Good Luck SEA Students

Today a little over 17,000 primary school students would be taking the Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) Examination. This reminded me of my big day. The amount of pressure that this test places on children is unbelievable. I wrote this examination when it was still common entrance and a place was not guaranteed to every student. There were various possibilities that could come from the exam including failure, not passing for a seven year, or five year school. This is too much pressure for an eleven year old to endure.

My experience was quite interesting in that the night before the exam I did not sleep. This by the way was my first memorable case of insomnia, which is something that has plagued my adult life. Tossing and turning the night before the exam I was thinking of all sorts of things as I was quite nervous about doing the exam. Needless to say on the day of the exam I fell asleep while writing the essay, which was the first section. The sleep I got during the exam was probably better than the sleep I had gotten the night before. I awoke to the sound of the bell signaling the end of that section of the exam and I had only written two paragraphs. The sad thing about that scenario was that the person supervising my room was my neighbour whose daughter was my friend. The lady saw me sleeping and did not wake me up. Anyways I went on to do the rest of the exam without major incident.

I passed for a five year secondary school. I remember being a bit disappointed but I was grateful because I honestly thought I was going to fail. My neighbour’s daughter who was writing the exam that year for the second time passed for the illustrious St. Joseph Convent a seven year school. This whole thing about five year and seven year schools is nonsense because in seven year schools entrance into the A’Level programme is based on performance at CXC. However at the time of common entrance I was given the impression that it is was a guaranteed placement. Strange enough the young lady and I ended up in the same Senior Comprehensive School to do A’Levels. Essentially what I am trying to say is that please don’t put any undue pressure on the students. Even if the results aren’t what we as parents and adults would like all is not lost. Keep in mind that many times what we want for our children is often what we did not achieve for ourselves so while we may want the best it is important to love and support our children regardless of the outcome.

I wish all the SEA students the best of luck today.