From failing O levels to a PhD in public health from NUS

Part of the pressure came from watching his peers move ahead without him.

“My friends were all advancing in their education… and I was the only one who didn’t progress to either poly or ITE,” he said.

“There was a lot of comparing – my friends were everywhere, but I wasn’t going anywhere. So I asked myself, was I just going to be stuck in my life like that?” Tee added.

His second attempt at the O levels brought his L1R5 down to 18 and his L1R4 to 13.

When asked what led to the improvement, Tee said his mode of revision changed, and he also took subjects he felt he could do better in. For example, he took pure geography instead of combined humanities.

“I did a lot more practice rather than just forcing myself to remember,” he said.

He managed to secure a place at Republic Polytechnic (RP) to study Biomedical Science – a course he chose because of its reputation for hands-on learning. Tee had always been interested in science, a subject he was strong in.

Tee said the school’s problem-based learning format, where students come up with solutions to problems through independent research before teaching them to the class, helped him discover that he learnt better through application.

Poly life was also fully self-funded – Tee held down two jobs at McDonald’s and Subway, sometimes working 24 hours straight during public holidays for double pay. This was while he was also training with RP’s floorball team.

“That was when I realised I could push myself beyond what I thought were my limits.”

After polytechnic, Tee went on to complete his national service before applying to local universities.

He was offered a scholarship by Newcastle University, in collaboration with the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT), to pursue a degree in food and human nutrition.

While at SIT, he held a part-time job in corporate communications.

He completed his degree in 2014 and did two research stints, first at Newcastle University and later at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), where he developed diets for patients with difficulty swallowing.

After spending about 2½ years in research, Tee slowly found his work increasingly disconnected from the patients it was meant to help.

Desire to help others

“I thought that maybe research is just not meant for me, and perhaps I could pursue something that I really want, to help people,” he said.

He then spent five years in social work, first mentoring at-risk youth, then supporting low-income families.

While doing social work, he started to pick up data science through online courses in his free time.

It was then that his wife, Cindy Chan, 34, a researcher at SSHSPH, encouraged him to return to research. This led Tee to take a leap of faith in 2022.

At SSHSPH, he enrolled in a PhD in cognitive decline research, a year after Chan had begun her own PhD on promoting healthy lifestyles among primary school pupils.

Determined to graduate alongside her, Tee completed his in three and a half years, ahead of the usual four years. The couple also welcomed their first child during their PhD studies.

Looking back at his 16-year-old self, Tee’s advice was simple: Do not stop trying just because others say it cannot be done.

“If you do not try, you may regret it later,” he said.

Tee will continue his research as a postdoctoral fellow at NTU, hoping to eventually expand into mental health research. Chan, meanwhile, plans to explore adolescent behavioural science.

His view of success, too, has shifted.

Having grown up in financial hardship, Tee said money mattered to him. He said he felt the pay cut keenly when he left research for social work.

But the shift changed how he saw success. “I realised that doing something more meaningful would still make me a happier person,” he said.

“(Success) is not quantifiable, like the way I used to perceive it. It is about what I have achieved that carries true meaning for me, whether in academics or in my hobbies.”