51yo Malaysian Teacher Sits for SPM Ad-Maths Paper and Scores ‘A’ After Giving up 34 Years Ago

With the SPM results released yesterday, Malaysians felt nostalgic, remembering our time sitting for the exam and anxiously awaiting the results. Whether we passed with flying colours or not, it’s a memory that will stay with us for the rest of our lives.

In a recent story shared by Sin Chew Daily, a math and accounting teacher at a Chinese primary and secondary school decided to revisit Advanced Mathematics, making up for the time she had given up on the subject during her SPM year.

The “A” she received was her dream of 34 years!

Liu Xiu Lian from Muar, Johor, took the Advanced Mathematics paper and achieved an “A” solely through self-study using YouTube. In February 2023, some parents of her students requested her to tutor their kids in Advanced Mathematics for the SPM exam.

Despite never having pursued the subject herself, she decided to take the plunge and learn it online. Throughout this learning process, her determination grew, eventually leading her to decide to sit for the exam herself.

Reliving her childhood dream

Driven by a passionate determination to seize the missed opportunity, the 51-year-old shared decided to sit for the Advanced Mathematics exam to better help her students in the future.

“I have loved Mathematics since I was a kid. But SPM didn’t allow me to take both Accounting and Advanced Mathematics at the same time, which led to my decision to give up on Advanced Mathematics back then,” she explained.

She dedicated 2 months to learning the Form 4 and Form 5 syllabus and spent nearly 10 months consistently practising with mock exam questions from various reference books and past papers.

Time management was the key to her success!

Despite juggling her tutoring job and caring for her elderly mother, Liu shared how she never abandoned the idea of retaking the SPM subject.

“When I walked into the exam hall that day, I was told I was the oldest candidate, but I didn’t feel ashamed at all,” she added.

She continued to explain how practising mock exam papers from different states helped her, and she believes that effective time management was the key to her success.

“When I saw the exam papers that day, I knew I couldn’t finish all the questions. So, I prioritised the high-scoring questions and made sure to answer them correctly.”

She expressed her joy and shared her future plans to open a high-level math tutorial class to help SPM candidates overcome their fears of the subject.

Age is just a number and shouldn’t stop anyone from pursuing their dreams! Do you have dreams you’d like to achieve? Share them with us in the comments below!

Also read: SPM 2023: 11k Students Get Straight As But 10k Students are No-Shows, M’sians Fear They Aim to Become TikTokers