Teacher for over a decade, and I will give you the balanced answer because both SPM is everything and SPM is useless are wrong. The truth: SPM matters a lot at one specific gate, and almost nothing after you pass through it. It matters because your results decide your immediate options, matriculation, JPA and other scholarships, foundation programmes, entry into certain competitive courses and universities. A strong SPM opens the cheaper, faster routes to tertiary education, and for a family without much money, that scholarship can be genuinely life-changing. So for a 17-year-old, it really is important, don't let anyone tell your cousin it does not matter at all. BUT, here is the part the stressed kids desperately need to hear: once you are past that gate, into college or working, nobody ever asks your SPM again. Your degree, your skills, your experience completely take over. I have never once had an employer ask my SPM. So the honest framing for your cousin: take it seriously because it decides the next 2 to 3 years of options, but it does NOT decide your whole life. Plenty of average-SPM students built great careers. Do your best, but it is a checkpoint, not a final verdict on your worth.