With her son's PSLE results in hand, milestone reached for KiasuParents.com co-founder

SINGAPORE — Nine years ago, former software developer Soon Lee Yong helped set up popular parenting forum KiasuParents.com as part of her hunt for a primary school for her firstborn.

Her quest reached a new, if somewhat unsatisfactory, milestone on Thursday (Nov 24) when her son collected his Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE) results.

Accompanying her son to collect his results at Yew Tee Primary School’s hall Thursday morning, Mdm Soon said she was “never this nervous getting (her) own PSLE results”. It was the 43-year-old’s first time going through PSLE as a parent.

Although her son was expecting to get a T-score of 250, the full-time mother-of-two had come expecting three As and a B with a lower score of 230 because she had “spotted some questions that came out (in the PSLE) that he normally couldn’t do, and still didn’t get right”.

So when she received her son’s SMS – all As, 229 – after she was done queuing at the school’s bookstore to buy books for her daughter entering Primary Four next year, her first reaction was “Four As. Better than expected!”

But her attention soon turned to the lower than expected T-score. “229... I was hoping that he would do better because I prepared for him, but he didn’t do well,” she said. “Because of the intense work before PSLE, you tend to get lost. So I kind of guessed that he would under perform a bit.”

Mdm Soon’s son SMSed her “Are you angry?” as he walked sheepishly down the stairs to face her. She did not reply to the SMS but she subsequently told him: “(You) can forget about getting (back) your Nintendo DS.” 

She had confiscated the toy from him and agreed to return it if he scored 250. She hopes that this disappointment would be a lesson for him given how he did not study as hard as he knew he should.

CLARIFICATION: An earlier version of the article stated that in response to her son's SMS, Mdm Soon told him: "“(You) can forget about getting your Nintendo DS.” She has clarified that it was not a direct response to his SMS. 

The article also said that she had agreed to buy her son a Nintendo DS if he scored 250 for his PSLE T-score. She has clarified that he already has the toy, which was confiscated from him. She had agreed to return it if he achieved his target score.