But more than a few heads turned at Hwa Chong Institution on Friday when six girls showed up in Army uniforms.

The six recruits were among more than 13,000 students islandwide who received their A-level results on Friday.

Hwa Chong's 'women warriors' have been offered a glimpse of Army life by the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) to see if they want to make a career in the military.

They have been offered SAF merit scholarships, and are undergoing a nine-week basic military training programme alongside males undergoing NS.

If they like what they see, they can decide to take up the scholarship.

So far, the six - Wu Fan, Lin Qintan, Vivien Lee, Patrina Pang, Marilyn Sim and Wong Xin Yi, all 19 - say they are having a whale of a time.

Said Ms Wu, whose parents are engineers, and who racked up seven distinctions: 'We learn basic field craft and soldiering skills, like digging trenches, which I'm really enjoying.'

Meanwhile, Ms Lin, who scored six distinctions, is set on a career as a naval officer - perhaps not surprisingly, since she is a national sailor.

The daughter of an electrical engineer and civil servant said: 'I like physical and mental challenges, and I don't want a nine-to-five deskbound job.'

Last year's cohort was the first to sit for A-levels under the modified junior college curriculum, which makes it compulsory for students to take at least one subject outside their area of specialisation.

Read the full story in Saturday's edition of The Straits Times.