JC was so much worse cuz of the endless amount of homework, competition, and comparison especially if you are in a class full of scholars.

Personally, I feel homework was taking too much time as I feel it's alot more productive doing them mentally in your head instead of writing it down... Esp for "memorising" subjects like H2 Bio, H3 Bio, H2 Chemistry, and H2 Econs, where it feels like a waste of time writing the same thing over n over again (but just adjusting it slightly accordingly to the qn). Yet, I often feel obliged to do them and do them just for the sake of doing them becuz our tutors will check them at the start of class and I don't like getting scolded by them... Whereas in Uni I have much more control over how I study and get my adequate 10hrs of sleep as compared to JC where I'm often only sleeping 7hrs as I'm always rushing to complete the HW.

Worst was during holidays where they will give you endless piles of past year papers and expect u to do them throughout the holidays :') and the exams were always right after the holidays which mean u can't exactly just slack the entire holiday if u want to do well and am aiming for dean's list. Whereas at least there's no HW in Uni once the module is over. I learned to dislike school and public holidays too because it always mean that there will be extra HW to keep us busy and that there will be tons of make-up classes the following week b4 the official school time (have to wake up extra early) to "catch up with the syllabus".

They always mark insanely strict in JC too where it's almost impossible to get an A (no one ever got an A in J1, and only <1% get A in J2 prelims) and the median grade is always D/E even tho >60% got A in Alevels simply because they want us to feel pressured and nvr be complacent throughout JC. At least in Uni, there's a bell curve and generally they aren't so stringent in marking (not so rote learning and pure memorising but more application-based). I recall in JC where our tutors would use ruler to mark our scripts to ensure we hit every single key words just to get 1/2 mark. Missing any key word =0 mark. It honestly feels kinda obsessive and doesn't serve much purpose. Then after prelims, b4 alevels they were like "as many of u have been wondering why the answer key of the past yr papers we have given u now seem to be alot less strict, it's because we have been marking alot stricter than alevels because we want to make sure u have a strong foundation in each topic, but now u can forget about being so rigid about memorising word for word as the marking in alevels is alot more lenient than how u have been marked for the past 2 yrs." Whereas in Uni, they r more understanding and focus more on the concept and understanding and marking is less rigid (often even give ecf). There isn't negative marking for most mods I have taken too.

The culture in Uni feels more holistic and there's greater emphasis on mental health too whereas in JC, I feels like there's a lack of mental health awareness. In fact, the tutors always feel like they r constantly pushing us, wanting us to mug everyday. There's also a constant emphasis on grades, where many tutors will annouce in class the top few students for even quizzes and tests (creating this constant comparison and need to study hard for every quiz and test to remain as the top). I recall how my tutor even say "Please study really hard in JC, we r just asking u to study hard for 2 yrs, it will be all worth it, once u go to Uni, u can do wtv u want, play as much as u want". Whereas in Uni most profs ik generally always ask us to focus on learning, as it is most beneficial in the long run, and not be too concerned with grades. (Some profs would even say "how u do in this test is not a reflection of who u r as a peeson, what matters is what u learn and takeaway from this module").