also consider the context of singapore during that era. It was the height of the Cold war. Hippees, bell bottoms and long hair were considered 'havoc'. Tan wah peow just got arrested. Undergrads who made it to Nus were still regarded as the nation's brightest. Any intelligentsia, any hint of articulate deviation from societial norms would have been watched back then. I'd think student life in Nus back then would have been as repressed as boarding school, or as bland as the canteen food. Or both.Now for a student to come up with such an exam answer would have been impressive.

 

[Rogue Trader]

The lecturer for this recent course of mine is an old gentleman in his late 50s or early 60s. He did mention NUS.

Same as what I heard many years back. Happened in NUS, arts student psychology major.

But let me qualify... all these are "I heard they say". But I don't know how this old gentleman lecturer got to know of this story though.

But the answer was sure "impressive".

Thanks for sharing. Just like tekong missing recruit story, this episode definitely happened waaaay before our time. And i have always wondered its authenticity.

 

[Rogue Trader]

Not so in NUS. but in Singapore Poly (the only poly back then), you cannot tell the guys from the gals from the back. Though back then not many gals in Engineering or Marine Study.

During the 80s, kitaro was denied entry into this country because of his long hair. During the 90s, mats who wore their jeans backwards like Kris Kross were told by the police to change in toilets. Damn funny.

goes to show how little tolerance the authorities had for counterculture and self expression back then.

 

[Goh Meng Seng]

This was related by by my Philosophy tutor and he said it happens to a student taking a paper in Philosophy.

Goh Meng Seng

 

[myfoot123]

This was related by by my Philosophy tutor and he said it happens to a student taking a paper in Philosophy.

Goh Meng Seng

That student could be Dr Chee Soon Juan and he knew someday he is going to write the book called "the power of courage". He eventually did.

 

[Unrepented]

How come you always ask the right person???

If you are referring to the third door in Tekong Camp one and the extra man appearing during night training. I saw the door, the bunk was already converted into a store room during my time there. Just behind the stage at the parade square.

And you know what..... after so many years...... afew of us sinkie guys where on an overseas business trip and started talking about our army days, ghost stories in the army and this particular story sprang up.

Again, all of us agreed it may be just a myth..... except one guy in our group. He said it is true. We asked him how come he's so sure. His reply was; the one missing with stomach explosion (not imploded) was his cousin in law (if he is still alive) and gave us the "dont believe right?" kinda look. We joked and thought he was trying to pull a fast one. He was serious and after so many years as collegues overseas, he still maintained that and seldom talk about it anymore.

This reminded me of another dont say dont believe story. A RI scholar was lost in Marsiling training ground many years back, later found dead, drowned near a small stream in that area a few days later. Got close friend of mine who was involved in the search. He and afew others searched the stream before but no one there. Dont know why the guy ended up there.... how to get lost in Marsiling.

ok enough for today Next time on ghost stories, got another one who saw a man in ching dynasty clothes standing at the door way in camp one in tekong, his friend ask me to accompany him to inform the victims mother because house phone coincidentially also out of order....

Thanks for sharing. Just like tekong missing recruit story, this episode definitely happened waaaay before our time. And i have always wondered its authenticity.

 

[Rogue Trader]

How come you always ask the right person???

kekeke. singapore is quite small lah so everything and everyone is connected. The tekong case is real. my brother's friend who was a tekong instructor corporal actually read the incident entry in the duty log book after a few months it happened.
Apparently during that night they placed the recruit's body in the medical center so that it could be taken to mainland in the morning. That night the duty clerk/medic saw the poor soul lingering around his own body.