Don't be deceived. They call it a "test", but the scale sure isn't like one. Gosh! In fact, for Bio and Chem, both papers are worth 140 marks each instead of the good old 100! Maybe that's similar to how A levels will be, but seriously, this was no block test that I took...
25 June, Monday: GP
Essay Paper~ When the teacher said, "you may begin," I laid my eyes and revenously devoured the list of 15 questions, hoping that one of them would be easy enough to write. None. Absolutely none of them! Okay, maybe I'm pretty bad at GP, but this was a mean paper. In the end, I wrote about... Wait, what did I write? Er... something about the causes and consequences about the growing obsession of modern day's society towards celebrities. Well, you may say there's a lot to write, but not to me. Me and GP do not go well together...unfortunately. I'd better buck up before A's.
Compre Paper~ Ever heard of investigative journalism? I never, till the paper shouted everything the writer knew about it. Essentially, it's about exposing bad conduct of important people, but in recent times, people have lost confidence in the media and so on... it was a horrible paper! Didn't even finish half the AQ. Definition: Doomed to fail AQ. No surprise...
Overall feeling: 3/10
26 June, Tuesday: Economics
Thankfully, the paper was at 1pm, so I went to school at 8am to do last minute revision:)
DRQ Paper~ I didn't really understand the first few questions, honestly. The phrasing was just...odd. Don't think I fared very well. Quite sad...Cos I got an A for the DRQ paper of the previous exam.
Essay Paper~ Strangely enough, our teachers wanted the essay paper to have questions solely on market failure. It's probably a very important topic for A's. I mugged this on Monday, so didn't really have problems. I did the question on market failure of the healthcare industry and on the correction methods and their degree of effectiveness. The answers were pretty obvious: positive externalities as well as market dominance...and then the correction methods are providing subsidies to internalise the externalities, as well as MC pricing, lump sum tax and specific tax (regulation) for firms which use their monopoly power to raise prices. I guess it all boils down to whether the teachers like my way of writing, and if I elaborated and evaluated enough.
Overall feeling: 7/10
27 June, Wednesday: Chemistry
MCQ Paper: There is no way any sane person could have survived this paper, survived as in understand all the questions ad had sufficient time to do all the proper calculations. Well, I promised my teacher I would try to pass, but I guess there are no guarantees here. From obscure to difficult to just plain time consuming questions, this paper was definitely meant to push us, in the process driving me a little crazy. Was pretty demoralised after it, but had to focus since paper 2 was about 20 minutes after that.
Structured Questions and Essay Paper: Jaws dropped once more... The essay quesions were... Unbelievable... And there wasn't a choice so all questions were compulsory. Even the structured questions were comparatively better... Sigh, better but still horrible. If I were a genius or something, maybe this paper wouldn't have been so depressing.
Overall feeling:2/10
28 June, Thursday: Mathematics
Thankfully, there was only 1 paper, cos it was already 3 hours long. Next time it'll be 6 hours, so I guess I'm grateful they chose not to torture us this time. Simply put, the 3 hours was plainly gruelling and very difficult. There's no time to stop, or think of anything else, because the paper is had enough and obviously, I couldn't finish it. However, I'm pretty happy, because in the last 15 minutes, I managed to finish questions worth about 10 marks. Heehee:) God is good. Other than that, well, it wasn't an enjoyable paper. I wasn't well-prepared lah. May pass, but that's all...
Overall feeling: 5/10
29 June, Friday: Biology
MCQ Paper: Hmm...this one's a little confusing. A crafty paper, I would say. Deceptively starightforward but very tricky. At least I had time to do all, but after cross-checking answers with a pro, I probably won't do brilliantly... Sufficient to pass, I guess:)
Structured and Essay Paper: Hmm... Honestly, I didn't study 3 topics... Photosynthesis, cellular respiration and Diversity and Evolution. And....guess what? Those were the topics of the essay questions! I am SO brilliant... Hence, if I don't fail the essay component, I'll probably break out into hysteria (won't be a pretty sight:P ) As for the structured questions, I should do better than the previous exam, because at least I filled in more blanks...haha... And with my score from the previous exam...gee...it's pretty hard to go lower than that..haha. I had fun, though. Was kind of relaxed, probably because there was a lot to look forward to after the paper.... Much needed sleep! Heehee...
