Man who failed O-levels twice graduates from NUS with honours: 'Learnt my lesson, hustled and graduated'
Failing the O-Levels twice became the start of an "academic comeback" for a TikToker who ultimately graduated from university with first class honours and landed a job.
In a Christmas Day TikTok post which garnered over 55,900 views, user @mentaikofries recounted his academic journey, showing screenshots of his GCE O-Level certificates.
"Thought I could get away not studying for O-Levels. Failed not once, but twice…" he wrote in the on-screen caption.
The next photo was a screenshot of his ITE results which showed that he graduated with a 3.0 grade-point average (GPA), securing him a place in Temasek Polytechnic's business information technology diploma course.
"Learnt my lesson, hustled and graduated with a 3.89/4 GPA and a diploma with merit!" he said.
'I've never been prouder of myself'
He later enrolled in the National University of Singapore to study social sciences, graduating with a 4.48 GPA despite cramming eight modules into his last semester — three more than the usual workload — and working part-time.
In that final semester, he scored five As and three Bs, and secured a job offer.
"I've never been prouder of myself," he wrote.
"If your results aren't what you hoped for, it's ok. Really," he added in the caption. "Don't see it as the end of everything. Grades don't decide your worth or how far you'll go."
In the comments, netizens responded positively, commending him for the accomplishment. In response to a query as to why he had squeezed so much into his final semester, mentaikofries also clarified that he had done so in order to take up a job offer.
"I'm a teacher and I'm bookmarking this to show my future students that a single result does NOT define your entire life," said a commenter.
mentiakofries declined to to respond to Stomp's queries.
