Wed 17 May 2006
The Inevitable Disappointment - MAS Essay
Posted by Oikono under The Heterodox Economist , The AutobiographerRead the essay
Life is never a bed of roses and I am constantly reminded of that. Although things look to be picking up this year, there are always the inevitable disappointments just around the corner. I am referring to the Monetary Authority of Singapore and Economics Society of Singapore Essay competition which Pin and I submitted a joint entry to in 2005. I managed to scrap a decent 1st place in 2003. However, our joint entry last year only gave us 3rd place, even though I felt it was a much better piece.
Although the competition is for university students, and both of us have yet to enter university, I feel that lack of knowledge is a poor excuse. I had let my mind atrophy in the army, and could have done a lot more to brush up on my economics knowledge then. A full analysis of this loss has to be done to see what some of the takeaways are. This can only be done once we have seen the top essay and after we have talked to the judges. Regardless, I can do a lot more to improve on my writing skills and economics knowledge.
Update: Pin feels that we did well considering that the two people ahead of us included two doctoral students and one MAS scholar. He thinks an appropriate comparison would be with last year winners. However, the topic is very different from last years, as the macro nature of this years topic seems to favors students with a stronger economics background.
May 17th, 2006 at 5:22 am
Sharks!! I have read your essay a year ago while preparing for the NUS Economics Essay Writing Competition last year and OMG.. it’s YOU!!
May 17th, 2006 at 5:23 am
And seriously, 3rd isn’t that bad. =)
May 17th, 2006 at 7:32 am
Errrmmm, I am quite embarrassed to say that in hindsight, I could have written a much better piece in 2003.
May 17th, 2006 at 7:37 am
small world isn’t it?
May 22nd, 2006 at 12:46 am
hey , why aim for singapore when you can aim for the NOBLE FINANCIAL/ECONOMIC prize?
you have already shown the world you are capable of 1st in SG, now show them you are aiming for something EVERYONE can truly admire.
May 28th, 2006 at 9:25 am
[…] The good (?) news is that Geoffrey and I won third place in the university category for the MAS competition for our paper on currency liberalization. The first and second places went to an MAS local scholar and a pair of postgrads (NUS MSc and NTU doctoral), so I think we did fairly well considering we’re both prefrosh. However, the relevant benchmark is Judith who did the same thing, except she won second place and did it at 19 - we should have done so much better. I feel like I’ve let both of us down. […]
November 30th, 2006 at 8:38 pm
[…] Instead, do read my entry on the MAS competition here. […]