Overall feeling: 6/10
And there you have it...Block test 2. I shall bravely post my results here next time. Just a word of caution to those way smarter than me: no laughing at me! haha... you can tutor me, though. Anyway, to all having exams... Enjoy your papers! I mean it... God bless you:)
Hey! I'm pretty bored of studying now, so it's time for an update! Anyway, I woke at about 7.30 this morning, did an entire paper 2 for Chemistry (last year's mid-year paper) and other Chem stuff, then went to school for a 2 hour plus consultation with my Chem tutor. Tiring and draining...but she's very patient with me=) I felt quite stupid though, cause I didn't know a lot of things. After all, I'm not in STP or GEP...haha...
After that, I left school and went to Jurong East. Walked from the bus interchange to IMM, ate a quick lunch, then went to Watson's to buy some "stuff":) You'll know later... After that, walked from IMM to Jurong East library (Wow... I really walked a lot today!) and went to study Vectors for about an hour and a half. Couldn't concentrate very well since there was a group of people near me gossipping away. Anyway, while I was there, kind of scribbled this drawing on my paper:)
I really miss Huangcheng... Haha... On my way to the library, I saw a few people constructing a platform-like structure with wood... I really miss the days when we were doing such stuff. Hmm...after promos, I'll upload the photos of some of our props! True, we may be a bunch of crazy kids who make their own stage sets instead of using the money to buy them, but I guess that's why we're so attached to that memory:)
Anyway, as promised, here are some of the photos taken in Sabah... For those who don't know, I went there from 10 jun-15 jun with my parents and younger sister Cheri. Cheryl and Chermaine were at church camp or on mission trip respectively.
The name of the place we stayed in. It's like a whole chain... Pretty nice place=)
The following are some pics of the scenery of the place:
.
Nice place right? Told you so=P Let's go check out the room!
.
Whee! This is the room Cheri and I shared...
.
Of course, we invited some of our special friends... :)
.
.
.
.
And what do we do when we're high on adrenaline, have nothing to do (ignore the studying bit), and Cheri is so into using the camera? Take emo photos!!!!!! :)
Guess how many pairs of eyes are staring at you...
.
And the most artistic photo goes to...
.
Anyway, let's move on to some important business... Here's some dessert we gt to try. Yum!
.
Okay, okay. Take your eyes off! :) Sorry, we ate them already...none for you... Anyway, we also had Bak Kut Teh one day. Look below!
.
.
.
And, um, my father absolutely insisted that we go to this place...so...okay lor:) We had really nice seafood!!!!!!!!! Let's see, I tried lobster for the first time, then we also had prawns, fish....sigh... So nice:)
.
.
.
.
I took a photo of each of them...heehee...
Mummy...
.
Daddy...
.
Cheri...
.
Ah... My parents look happy. This is the night before their 25th anniversary
.
Hmm...2 of their wonderful daughters:) Wow! We didn't arrange for it, but guess what table number we got?!
.
.
.
.
Okie...My parents' 25th Anniversary day...12 June 2007. We went on a tour!
.
Got to see GORGEOUS scenery (I'm a big fan of nature:P) and we also saw the new city that is being bult. Can you imagine? A WHOLE new developed city. It's like...rebuilding Singapore again. I was absolutely fascinated at everything. Oh by the way, I think they're building the largest...not shopping mall, not mega mall, but hypermall! They've laid the foundation already...and it's huge! The new city should be ready in slightly over a decade. That should change Sabah quite a bit...
.
Below's other nice "scenery" we saw along the way to the place=)
This cow...is skinnier than me. Poor, deprived cow...
.
Oh yay! We're there! Whee! Chinese!
.
Our tour guide, Walter.
.
