Past Year Extended Writing Topics

Mid Year 2008

Academic excellence guarantees a successful life. Do you agree with this statement? Justify
your stand, give relevant examples where appropriate. Write your essay in not fewer than
350 words.

Have you ever watched Three Idiots, the Bollywood blockbuster movie? If you haven’t, it
is a movie about the educational dilemma faced by university students. The movie portrays how
the society is preoccupied with academic excellence which they believe will guarantee higher
status in the society. The parents pressure their children to take prestigious courses like
Engineering, Medicines or Law event though their children are actually interested in simpler and
more liberal courses like wildlife photography and others. This resulted in deeply unhappy
students whom without any intervention would grow up as anxious and depressed adults. Many
people think that academic excellence guarantees a successful life. This might be true only to a
certain extent because success means so many different things to people. I personally think that
academic excellence doesn’t necessarily guarantee a successful life because there are many other
factors that can lead to a successful life and academic excellence is just a small part of a successful
life. Thus I do not really agree that academic excellence guarantees a successful life. This essay
will discuss why academic excellence alone doesn’t guarantee a successful life and how other
factors in life also can help us achieve a successful life.

Robert Sternberg, an American Psychologist said that ‘success in life does not necessarily
originates with academic successes’. This implies that people with academic success won’t
necessarily have a successful life and people who are not successful academically won’t
necessarily be less successful in life. To understand this argument, we need to define what
academic success and success in life means. Academic success means completion of a college
degree plan that signifies that the student has mastered a coursework that qualifies him or her to
be conferred a degree in their respective academic field and that the student has met all
requirements and policies of the granting institution. Dictionary.com defines success as the
attainment of wealth, position and honours. While it is commonly easier for people with academic
excellence to attain success in life but this doesn’t mean that people who never did well
academically do not stand any chance to succeed in life too. It is true that success in academic is
a testament to the innate qualities and talents that a person have that could be replicated in real
life situation.
 However, success in life is not determined by academic excellence alone because success
in life is also closely connected to many other factors such as family social economic background
and social connection. Students from upper class families have higher chances of continuing to
be in the upper class group in the society regardless of their academic background. Social status
is hereditary in many societies and academic background plays very little role in changing a
person social class especially if that person comes from a royal family or from a long line of very
wealthy families. These people have an existing social status in the society and they also have the
financial backing to substantiate their standings in the society. Even if their children do not excel
academically, they can still usually continue the family legacy through various means such as
trust funds, family holdings and estate inheritance. Some even continue to become the directors
of their families’ various companies and businesses. So they continue to assume the social
identity, status and wealth from their family prior and existing status and wealth. Social
connections also can determine a person’s success in life. There are so many people with excellent
academic results our society today but only a few people would actually end up in paths that could
lead them directly to success in life. Only a few would end up in profitable careers or business
routes. Only a few would end up in important political and community leadership roles that would
afford them power and influence in the society. Why? Because those few are the ones who have
the social connections.

