Life’s plus/minus for maths whizz Amrita Kaur

By Amelia Teng | SINGAPORE |

With a grade point average (GPA) of 39 out of 4, Singapore Polytechnic (SP) graduate Amrita Kaur Ishwar Singh is on her way to reading accountancy in university.

But life was not always smooth-sailing for the 23-year-old.

Distracted and unmotivated, partly owing to the death of her grandmother, she did not do well at the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE), and was posted to the Normal (Technical) stream at Gan Eng Seng School.

“I knew my mum was disappointed, I could see the look on her face when she saw my results slip,” she said.

Her mother is an administrative employee and her father, a delivery driver.

The years in secondary school were not any easier.

“My family moved house at least twice and we stayed with relatives, so that we could pay our debts.”

The sight of her parents working hard brought a change. It spurred her to study hard. Her form teacher also triggered her interest in mathematics, and led her to take the subject at a higher level in school.

Read full story ‘Rising above adversity to become a maths whizz and top student’ (The Straits Times, 27 April 2020), here.