From my personal experience in RJ, people are envied and respected based on their potential, and not so much on their achievements. For example, two people may achieve the same thing, but if one of them is perceived to have put in less effort, he/she would be more greatly envied.

This, I believe, has led to a phenomenon called "closet mugging". In RI, you can tell who mugs or not, because the people who want to be cool don't bother to mug anyway, since there are no consequences to not-mugging. In RJ, everyone mugs, and it's only a matter of whether you see them mug or not.

It is not a new phenomenon. My sister in RJ experienced this 9 years ago. People will claim that they have not studied, when in fact they obviously have, and then proceed to ace the tests and exams. It is not that worrying though, since by J2 everyone would have wised up, and there is no point hiding the fact that you are mugging, since it is frigging A levels and there is absolutely no reason not to mug.

According to my mother, the fact that people respect and envy the people who put in less effort shows a lack of maturity. One cannot expect to succeed without putting in the necessary effort, and the people who persevere will ultimately prevail. It is the people with determination whom we ought to respect and envy.

I don't agree. I'm not really sure who the people we "ought to" respect are, but it is quite clear that if given a choice, we would like to have greater potential. Determination requires more determination to maintain. While potential does not require maintenance, it is also not mutually exclusive to determination. You can see that many people in RI and RJ who seem to have achieved their PSLE grade effortlessly are now working very hard.

Even if determination and potential is equally valued by students, determination can only be perceived where there is a lack in potential. Potential is best perceived in the lack of effort, but not necessarily determination. When you see someone working hard in one aspect that you breeze through, it shows determination, and at the same time, a lack of potential. However, when someone breezes through something that you have to work hard in, it shows potential, but it does not show whether that person lacks determination or not. This justifies why people envy those who can achieve without seemingly putting in effort.

From an outsider's point of view, "closet mugging" is deceitful, and only serves to lower the guard of others so that one can gain the upper hand, resulting in nothing but loss for the school community. However, if we view this from the point of view of a student, we can see that this act can also be perceived as an attempt to raise one's standing in school, and not a malicious act.