Sigh.
okay, yay promos are over and boo there's more stuff lined up for us unfortunate people.
But i guess i dont have it as bad as SL and TS who have to go for some Meet The People's Session all the way at Kembagan and the former arriving home at 12 midnight right after promos end... poor things.
There's so much that i missed out on blogging about ecause if i switched on the laptop i wouldn't have concentrated at all... not like i really did, anyway.
So i guess i'll have to start from the beginning... Well, it'll be in chronological order then (sort of) but starting with right now and then going back to yesterday and then from about a week back.
So i just woke up.
It's raining outside... I can hear the sound of rain, coming down in thick sheets, with the wind blowing in just a little, enough to chill my toes a little bit and lure me back to sleep... but I can't! Because I slept from 7 to 10 and then slept from 12+ to 5+. See, so piggy. Anyways on normal days it's probably about this many hours of sleep or slightly lesser, so I can't sleep back anymore. Can't close my eyes and be dead to the world and push away my growing pile of homework.
Something like, I originally planned to finally blog all the stuff that I've been wanting to blog about;
plan ahead for what I need to do for the rest of the month (bio O; OP; Chinese >.<);
transfer what my wonderful chem teacher told me during consultation into my notes (consulted her after chem paper);
and then sleep at about 11+. Because someone advised me to. (: And i guess if you cut out the 3 hours of naptime I slept way earlier than that!
So for yesterday:
Chemistry was the final paper. I had to write fast because I was afraid that I didn't have time, because of the previous paper on Friday (Bio, which was beyond hectic. I'll talk about it later)... But the first question took me about 20 minutes or more for 5 measly marks because it was a planning question and I forgot to read up. (Sorry, SL.) I got a reminder but then forgot about the reminder... So i had to close my eyes, scrunch up my face and attempt to recall how to do the planning thing. It's not like i didn't have help, though; someone messaged me a checklist of things, and said it was from a friend. I'm actually strongly against hints because I believe that one should study well and if he/she does so, the paper will be tough but yet doable, so I don't care much for hints, and believe that others shouldn't as well. I guess not everyone's like me. So I took a look at the checklist and then tossed it (my phone) aside.
And then guess what? Most/all (can't remember) of what was in the checklist came out. So I'm guessing that the one who created the list was a teacher who passed it around to students who disseminated them to the whole student population taking chemistry... except for a few. This is purely theoretical and comes from the fact that I spied some other guys whom I didn't know looking at the same thing on their phones. I guess this is a moral failure of sorts of Rafflesians. I don't say "us Rafflesians" because about 8 months into joining this institution, I still don't really feel as though my heart totally belongs here. Well, it will, eventually, but I'll gladly let nature take its course. So for now, I'm a partial outsider who can view what's happening in RJ a little more objectively without denial of what's afflicting the place*.
Back to yesterday before talking about the asterisk.
So in the end, the paper was easier than expected. I attempted a 2010 promo paper (last year's batch of J1s/ this year's J2s) and found the paper really, really tough. To the point where I didn't understand why i got 4 MCQs wrong (got others wrong too, but I understood why i was wrong for them) and didn't even know why I was wrong and so had to consult my chem teacher for it after the chem paper was over.
I also attempted a 2009 promo paper and it was about that level; i.e, doable, but not without guessing some questions and hoping for the best. Can't recall the questions now, but I know I found two options in one MCQ question equally plausible... so I had to randomly pick one. So I picked the non-mathematical explanation (it was an equilibria qn, so ratio of forward and backward rate constants thingy...) for it.
And I didn't manage to get around one or two marks worth of questions because there wasn't enough time. I calculated the answer on my scientific calculator (it was a 2m proving qn in section C that I skipped cos it looked way too challenging and went back to it after completing section A) but didn't have time to write because when I was halfway through writing I stopped to calculate and when I picked up my pen the invigilator said that time was up. Sigh. So that means that I didn't finish writing for a single full subject.
