CAPE (28/1) - Reflections

Hello guys,

Here are some of the reflections I received :)  I will type in more in a while...  I also received a few interesting quotations that will be part of a vote to see which we can use as a squad motto XD

"CAPE results were released yesterday. Although we do not know our specific scores for each of the component, we do know if we passed or failed. If you did not meet the mark for CAPE this time round, look through your score sheet and find out what went wrong. Since there are 3 CAPEs per year now, it is still possible to catch up in terms of rank. Feeling discouraged is normal after a setback. However, do not be too affected by this failure and continue to work hard, especially in the areas that we are weaker in. (especially since PIR is coming) For those who passed, do not get complacent and continue to work hard for the upcoming PIR.

CAPE is a major event in NPCC. I believe that it was an interesting and enriching experience for all, may it be for the invigilating NCOs or the cadets. I hope that we have all gained from this experience and may it help us in the next CAPE in Term 3. " -- Kim Yao (You owe me 829 words* -- asterisk, hint hint, check the end)

"It has been a few weeks after CAPE and everyone was awaiting the results of CAPE. When the results of CAPE came on 8^th February 2011 at approximately 10.45pm, there would have been those who were pleased with their results and those would felt a sense of disappointment and sadness.

There will be failures and successes in life for everyone. For those who didn’t make it this time, there’s always the next CAPE for you. There’s no need to feel depressed or disappointed as there is a second chance. As long as you work hard and improve on your previous mistakes, you will pass eventually.

There’s a quote which says “Problems are not stop signs, they are guidelines”, and I believe that no obstacle can stop you if you are willing to do so.

Personally, I felt that CAPE was quite tiring as we stood for quite long due to the rain which caused 2 groups to merge, making the uniform check of the whole large group be a very long one. Tent pitching was still relatively okay for me just that I had pegged wrongly for 1 peg due to my carelessness. Survival cooking was great except that I could not boil my water, only small bubbles formed at the bottom of the mess tin. Rifle Drill was still okay but it might be better if the uniform check did not take up so much time. " -- Mister Yu Jia

"Personally, I felt that we had all prepared a great deal for this CAPE.  From people's FB posts and blogs it is evident that we really saw the importance of this test.  While some results may not be satisfactory, it's the effort that counts, so just JY in the next CAPE.  

As for the CAPE itself, we were faced with several problems (particularly -- the weather wasn't the best for lighting a fire), but I would say we did a good job in overcoming them.  The drills component was...  challenging, especially when we had an hour of standing still for starters and we had to do twice the number of drills than normal.  For those who were not saved after the rain stopped and had to continue drills for a terrifying total of over 3 hours (if I remember correctly), amazingly done XD

I don't have a quote from Eagan, so I guess I'll end off here." -- Justin

Nice inclement weather program -- Wei Zheng

It was a interesting experience, and personally the result does not matter. What matters more would be knowing your flaws and working hard to get rid of them.  -- Tze Hou

In my opinion, my performance for last Friday's CAPE was satisfactory. I prepared myself reasonably well for each component beforehand and was able to recall most of what I have learned, in formal weekly trainings and from casual self-study, during the test. Topography was the comparatively simpler component of CAPE (CPL) and I should be able to earn an acceptable score assuming that I didn't make any careless mistakes. The foot drill component was also not too bad. Overall, CPL CAPE was OK and I look forward to receiving the results soon -- Shilin

(*Nah, just kiddin' :D)