"See, he's a President's Scholar"

This article is taken from an edition from the Straits Times. It is about Hwa Chong's most recent President's Scholar, Aaron Koh. For some unknown reason, he did not get very good grades for his A-levels, although he was a straight A student usually. For the A-levels, he obtained 4 As and a merit for his other subjects but got a B in English Literature and C in Economics. This was a big blow for him and he said receiving the result was one of the "lowest points in my life". However, the PSC, the Public Service Commission, said that results are not all and also stated other factors in their decision to award Aaron the President's Scholarship.The PSC sited other reasons for awarding Aaron the prestigious scholarship. The reasons included all-rounded achievements, topping his midshipman course at Officer Cadet School and a good performance at the President's Scholarship Assessment Center, where candidates go through exercises to test their responses to challenges and scenarios related to public service work.

I think that the PSC's decision is very wise. To succeed in life, results and good grades are definitely not all. One must have both IQ, intelligence, and more importantly, EQ, which is one's manners, courtesy, and how one gets along with others. If one has extremely high IQ, meaning that he is very smart, even a genius, but has zero EQ, meaning that he has no manners, no courtesy, is not gentlemanly at all and totally cannot get along with others, who will want to employ him? No one!! I believe that not even a single person would want to befriend him. With no job, which means no salary, and no friends to count on to get him out of the sticky situation, how will one even succeed in life.

However, the opposite is also true. If one has extremely high EQ, gets along very well with others and makes everyone around him very happy and very willing to get along with him, but yet no IQ, meaning that he is extremely dumb, nobody would want him either. A certain standard of intelligence is also needed for one to succeed in life.

In conclusion, a mix of both IQ and EQ is needed for one to succeed in life. One must have a high level of intelligence and also be a gentleman or lady, extremely polite and get along well with others, not only to be the perfect President's Scholar and also to succeed in life.