Anyway. The invigilator was ( I think) the one who invigilated my class for chem SPA. And have I ever said how informal bio SPA was? With the invigilator being my bio teacher and giving the entire SPA a relaxed feel with one very blatant warning on what not to do about 2 minutes into the exam...
So after chem paper, I was in conflict with myself. One part of me wanted to burst out laughing and go somewhere and play and screw bio O and OP and Chinese for the day, and hopefully beyond. Then the other part wanted to go for chem consult, go straight home after lunch, and finish blogging, reading the papers, playing piano, transferring chem consult notes, finishing up section C of 2009 promo practice paper for chem that I didn't manage to finish before my promos... and then sleep and continue studying. I mean, my A levels for Chinese are in about 27 days' time, you know? So I was smiling, and controlling my facial expression, and laughing, and stopping myself from laughing... Then finally went to sign on some sheet of paper for Bio O and then I finally got to leave the hall. Then I took my bag and went for chem consult to clarify the stuff I realised I didn't know while doing practice questions to revise for promos. So the serious side won out.
Then I went to dhoby ghaut where the rest of the class was (about half the class) and they were eating lunch and then having a cake to celebrate a classmate's birthday today. I turned up and everyone else was nearly done eating... Then while I was eating my vegeterian aglio aglio (or oglio? Who cares... maybe it was oligarch(y) oligarch(y). hehe) the stupid people brought the cake out... And when I was trying to eat a big bite of spaghetti the class was clapping their hands and singing a birthday song for the birthday girl. Paiseh >.< sorry miss birthday girl!! Then I finally finished, and the cake (banana chocolate) immediately arrived back at the table (the staff took it away again to cut it into 12 slices, one for each person there). So i happily ate my cake and laughed at the poor girls who couldn't really stomach the cake after their food. No, actually they could. My class has some extraodinary girls... Well, one gave away the outer chocolate cover to the boys and Jo ate the chocolate on the outside first and left the cake "naked" in the words of my PW groupmate. But Jo ate it all in the end! :D (Since I like to keep my blog a little more seperate from private life, I don't use names generally... but Jo's shortform and etc. so those are okay. But others are full names and can't be used.)
...
So as you can see the I-WANNA-HAVE-MY-FUN-NOWWW side won out eventually, because I went to watch Johnny English afterwards with the class, sans SL and TS who had to go for MPS so they didn't have the time to stick around. It was quite hilarous but for the benefit of those who haven't watched the movie yet I'l kepe mum. The plot can get quite cliched at times but Rowan Atkinson pulls the script together. So it really destressed me after promos (not like i was that stressed, anyway... I didn't really work hard enough to really feel stressed.); enough to make me feel like slacking off even more and going to play pool/billiards. But then the guys wanted to LAN so I went home with the girls and Brendan (guess he's going to start preparing for his chinese O'lvls too... sighhhh). You wouldn't believe that Jo's such a klutz until you get off with her at the same MRT stop and realise that she still doesn't know where to exit from after a few months of living there (: (okay, fine, I've been living in the area for all my life, but that's not really important now).
***
So anyway about the asterisk thing.
During the last week or two before promos started, the lecturers (apart fom Bio) had already finished their curriculum to be tested, so what was being taught then had no relevance for promos. So people deserted lectures to go and study elsewhere. I don't know how long this kind of thing has been going on and whether other schools do the same, but I didn't, and don't like this kind of behaviour. I mean, studying for peomos is a good thing, but at least do it somewhere else. Or at the bare minimum, remain in the lecture theatre nd at least appear to be taking down notes while studying. Which was what I did. At least it's a slightly greater sign of respect for the lecturer who doesn't have to preach to a half-empty lecture theatre, and yet can do nothing about that. OKay, fine, the bio lecturer was admittedly crappy, and Dr Chan was being quite overboard (he came into the lecture and continued talking all the way for one entire period with the top two buttons of his shirt unbottoned and inserting sex jokes here and there blatantly... with some remarks about accepting those girls who couldn't find a boyfriend after graduating. If you read between the lines... -.-")
I'm sorry that I had to end it off on Dr Chan but my attention span is about an hour or so and it has been an hour or so. So...bye for now...
okay, yay promos are over and boo there's more stuff lined up for us unfortunate people.