Going through a mangrove swamp to get to our little ferry. Did you know that mangroves are so useful? They're not only the ecological home to many creatures, but they also protest the place from disasters like tsunamis, the branches of plants are what they use to make the stilts of their homes in water villages (prevalent in Sabah) and really, it's kind of sad we no destroyed many here at home...
.
Tonnes and tonnes of very small crabs. There's even 1 kind which had one large pincer (it's bigger than the rest of the body!) and the other pincer's not even visible! Cool stuff:)
.
Yup, we're finally on the ferry!
.
Each of us got to throw this crab trap into the swamp to see if we could catch any crabs. Of course, none. Haha... According to the tour guide, under a full moon, a catch is definite. But during the day, it was unlikely. He also let us in onto a "secret". When there's a big group going on the tour, the staff will purposely set a few traps with crabs inside, just to make the tourists happy...lol...
.
Some of the other nice creatures on the islands... Doggie!
.
And here's our class representative! Just kidding:) It's the monitor lizard.
.
.
.
And now...for the artistic eyes only, here's batik painting, ladies and gentlemen!
.
Done by my father...
.
my mother...
.
Cheri...
.
And this one's mine!!!!!!!!!!!! I like it, so if you don't...hmm...don't say anything:) However, if you do, you can always tell me:P
.
.
And then, to take a rest from our exhausting task of batik painting (we literally spent about an hour doing it, standing.), we were treated to roti cannai (prata) and teh tarik:)
Here's my parents looking sweet:) wow! 25 years of marriage...
.
...and us looking even sweeter! lol...ok I didn't say that...
.
And then, to end off the tour... Pottery time!
.
Ah...do not belittle this man. He has been at it for 40 years!! And he was mean! Just kidding:) It's just that he made everything look so easy to make and then when we tried it...hmmm....
No way!
.
Here's some of the stuff he made on the spot for us to see...A work of art!!! Especially the vase (right behind) and the lid for the pot (right in front). He had no mold, neither did he compare anything. When he made the lid, somehow it just fit the pot...perfectly! Okay, yes, yes, 40 years:)
.
Hee...My turn! It's tough...
.
And my product (clear throat) is none other than..... the secod last one from the back. It's standing tall, dark and handsome:) Okay, I'm rambling...But...not bad right? :)
haha...and now...to reveal what I was buying at Watson's...
.
3 and a half hours, 9 tedious steps, tonnes and abundance of pain...
And...007! I mean... I reBONDed my hair. Yes, it's 13 June, everyone.
So, essentially, what I was buying at Watson's was hair treatment cream... because rebonded hair/coloured hair is one of the hardest things to maintain! And for anyone who might consider going for rebonding, it hurts....a lot! Especially when inexperienced people are pulling it... So... Be warned!
.
.
Well, after all that, we went to celebrate my birthday at Starbucks, with 4 slices of different-flavoured cheesecakes and ice mocha/ hot chocolate... Sigh... Tentalising stuff again...
.
And that's blueberry cheesecake, mango cheesecake, chocolate marbled cheesecake and the signature cheesecake for you :)
.
.
To end off the photo gallery, the following are photos Cheri and I took of the sunrise we watched on the last morning. For your information, when we were there, the sun rises at about 5.20am and is fully risen by 6am. So I woke up at 5, dragged Cheri along to the beach and marina...and voila! Beautiful:)
It's still really dark...
.
And no light can hide in the darkness:) The sun is coming out!
.
Yay! So nice.. Just some thoughts... When we left, we flew over the entire island as well as other nearby ones...close enough to the land to see everything on it. In Singapore, homes are built on land, security. And yet, the houses in Sabah extended beyond the land. It was a sight to behold. Where there was ground, houses were built on it. Where there was water, houses were built on stilts. In fact, I even saw one island where there were no houses on the big land. The trees on it were not cut down, neither was the place a concrete jungle. Every single house was on the water... Don't know if it means anything to you, but that picture in my memory will stick with me and remind me that there are people who still care about God's beautiful creations in nature:) This trip also reminded me of God's goodness and grace...
