S'porean researcher at A*Star with a PhD scored 124 for PSLE, was from EM3 stream

'Grades are not the most important thing. It is merely a stepping stone.'

Tan Xing Qi | September 22, 2018, 12:23 PM

Now that people posing with a white placard containing their life scores respective PSLE scores is actually a thing, here's another person doing the same.

Here's a fuller picture of Dr. Vincent Lim:

Source: A*Star Facebook page

That's right: He scored 124 for PSLE.

Now, he has a degree with first-class honours and a PhD.

Lim is currently a research fellow at A*Star's Institute of Medical Biology, conducting research on helping people with atopic dermatitis, or commonly known as eczema.

Lucky to have supportive teachers

In the interview published on A*Star, Lim shared that he was in the EM3 stream, but was thankful to have a very supportive form teacher who "treated her students like her kids".

His luck continued in secondary school:

"In my secondary school years, I was also lucky to have teachers who saw under-performing students as a group with latent potential rather than dread. I think having had a good support system was very important to me as without those helping hands, there's only so far one can go."

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And of course, grades are not everything

With a good support system, he proceeded with a belief that he was no different from his "smarter peers".

The rest is history.

"My advice for people who didn't do well in school is this: it's never the end. Society may sometimes seem to say: 'This is your one job, you need to do well in school!' But that's not true. There's never just one job; that's not the reason you were born for.

Grades are not the most important thing. It is merely a stepping stone; if you've got no stone to step on, then run, jump, and climb. What is important is to never give up on yourself and to always keep your options open."

You can read the full post here.

Top photo via A*Star Facebook page