But i guess i dont have it as bad as SL and TS who have to go for some Meet The People's Session all the way at Kembagan and the former arriving home at 12 midnight right after promos end... poor things.
There's so much that i missed out on blogging about ecause if i switched on the laptop i wouldn't have concentrated at all... not like i really did, anyway.
So i guess i'll have to start from the beginning... Well, it'll be in chronological order then (sort of) but starting with right now and then going back to yesterday and then from about a week back.
So i just woke up.
It's raining outside... I can hear the sound of rain, coming down in thick sheets, with the wind blowing in just a little, enough to chill my toes a little bit and lure me back to sleep... but I can't! Because I slept from 7 to 10 and then slept from 12+ to 5+. See, so piggy. Anyways on normal days it's probably about this many hours of sleep or slightly lesser, so I can't sleep back anymore. Can't close my eyes and be dead to the world and push away my growing pile of homework.
Something like, I originally planned to finally blog all the stuff that I've been wanting to blog about;
plan ahead for what I need to do for the rest of the month (bio O; OP; Chinese >.<);
transfer what my wonderful chem teacher told me during consultation into my notes (consulted her after chem paper);
and then sleep at about 11+. Because someone advised me to. (: And i guess if you cut out the 3 hours of naptime I slept way earlier than that!
So for yesterday:
Chemistry was the final paper. I had to write fast because I was afraid that I didn't have time, because of the previous paper on Friday (Bio, which was beyond hectic. I'll talk about it later)... But the first question took me about 20 minutes or more for 5 measly marks because it was a planning question and I forgot to read up. (Sorry, SL.) I got a reminder but then forgot about the reminder... So i had to close my eyes, scrunch up my face and attempt to recall how to do the planning thing. It's not like i didn't have help, though; someone messaged me a checklist of things, and said it was from a friend. I'm actually strongly against hints because I believe that one should study well and if he/she does so, the paper will be tough but yet doable, so I don't care much for hints, and believe that others shouldn't as well. I guess not everyone's like me. So I took a look at the checklist and then tossed it (my phone) aside.
And then guess what? Most/all (can't remember) of what was in the checklist came out. So I'm guessing that the one who created the list was a teacher who passed it around to students who disseminated them to the whole student population taking chemistry... except for a few. This is purely theoretical and comes from the fact that I spied some other guys whom I didn't know looking at the same thing on their phones. I guess this is a moral failure of sorts of Rafflesians. I don't say "us Rafflesians" because about 8 months into joining this institution, I still don't really feel as though my heart totally belongs here. Well, it will, eventually, but I'll gladly let nature take its course. So for now, I'm a partial outsider who can view what's happening in RJ a little more objectively without denial of what's afflicting the place*.
Back to yesterday before talking about the asterisk.
So in the end, the paper was easier than expected. I attempted a 2010 promo paper (last year's batch of J1s/ this year's J2s) and found the paper really, really tough. To the point where I didn't understand why i got 4 MCQs wrong (got others wrong too, but I understood why i was wrong for them) and didn't even know why I was wrong and so had to consult my chem teacher for it after the chem paper was over.
I also attempted a 2009 promo paper and it was about that level; i.e, doable, but not without guessing some questions and hoping for the best. Can't recall the questions now, but I know I found two options in one MCQ question equally plausible... so I had to randomly pick one. So I picked the non-mathematical explanation (it was an equilibria qn, so ratio of forward and backward rate constants thingy...) for it.
And I didn't manage to get around one or two marks worth of questions because there wasn't enough time. I calculated the answer on my scientific calculator (it was a 2m proving qn in section C that I skipped cos it looked way too challenging and went back to it after completing section A) but didn't have time to write because when I was halfway through writing I stopped to calculate and when I picked up my pen the invigilator said that time was up. Sigh. So that means that I didn't finish writing for a single full subject.
Anyway. The invigilator was ( I think) the one who invigilated my class for chem SPA. And have I ever said how informal bio SPA was? With the invigilator being my bio teacher and giving the entire SPA a relaxed feel with one very blatant warning on what not to do about 2 minutes into the exam...