Some people believe that academic excellence guarantees success in life because a person
has to learn to have certain skills, mind set and discipline to succeed in academic and they will
also apply the same skills, mind set and discipline in order to succeed in life. In fact some
academic skills especially skills in STEAM subjects can be highly valuable in real life as they
can open opportunities to getting high paying jobs like jobs as specialist engineers in oil and gas
industry which pay lucrative salaries that could enable a person to build a successful life albeit
only financially. Nevertheless there are many things that can go wrong in life that even those who
started off with excellent academic results are not immune to and if they are not prepared, their
journey to success can be thwarted by a series of misfortunes and obstacles. For examples, we
have heard about highly promising students who succumbed to mental issues and incurable
diseases. We have read about successful business owners who buckled under bearish economic
condition. We have read about powerful political and corporate leaders who were embroiled in
various unethical misconducts and legal problems. All these successful people were the crème de
la crème of their Alma matters, they were the pride and joy of their family and the world was
placed on their feet free to their biddings and whims. Yet, at a certain stage of their lives, they
lost their grip on the successful life and learn to let go of all the entrapments of a successful life
before gradually disappearing into the oblivious twilight. Some tried to rebound, some managed
to bounce back while most end up as another forgotten individuals in the history of human kind.
 Success in life demands more than the basic skills needed to excel academically because
like Winston Churchill once said ‘Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to
continue that counts’. If success in life means becoming wealthy, I would say that our education
system is doing a good job at preparing the students with the skills necessary to succeed
financially and economically in the world today. To amass a huge fortune legally in real life, one
would either have to start a business or start to invest money in investments portfolios that can
guarantee good returns. The education system doesn’t really train their students to do this. The
students are only exposed to business and investments through limited number of subjects once
they are already in the upper secondary schools. So, how do the people who end up with a huge
bank accounts and large net asset values accumulate their wealth? Do all of them start off with
excellent academic success? People like superstar footballers like Ronaldo and Messi are now
considered highly successful yet they were not that spectacular in their academics when they were
in schools. Yet now their net asset value is so high that their combined assets is worth more than
the wealth of some developing countries. They become successful due to their rare skills and
talents. They happen to have rare skills and talents in footballs. There are also people like the
famed Oprah Winfrey who is one of the world richest women today. Academic excellence is
never mentioned in any of her biographies yet she is easily one of the most widely recognised
women in the world today. How did she become so successful in life? I think her success boils
down to a relentless perseverance meets with the right timing. She was always dedicated to her
career from the beginning, she persevered through difficult times and just as the world was turning
to television talk show for entertainment and mass psychology therapy, Oprah made a name for
herself as a famous talk show host who was viewed and adored by millions of people from all
over the world. On the other hand we have read articles about Ph.D. holders who are homeless
due to the decline in course demands, low wages, skyrocket cost of living and mental health
issues. We have also heard about brilliant scientists, inventors and philosophers who were never
acknowledge in their life, who lived in poverty and obscurity and only became famous
posthumously. All these shows that, academic success plays a very small roles in a person’s
success in life and that there are just too many factors that could make and break a person’s
chances of becoming successful in life.
A person’s success in life can also be seen by the positions they hold in the society and the
power they have over other members of their communities. In our society we look up a lot to
people who have the ability to unite and lead us. These people can be corporate leaders,
politicians, activists, motivational speakers and many more. Did you notice that most of the
influential leaders in our society are either doctors or lawyers? There could be several factors for
this such as the person’s contributions to the society, his social bond with the people and perhaps
also his influence over other people. Some of these people did well academically but they did not
necessarily had excellent academic results. If academic results were the prerequisite to being a
leader then all our leaders would have been Harvard, Cambridge, Yale or MIT Graduates and
most of our country’s problems would be solved with all their intellectual prowess. The
willingness to give back to the society and the ability to maintain good ties and relationships with
others is also an important factor that can help someone achieve success in life. This person will
be accorded a high level of respect and trust by other people and people will support him to be
their leader. His academic background will be inconsequential if he doesn’t have other pertinent
qualities that could help the person to actually succeed in life.

There are also some people who have excellent academic results and are able to go on to
have great careers. They amass a large fortune when they were young and live comfortably in
their retirement years. To the outside world, their journey to success seems straightforward and
uneventful but their actual struggles are only known to their inner circles. These people often hold
important positions in the government and corporate institutions. They are the Chief Executive
Officer, Managing Directors, Founders Specialists, Chief Finance Officer and all the high
rankings jobs that we have heard about. These people might have landed in their respective fields
due to their academic inclinations but what kept them there and what brought them to the top is
not merely the academic qualification but their continuous efforts and perseverance. These are
the people who are able to keep their momentum and not rest on their laurels for too long. Tony
Robbins, the famous motivation guru said ‘people who succeed have momentum. They more they
succeed, the more they want to succeed’. These are the people who don’t have any feeling of self-
entitlement just because they had solid academic background and stellar resume. They are the
people who choose to be in the arena, working hard, struggling, failing, bouncing back and
striving for excellence until the very end in their respective jobs. Thus, once again this shows that
academic excellence alone doesn’t not guarantee a successful life because after all our definitions
of a successful life tend to change as we move on to different stages of our life. So, how much of
our changing definition of success can really be guaranteed by our academic excellence?

A lot of people believe and hope that their excellent academic results would guarantee them
a successful life. They mistakenly think that by getting the best degrees in the best fields, they are
already set for life. But life will prove them underprepared for its many great unexpected
mysteries, challenges and obstacles. If the measure of success if only money maybe all those who
excel in academics and who are now working in high paying jobs can be considered happy and
contented. They would be free from all troubles. They could buy happiness, social relations,
prestige, class, power and influence with all the money they have. But seriously, is this really
happening? No. Various researches have reported that CEOs are more prone to depressions than
the general public. Other research also indicated that women with job authority exhibit more
depression symptoms than women who are not in charge of anyone. Having the job as a doctor is
highly regarded as prestigious and lucrative yet why are they so many doctors suffering from
work burnouts that some are crying out to the media with headlines that read like ‘who takes care
of those who care of us?’. Lawyers who are also regarded with much esteem are also suffering
from court burnouts that some have ventured into politics and social entrepreneurial endeavours.

Thus, I would say that yes, it is undeniable that academic excellence can kick start a great
career but it takes more than academic excellence to be really successful in life. There are just so
many tangible and intangible factors that contribute to a person’s success in life. Regardless of
what these factors are, none of them can singularly guarantee a person success in life because
success in life is created by the force of so many factors that accumulatively work together to
help a person attain his or her higher potentials and achieved his or her best version of life that
she or he envisions .
END 2008
People are becoming more materialistic. They are concerned with making more money
and what money can buy. What is your opinion on being materialistic?

