Just passed

I seem to use this phrase quite often today, whenever someone asked me abt my GP results. No face to say the actual marks. Anyway my GP has always been like that and it will always be, probably with the exception of A lvls where some miracle can happen hopefully.

What an inefficient day...had a CT session in the classroom doing miscellaneous stuff, followed by the returning of GP compres and mass going thru of answers which I din pay attention. I see no point in knowing the correct answers. Very upset with my vocab, half mark out of five. Sometimes I think too deep, sometimes too shallow, but my answers will always end up wrong. Now I'm confused of what to think already.

Then there was this super long 2hr+ break. Went to Bukit Timah food centre for lunch...first time there since it renovated -__- Ya, I'm very swakoo. There was much time left so we suggested going with Rosemary to her church =S A group of students going to church together...looks weird to me.

Eventually we din go cos it rained (more like a drizzle) so we had no choice but to go back to sch. Read my Qi Ling Wang comic. Ya, I know many of you have already read the comic or watched the anime but I've only just started yesterday. *Looks at the entire collection*...still a long long way to go.

That slacky Bad was not in sch again...shld have expected it. Compo as lousy as compre, only half mark better. So many notes and comments written all over my script...din bother to read it in detail.

Good mahjong game on Monday! Won several times but mostly with one or two tais only, and some lucky zi mo(s) and a fortunate ping hu. Winning small is good, though inefficient cos not only you prevent others from winning (esp those with a lot of tais) and losing money yourself, you also win at least sth. Win is always better than lose. Sry if I spoilt many games...hehe.

Eh, I was supposed to go to sch yesterday but I din. I guess I'm safe after all since nobody mentioned abt it...

I think my computer is crumbling. First the cd drive failed to work and now the speakers...Zzzzz

Grow!

Known this fun little flash game called 'Grow' for some time already and I guess I would intro all you to it. The game is very simple: you place objects onto the sphere/cube and watch them grow. Objects may interact with each other during a certain stage of their growth, so that means the order of placement is very important. Your aim is to achieve 'max lvl' for all objects. Good luck and have fun!

http://www.eyezmaze.com/grow/v3/index.html

Btw there are 3 'Grow' games available for now, you can access the rest of them via the sidebar. IMO the most interesting one is growcube. Turn on the speaker for the cute music too!

Prelims over!

Woot...prelims is finally over!!! Err...actually not exactly since I still have S papers, only Maths S next monday. Still dunno why there is no chem s prelim...I wonder if they really trust us so much to do well in the actual A lvl paper. But I doubt so since the ex-HOD of chem once told us that she expects a lot of 'Unclassified' from our batch of s paper students. (btw according to the teachers my batch is the largest group of chem s students in hc over the years) Perhaps she meant more quantity means less quality. >_> Probably another possible reason is becos they can't fit chem s into the exam timetable. I mean, look at the prelim timetable, assuming the teachers wun be so mean to make any students take 2 s papers on 1 day, there is really no slot for chem s (which probably clashes with most other s papers) except Wed which is our 'special CT session' and start of post prelim activities already. Maybe that's why chem s has to go. But thinking again, wouldn't the chem teachers protest against taking out an impt paper for such a 'lame' excuse? Nvm...I shall not analyse already, I'm getting further from the topic...

Where did I stop? Hmmm, ya...I said prelims is over. Let's recall the papers I took this week: Monday was maths paper 2. Rather easy IMO, like paper 1. Unfortunately I didn't take the previlege of attempting the 'applied maths' and 'particle mechanics' options which are only for double maths students. (I dun think any single maths ppl studied mechanics) Well, the single maths ppl can do those options at their own risk. I think the statistics qns are easier since the single maths students are doing them too...>_> No lah, actually the real reason is becos I feel more comfortable doing maths c stats qns than maths c mech qns. For the case of f maths, it is the opposite: I prefer doing mech to stats. (I always seem to screw up fm stats qns)

Tuesday was chem paper 1 and 2, the saviour for my poorly done chem paper 3. Very upset that I got tricked by some mcq questions (I feel so stupid...t_t) Paper 2 was very smooth. I rushed a little and managed to finish in time, with all questions attempted with confidence (careless mistakes and conceptual errors might still prevail).

Wed was f maths paper 2. Lost 10 marks in one mech qn (rigid bodies) cos I dunno where to start resolving or taking moments. (the qn shld have guided us a little mah) Very shaky in the stats qns. So in the end I chose to mech in the optional qn instead.