So after chem paper, I was in conflict with myself. One part of me wanted to burst out laughing and go somewhere and play and screw bio O and OP and Chinese for the day, and hopefully beyond. Then the other part wanted to go for chem consult, go straight home after lunch, and finish blogging, reading the papers, playing piano, transferring chem consult notes, finishing up section C of 2009 promo practice paper for chem that I didn't manage to finish before my promos... and then sleep and continue studying. I mean, my A levels for Chinese are in about 27 days' time, you know? So I was smiling, and controlling my facial expression, and laughing, and stopping myself from laughing... Then finally went to sign on some sheet of paper for Bio O and then I finally got to leave the hall. Then I took my bag and went for chem consult to clarify the stuff I realised I didn't know while doing practice questions to revise for promos. So the serious side won out.
Then I went to dhoby ghaut where the rest of the class was (about half the class) and they were eating lunch and then having a cake to celebrate a classmate's birthday today. I turned up and everyone else was nearly done eating... Then while I was eating my vegeterian aglio aglio (or oglio? Who cares... maybe it was oligarch(y) oligarch(y). hehe) the stupid people brought the cake out... And when I was trying to eat a big bite of spaghetti the class was clapping their hands and singing a birthday song for the birthday girl. Paiseh >.< sorry miss birthday girl!! Then I finally finished, and the cake (banana chocolate) immediately arrived back at the table (the staff took it away again to cut it into 12 slices, one for each person there). So i happily ate my cake and laughed at the poor girls who couldn't really stomach the cake after their food. No, actually they could. My class has some extraodinary girls... Well, one gave away the outer chocolate cover to the boys and Jo ate the chocolate on the outside first and left the cake "naked" in the words of my PW groupmate. But Jo ate it all in the end! :D (Since I like to keep my blog a little more seperate from private life, I don't use names generally... but Jo's shortform and etc. so those are okay. But others are full names and can't be used.)
...
So as you can see the I-WANNA-HAVE-MY-FUN-NOWWW side won out eventually, because I went to watch Johnny English afterwards with the class, sans SL and TS who had to go for MPS so they didn't have the time to stick around. It was quite hilarous but for the benefit of those who haven't watched the movie yet I'l kepe mum. The plot can get quite cliched at times but Rowan Atkinson pulls the script together. So it really destressed me after promos (not like i was that stressed, anyway... I didn't really work hard enough to really feel stressed.); enough to make me feel like slacking off even more and going to play pool/billiards. But then the guys wanted to LAN so I went home with the girls and Brendan (guess he's going to start preparing for his chinese O'lvls too... sighhhh). You wouldn't believe that Jo's such a klutz until you get off with her at the same MRT stop and realise that she still doesn't know where to exit from after a few months of living there (: (okay, fine, I've been living in the area for all my life, but that's not really important now).
***
So anyway about the asterisk thing.
During the last week or two before promos started, the lecturers (apart fom Bio) had already finished their curriculum to be tested, so what was being taught then had no relevance for promos. So people deserted lectures to go and study elsewhere. I don't know how long this kind of thing has been going on and whether other schools do the same, but I didn't, and don't like this kind of behaviour. I mean, studying for peomos is a good thing, but at least do it somewhere else. Or at the bare minimum, remain in the lecture theatre nd at least appear to be taking down notes while studying. Which was what I did. At least it's a slightly greater sign of respect for the lecturer who doesn't have to preach to a half-empty lecture theatre, and yet can do nothing about that. OKay, fine, the bio lecturer was admittedly crappy, and Dr Chan was being quite overboard (he came into the lecture and continued talking all the way for one entire period with the top two buttons of his shirt unbottoned and inserting sex jokes here and there blatantly... with some remarks about accepting those girls who couldn't find a boyfriend after graduating. If you read between the lines... -.-")
I'm sorry that I had to end it off on Dr Chan but my attention span is about an hour or so and it has been an hour or so. So...bye for now...
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