22 October 2022

        Today we had our inaugural Parent Teacher Meeting at Adam’s college. This is nothing new to me because I’ve seen they did this at the school that I worked at. All the teachers would gather in the hall and the parents would take turns to come meet them. At Adam’s college though I was not sure what to expect. We arrived and met Adam near the library. Unlike my school, teachers were waiting in separate classrooms while parents took turns to meet them. We met with one teacher for Adam’s computer science subject and she told us Adam was doing pretty well. That concludes our first Parent Teacher Meeting.

Afterwards Adam got his head shaved for charity. It was for a cancer-awareness campaign. Adam managed to collect 370 ringgit from people wanting to see his head bald. While I always shave my head every month, Adam loves his hair and he had only shaved it once before in high school. So this is kinda a big deal for him. I asked him beforehand, was he really doing this with sincerity or was it just peer-pressure? He took offence a little at my question because he actually believed in the cause. That’s my boy, so proud of him. I can see Adam made a lot of new friends because everybody were saying hi and talking to him everywhere he went.

Before leaving, we parents get to have lunch at the dining hall. It was spacious and grand, not like my place/school. The food was okay and Adam surely is well-fed while living there. Did I mention we saw Nora Danish walking past us during the meeting earlier?

13 October 2022

        Everybody in my department is expected to take a certificate exam to beef up their qualification for work. If they pass this exam, they’ll get an extra allowance in their salary. Previously I’ve been taking the Apple Certified Support Professional exam (ACSP) and passing the exam without any problems. I go to a two day class, read the big text book (or pdf) and then take the exam. The questions were challenging but they’re mostly answerable. Today, there’s no more ACSP but instead, they’ve replaced it with the Apple Device Support Exam. There’s no more expensive courses and it’s replaced with a few free online tutorials and guides made by Apple for you to read and remember as much as possible.

That should be easier right? The first red flags were when two of my colleagues took the exam and failed to pass. They only need to not get 21 of the objective questions wrong but they couldn’t manage it. I did my fair bit of studying based on these guides and I don’t remember studying as hard since my final year diploma exams. I basically spend every minute of my free time doing the revision. Come exam day, I thought I did pretty well although I was not that confident. The questions were a mixed bag. Some were quite difficult and I truly have no idea what they were and just shoot. Some of them were not that hard but it requires you to remember exactly what the answers are. If I could just access my Mac OS and look at the settings, then I would get them right. That day it was 50-50. Others were confusing enough such as the multiple-choice answers were given too similar to each other. In the end I was 0.6% short of the passing mark.

Disappointed? You bet. Especially when it comes with a financial repercussion. If I don’t resit the test soon, my next drawn salary will be 300 ringgit short. And I’ll have to fork out my own money first. That’s USD149 with the current abysmal exchange rate. Sucks I know but that’s the department policy. Getting certified has its pros and cons. Con is obviously when you don’t pass. Not only that I got a tiny little increment this year, I stand to lose what little allowance I got if I screw up the exam. Is it time to look for a greener pasture? No wonder we’re seeing some high turnover round here this year.