It is true that people are becoming more materialistic. Even people who live far away in the remote
interiors are beginning to see the value of money and they no longer give things away for free out
of the pure kindness of their hearts like they used to in the past. People nowadays have become
more concerned with making more money and what money can do. I view materialism not as an
evil in itself but rather as an inevitable consequence of the high cost of living, weak economic
situation and uncertainties about the future that pressure people into the life of materialism. This
essay will discuss how the high cost of living, weak economic situation and uncertainties about
the future that pressure people into the life of materialism

The high cost of living forces people to be more concerned with making more money
and what money can do. Everything costs money nowadays especially if we live in urban areas.
The moment we step out of our doors, we need money to pay for our transports and to eat. Even
if we stay at home, we need to pay for our rent, mortgage, utility bills, food, clothes and
entertainment. If we have children, we have to pay for their babysitters, their schools, their tuition
fees, their books, and many more. A lot of things are expensive nowadays. If we fall sick and you
need to see the doctor and to see the doctor we need to fork out at least RM100 for consultation
fees and medicines. The irony is, the cost of living affects everyone in the society yet only a small
segment of people in the society are able to enjoy reliable pay raise or good incomes. Thus, many
people are badly affected by the high cost of living and this forces them to do whatever it takes
to ensure a sense of financial stability for themselves and their family. Some work more than 1
job to earn more money. Some who already have fulltime job venture out to start a side hustle to
bring in extra money. Some people work for Grab, Uber or Food Panda to earn a few extra bucks
during their free times. Some people sell insurance, household items and food at their workplace
turning their offices into an impromptu pop up markets. They earn extra money to keep them
going for few weeks until the next pay day. So, what is wrong with this form of materialism? In
my opinion, I don’t see anything wrong with this form of materialism. It’s a great way to make
profitable use of our times.
The weak economic situation in our country and in this region also pressured people to
be more concerned with making more money and what money can do. In the past, people saved
their money mainly in the banks and in various other investment measures. The economy was
bullish and people were getting good returns on their savings. Last time, even people who work
ordinary jobs can accumulate a lot of money through simple saving accounts and fixed deposits.
But nowadays, the world economy is changing and this has some effects on the dividend rates
offered by most banks. The local economy has also been sluggish in the recent years and people
are no longer content with saving in ordinary means of saving and investing money. So they begin
to look at other ways of growing their money. Some invest in lands and properties with the hope
that these will bring in good credit flow. However, sometimes these properties are purchased
through credits and when the economy is bad the investors are unable to service the loans. So
they often resort to so many means of gaining more money to keep their properties from
disclosures. This often cause them to behave in a materialistic manners. They might resort to
setting up shady businesses and ventures to earn more cash as long as by hook or by crook their
investments are protected and not exposed to market vitality. This is actually the danger of what
is called in Islamic finance as the ‘riba’ which means profiteering from interest generating
financial facility.
People’s uncertainty about their future financial well-being also makes people more
concerned with making more money and what money can do. There is just no end to human needs
as human beings are capable of thinking about their needs both for the present time and also for
the future. People worry about a lot of things even when they already have all the basic necessities
like shelter, food and clothes. They worry about their health, their children, and their retirement
and about an endless list of things. Those who already have homes worry about the property taxes
and maintenance costs. Those who don’t have a house worry about the price of their dream house.
Those who have cars worry about buying a nice but affordable car while those who have cars
worry about the insurance and the road taxes. Those who are already working worry about saving
for retirement and old age. Those who have children worry about saving for their children’s
education. So all these worries make people think that money is the solution to everything. So
they work longer hours, they work more jobs and they do more side hustles to earn more money.
They borrow some money hoping to make more money with borrowed money. They give less
and less to others. Some even skip sending money home to their elderly parents. Some even refuse
to take in their aged parents out of fear of incurring more financial burdens. Who do we blame in
this? The external factors or the persons’ own inability to prioritize and plan their financial
responsibilities?

Some people regard materialism as a negative quality in a person. Materialistic people

are often labelled as selfish, calculative, stingy, greedy and self-centred. Yes, life would be
much brighter if everyone is rich, generous and kind with their resources. It will definitely make
the world go round. The sad truth however is, wealth is unequally distributed in our society.
Some people have more and some people have less. I think it is not for us to morally judge a
person for being materialistic. I believe nobody in this world purposefully set up to be
materialistic. But when life gets tough the Latin word of wisdom says ‘necessitas non habet
legem’ which means necessities doesn’t know whats right or whats wrong’.

Thus, in conclusion, I would say that yes it true that people are becoming more
materialistic but the world is not coming to the end because of this because there are still many
non-materialistic people in the world today. We know that life is getting increasing expensive
and that some people are more inclined to be more materialistic. But we can still also see people
who already made it to the top who are giving back to society and helping out with various
causes. So, it is common to see materialism at play when life situation is dire but people tend to
be more generous once they have overcome their hardships.