Some parent stirred up quite a furore when he wrote to the Straits Times forum questioning why his daughter's A level grades of A B E and C (for general paper) failed to secure her a place in arts and social science in a local university, though the grades met the minimum university entry requirements. The parent wrote " My daughter is an above average student who excelled in sports ... my son, who is 27 years old, and had A level grades of A B C graduated with a Second Upper Class Honours degree in the Arts and Social Sciences at NUS." The entire article may be found here

Though I felt bad for the parent, what some people posted online in response to the article really cracked me up. I have reproduced some funny ones below. By reproducing these online responses, I don't agree with a lot of the irrational things said, but I have merely copied them out here to show the multitude of hilarious (and often ridiculous) responses only Singaporeans are capable of writing. For foreign readers, singlish has been translated in brackets.

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1. Must be because she born in dragon year, competition stiff.

2. please lah dun blame the goddamn dragon....one's own fate is the result of their action

3. I dun understand why he has to bring in his son to hao lian (show off) also anyway..

4. The reality is, land on Earth is limited, uni can only be this big, and can only accept a certain number of people. With or without dragon superstition, this will happen anyway.

5. [The parent] expects too much from his children. Someone go give him a tight slap... I bet if his daughter have an average guy as her bf she will 100% chase him away wan.

6. Uncle....your daughter's grades really suck. She either didnt put in the effort or she is naturally stupid but with a big ego like you. She being a Dragon baby should have realised long ago that competition is tough, not to mention Singapore's Education system is stringent.

Uncle... Your son honestly speaking ain't too bright either. With a second class honours in arts and social sciences, do you really think he'll get far in life? Ok maybe he's good in other things or charismatic, but with that kind of grades he can't go far.

Uncle... Sorry to burst your bubble, but your kids are dumb. Please wake up and get a reality check ok?

[and the two funniest ones]:

7. A B E above average meh? How about grades D E A D?

8. E??? LOL. WTF. Above what average. Sia suay (shoot yourself in the foot).