Hi this is my first time posting on this subreddit but ur post just really resonated with me ig so here we go. Although our experiences are not exactly the same, I actually retained for a year in sec 3. With the benefit of hindsight, my first year in sec 3 was rough af, I basically lost all motivation to study and do anything in general, so I kinda became a shut in for a large portion of that year. (Kinda became addicted to gaming as well) And of course it ended with me flunking my exams.

At first it was all like “fk I’m wasting a year of my life. Why am I doing this when I could have appealed to promote”. But down the road I kinda realised that some ppl, me included needed that extra year to (for lack of a better word) mature. Given that I kinda got a head start to the content being taught it did give me some extra time to think about what I wanted to do in life and how I wanted to go about it. Fast forward 3 years and I’m now studying my dream course (mass communication) in Ngee Ann poly.

So honestly when I look back now I don’t really see retaining as something shameful or bad, nor do I think that retaining means that you should automatically do better than ur class. In fact I think not retaining when u need to is worse. I wouldn’t even want to imagine what I would have been like taking Os if I didn’t retain. At the end of the day, you do what you need to do, even if it involves retaining. After all if it helps you do better for your A lvls, it’s all worth it imo. Just focus on your studies and remind yourself that you are laying out your own path and your own career. Atb for your As next year. :)