Today was physics paper 3. After learning my lesson in chem paper 3, I decided to rush the qns (btw my speed is naturally slow so when I rush, it means I'm on par with the speed of others). Attempted most qns and completed satisfactorily in time. BUT I realised I made a lot of conceptual errors (when rushing I din bother to think so much) so in the end I might still have lots of marks deducted. Chem paper 3 vs Phy paper 3...slow but correct vs fast but wrong...which will score higher? This 'experiment' can greatly help me plan my strategy for the A lvls.

After phy, I tagged Wenjia and his choir friends to LOL for a 6-hour dota session (wah so xiong...) Was winning for the first few games (mainly cos the comp of the most qiang opponent jz got problem) then lost the rest >_<

(Hero of the day: Skeleton King. Teams with this hero seem to be owning more often. Good stun + life leech + critical + 2 lives)

Confidence

The first week of prelims is over. One more week and one more Monday then I'll be free...until one month later when the whole cycle starts again, except that the time will be longer (greater suffering), more discussions maybe (cos all JCs taking same paper), and more confidence hopefully (cos A lvl papers are "supposed" to be easier than prelims).

On tues, I felt that the chem paper was quite badly done. Not the difficulty of qns but time management. Most ppl ard me should know that I do things like a slowpoke and this time it has really cost my marks. It's no surprise that when attempting 10 FRQs within 2h45min for the first time, I would lag like crazy. Only leaving 1 hour for the last 5 qns, isn't that ridiculous? If I dun score much better for paper 1 and 2 to compensate the loss of marks, it might become my worst chem result for the year.

Wed was phy. Was quite confident after the paper but then I realised I made a lot of careless mistakes in both structured and mcq. For mcq, nobody confirmed my mistakes, but structured sure wrong le. Too careless. Got confidence until no confidence liao. No idea what is in store for paper 3 (do on foolscap right?) cos usually for phy tests we do on the paper itself so the type of qns given might be different. More proving, definitions and explanations maybe, which I'm weak at in physics. So overall no confidence...

Yesterday was fmaths. Compared to many previous papers that I saw, this year's was comparatively much easier, so by right I shldn't complain so much abt it. However I was stuck at some qns and left it blank, so the marks surely gone le. Those are major parts (carrying 4-7 marks) so I might end up losing more marks than expected...X_X

The more I think the less confident I get, so better let prelims end quickly then I can get down to playing dota and forget abt all my doubts and uncertainties.

Prelims

First day of prelims (by right it shld be 2nd, but nvm), it has gone well. Good that Maths is placed first so most ppl will be motivated to study for the subsequent papers. Made a few mistakes in today's paper but they are minor. As a fmaths student I shld not find maths c hard, otherwise I'll be in deep trouble. Tmr is the real worry instead: 2h45min of free response chem qns...X_X Many ppl are complaining that they might die for chem...esp food chem. Being no exception, I'm worried for food chem too cos cannot digest all the info in the notes or option booklet. They are just far too wordy.

Gentlemen, Start Your Engine

The 1-week long break has finally come to an end and it's time for all of us to show (more like regurgitate) what we've studied for the past X weeks, or rather the past 2 years in JC. Though the results obtained in prelims at A lvl is not as significant as that in prelims at O lvl, it serves as a good preparation for the coming A lvls and a gauge to our standards. For those who have given up studying for BTs and promos for the last 2 years, I hope this time you will put in more effort to do your best in the prelims. Ah, why am I giving a pep talk here? So unlike me...lol. Anyway, whether you want to crap it done and over with, or just scratch the exam paper with some ink, it's not my business and I dun care.

So yesterday was MAF. Din go becos of several reasons. One of them is obvious (points at tmr). If anyone remembers the contents of my old blog, I ranted and complained a lot abt my boring experiences in MAF last year. Was walking ard alone, stoning and watching performances that I'm least interested in. Met many ppl but all of them were so busy. Then finally Zhe Han came to chit chat with me. This time I can't ensure that anyone would come to accompany me during that night so I rather not take the risk. Furthermore I guessed the turnout for J2s wun be so high (points at tmr again) so I might appear to be more lonely than last year. Let the enthusiasm of the J1s sustain the spirit of MAF instead.

Glad that I din go MAF otherwise my whole sat might be wasted. Anyway staying at home wasn't that bad, I've my com to keep me entertained, like what it has been doing for the past 1 week where I completely locked myself at home. Haven't worn shoes/slippers/sandals for 9 days le... Became a nocturnal creature also: slept from 6am to 2pm; most active time: 11pm to 4am. What did I do during that active period...study and listen to radio lor, but after 2am no DJ liao...so listen to music all the way. The remaining hours were spent on my com. (Yeah, when I'm at home, it's either the 'bed' or the 'com') I study in my bedroom btw.

