With SPM currently in full swing, it was almost inevitable that after sitting for the Additional Mathematics paper, students would vent their frustration over its difficulty. Complaints flooded social media. Some were angry, some defeated, and some heartbreakingly emotional.
As a mathematics teacher and tutor, I must say this clearly from the outset: I understand their grievances.
I have taught mathematics and additional mathematics across a wide range of curricula — from IGCSE to SAT to IB — and I can say without hesitation that the KBSM/KSSM system is often the toughest among them. But I do not mean “toughest” in a positive or intellectually healthy sense.
It is not the toughest because it challenges students’ mathematical thinking in a deep or meaningful way. Rather, it is toughest because it often feels as though those in charge of setting the papers are more interested in proving their own superiority than in assessing students’ understanding.
There is a particular kind of cruelty in this — a “thumbing down” effect — where questions are deliberately designed to trip students up, to confuse rather than clarify, and to create failure rather than measure learning. This is something I have sensed almost exclusively within the KBSM/KSSM framework.
In other systems, even the most difficult questions in an exam usually test whether a student has an adequate grasp of concepts, definitions, and problem-solving skills. A student may struggle, but they can usually see what the question is asking. There is an underlying sense of fairness.
In SPM Additional Mathematics, however, the exam often feels like it has a different objective altogether: to prove to students that they know nothing, that they are far behind, and that they should feel small when measured against the unseen brilliance of those who set the paper.
I have long suspected that there is something deeply low-self-esteem about Malaysian examination culture.
When you have healthy self-esteem, you do not mind letting others see that what you do is actually built upon simple ideas. You understand that mastery does not come from complexity, but from internalising the basics through rigorous practice. The “magic” is not in how complicated your thinking is, but in how deeply you understand what is fundamentally simple.
If you were to speak to someone like Albert Einstein or Lionel Messi, I am almost certain they could explain the fundamentals of their thinking in a way even a six-year-old could grasp. They would not insist that their greatness lies in unreachable complexity. Instead, they would likely convince you that what they do is accessible — that anyone can aspire to it — because at its core, it is built on simple ideas executed exceptionally well.
People with low self-esteem who occupy high positions, however, often behave in a radically differently manner.
To justify their status — especially when they themselves are subconsciously aware that they don't deserve it — they complicate even the simplest things. They create unnecessary difficulties and complexities, not because it is required, but because they have a subconscious desire to prove to everyone, perhaps even themselves, that they deserve their place and position because only they are capable of dealing with the complexities and complications that has no purpose of function. Complexities, thus, becomes a shield, a performance, and a means of self-validation.
When education adopts this mindset, students suffer.
That is why the reports emerging after this year’s SPM Additional Mathematics paper, as it has in previous years, should deeply trouble us.
According to media reports and countless social media posts, students across the country walked out of exam halls visibly shaken. Some cried openly. Others returned home with swollen eyes, unable or unwilling to talk about what they had just endured. One student wrote on TikTok, “Whoever set the Additional Mathematics paper is definitely heartless. We were absolutely battered.”
Another student shared on Threads that she had initially aimed for an A-, but after sitting for Paper 2, she no longer knew what grade to hope for. The questions, she said, were simply not straightforward.
Parents, too, felt the impact. One reportedly said their child came home in tears, eyes red and swollen from uncontrollable crying. Another admitted she was afraid to even ask how the paper went, convinced her child was among the many who found it “impossible”.
These are not the reactions of lazy students who did not prepare. These are the reactions of young people who studied, who practised, who hoped — and who felt utterly defeated.
Difficulty alone is not the issue. Mathematics, like any exercise, should be reasonably challenging. It should stretch the mind, demand discipline, and reward clear thinking. But there is a vast difference between a paper that challenges understanding and one that feels like an ambush.
When a significant number of students feel not just challenged but humiliated, when questions feel intentionally twisted rather than intellectually deep, we must ask a serious question: what exactly is being assessed?
Understanding — or the endurance of a student's self esteem in the face of humiliation?
There is something profoundly wrong when an examination seems less interested in measuring learning and more interested in asserting authority.
The tragedy is that students internalise this failure. They do not walk away thinking, “The system is flawed.” They walk away thinking, “I am bad at maths.” Many carry this belief for life — avoiding scientific fields, doubting their intelligence, or assuming that struggle itself is proof of inadequacy.
But mathematics is not trying to make you fail.
Mathematics is subtle. It is nuanced. The deeper you understand it, the more you appreciate its elegance. But it is not cruel. And it is certainly not heartless.
People, though, especially when given power and authority that they don't deserve, can be.
Clausewitz once said, “Even the simplest things become difficult in war.” And when adults are fighting wars within themselves — wars of insecurity, validation, and quiet resentment — they often make even the simplest things unnecessarily difficult on those that they hold power over.
In those wars, young people are too often caught in the crossfire. They become collateral damage.
So to the students who walked out of the Additional Mathematics paper feeling broken: you are not imagining things. Your experience is real. And it is not entirely your fault.
Examinations end. Grades fade. But your relationship with learning should not be destroyed in the process.
If anything needs to change, it is not the students — it is the mindset that believes making young people cry is a sign of your intellectual superiority.
TheRealNehruism (nehru.sathiamoorthy@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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