By Wong Zheng Tat and Lucas Loh
Even in the face of the COVID-19 Situation, the Catholic High Ventures stayed true to its goal of building strength for the troop. These few weeks, the Ventures have been training relentlessly for Orienteering as part of their PSA journey, adapting to the new guidelines imposed by the Ministry of Education.
The Ventures have undergone rigorous training for the past few Saturday training, with both theory tests and practical exercises each week. Through this effective curriculum and intense drilling, these Ventures have managed to hone their orienteering theory, map sketch as well as precision bearing, making them more than ready to face the Pioneer Exploration Assessment (PEA).
For Orienteering Theory, the ventures had to sit for a 1h 30min, 100 mark theory paper involving both map and compass theory, as well as a mapping exercise. This paper was set to not only meet but surpass the standards demanded in the Skills and Fundamentals Theory test for the PEA. With twice the difficulty and twice the length of the paper, our theory paper makes the high standards demanded from a PEA candidate seem trivial, to overprepare our Ventures for any obstacle they face.
For their Orienteering Practical, the ventures honed their awareness and sharpened their attention to detail. For the Precision Bearing Activity, the ventures were only afforded an error range of 1 degree, making sure that they were well within the more liberal standards of the PEA assessment.
In addition, the Venture Programme for Orienteering is a testament to putting the troop at the top, as it is led by previous PSA candidates from our troop who not only willingly, but also have a duty to the troop to train the next batch of PSA candidates. These Ventures, having undergone the assessment themselves, know the enemy (the assessment) inside out to fight the war. By training the next batch, they ensure success and allow their successors to be even more prepared and even more excellent than themselves.
Such an efficient training system is only possible at Catholic High as the Ventures are trained by Ventures who understand the assessment, knowing themselves and the enemy, to execute their tasks to perfection, each time focussing on reducing the time needed. This spirit of excellence is the only way to be a premier scout group, to put the troop at the top.