Saw an extended preview just now, abt the new drama coming up: Fa Yi X Dang An II (Beyond the axis of truth II) Looks very interesting, quite different from the usual love/family dramas. Full of murders, killings, deaths, blood, gory...lol... Gonna watch it tmr. Yay, at least I wun feel so bored studying during the prelim period, got sth to look forward to.

Vroom, vroom...good luck everyone for prelims tmr! Keep your engines working!

Random

Hem hem, finally I'm up and ready to update my blog, which most of you have been quite disappointed to see it not updated for several days right? Sry to those who had tried to refresh this page but with no avail. I think blogging is not very suitable for ppl like me who like to keep things to themselves and cannot express their thoughts well in words. Always run out of ideas of what to blog about, then end up blogging the same thing over and over again. After which I realise my life is actually so dull and mundane compared to others. It's no wonder why some ppl think I'm dull person while I try hard to convince myself that I'm lively outside school. Seems like I'm too naive.

This week is dedicated to studying for next week's prelim. Half of it is already gone but I'm still wondering if my revision method is effective. Have been doing physics mcq(only) for the past few days. Cos I thought doing such qns can help me revise and refresh key concepts while definitions can be read up the day before the paper. Which means I wun be reading my lecture notes until before the day itself. Is this a good way of studying? (reading lecture notes repeatedly is sooo boring and time consuming) Anyway I haven't been paying attention to phy tutorials since end of Term 2 and phy revision lectures, so I really hope I didn't miss out on anything very impt.

Well, the rest of my time was spent on dota and Harry Potter. Those leaver games are certainly a waste of time, and I'm starting to get a little bored already. As for HP, I've finished the 5th book and going on to the next but I'm rather tired of reading the books from the comp screen. I really want to read from the real book itself, free from annoying typos, missing letters and words, funny symbols, and the plain white background in adobe reader. (at least microsoft reader is much comfortable to read at...but can't find the latest book in this format) However given this week I'll most likely be at home all the time and not meeting anyone else, I've no choice but to endure the discomfort for the last book.

Sometimes I want the exams to end quickly so that I can get on with playing but sometimes I dun cos that means I wun be meeting most of my friends anymore and NS is drawing near. How I wish time will just stop at Dec this year. (Ya, shld ask faceless to cast a permanent chronosphere over the whole month) What a dilemma...but I guess life have to go on anyway. Have been hearing over the radio that Superstar contestants Weijian and Weicong are going to enlist in NS soon. Hope they dun get bullied in there...

Everytime I think abt the GP paper last friday I would get very upset. It seems like I've screwed the paper big time. Of course I'm not alone but I've the feeling that I might do poorly this time. But again, it's just prelims right? There is still one more chance to go. I know I shld not think that way but in the case of GP I can't help having this mentality. Thoughout these two years I've actually been depending on luck to merely pass my GP exams. There might come a time where I'll fail GP (which I did for one of the block tests) and I pray this would not happen to my last exam. As many ppl shld know, GP results aren't absolute. Heard many cases of ppl getting C in prelims then scoring an A in A lvl, or vice versa. Had this experience in the O lvl where I got A2 for English when my language is not up to standard and my narrative essay is super lame. The examiners must be really blind.

Teachers' Day

Wish every teacher a Happy Teachers' Day! The reason why this day is so significant is becos there are celebrations held and students are also given the holiday too, unlike Children's Day (always been significant for my case) or Youth Day. If I'm not wrong, this is the only non-public holiday where sec sch and jcs celebrate and get a day off, (not sure for poly or uni) which effectively means two "holidays"...hehe.

Yesterday was the teachers' day celebration but since the j2s need not come I chose not to go. Cos I lazee wat! I guessed most of my classmates wun go anyway so it would be better for me to stay at home and slack rather than to be lonely in sch. (not the teacher's fault) Still remember last year when most of the 4C ppl returned to visit the teachers and even went out together for a sushi lunch. The last 4C outing...

Tmr's the GP paper. Dunno wat to prepare except to keep reading model essays, which is proven in my case that it doesn't help much except for assurance purpose and to make me feel a sense of security. *Prays for good luck*

Zhe Han's feeling very very sian lately...anything to alleviate his boredom?