Bright Sunny Day

The last few days have been raining, but thankfully today's weather was much better, all bright and sunny. Therefore, it allowed me to go for a swim, my first in ... erm ... a year I think! Yup, I have not exercised for very long, since ROP perhaps. And yes, no need to remind me, I have eaten much more than I have burnt, that I know :) Well the last time I faced this problem, I kept running and running day after day. But I guess I am not as inspired to run as last time. In fact, I kind of hate running. It never was the kind of exercise I like, as it also reminds me of the days in OCS where we just kept running and running. For those who could run fast, it was a real breeze, but for people like me, it made everyday like hell, physically and mentally. But swimming was good today. Always prefer swimming to running. The water and sun combination just makes exercising more relaxing. But then, I felt a little worried as the pain to my knee came back in the midst of swimming. Kinda regret not getting full treatment during my army days, when the army was covering all expenses. I am sure seeking treatment now would cost a bomb.

And today, mum asked me how my papers were. And I couldn't actually come up with an answer. I only told her that I don't really know. Last semester, I was being pessimistic by telling mum that I think things were just OK, eventhough I knew I could do all of my papers. But to my horror, my pessimism turned out to be optimism. So ask me for my opinions this time, I can only say lets wait for the actual results. Papers wise, I think I did not fare very well. But I stuck to my plan, and that was to keep my final examination papers at a much lower weightage. As compared to last semester, where most of my papers were at least 50-60% of the module grades, this semester, my papers were only 30-50%. I wanted to rely more on assignments and CAs. So for assignments wise, I could not have asked for any better results. So, lets just wait and see.

Oh, and I am so not going to miss the early release of results this time round. It was a hell of a nervous wait the last time round.

Back to Life

After 3 weeks of books, assignments and exams, I am finally able to relax and enjoy myself. I still remember last saturday, while on my way home to replenish my clothes after my 2216 paper, I saw alot of people in the train, all dressed up, either going to town or returning from town after a long day out. But there I was feeling all tired after my paper, and also feeling worried about the papers to come. But thankfully, it is history, and as how I would like to put it, I finally have my 'Life' back.

Went to Vivo with my gf yesterday, and it felt good that I finally had time to spend with her, to have a good dinner with her, and to actually have a clear mind and time to talk to her. She has been real understanding throughout the hell period, and I am really grateful for that. And today, we went cycling, and even wanted to go kayaking, but didn't know that the shop was no more there. So we decided to just spend the rest of the day together, walking around. We also realised that we were running out of places to go, therefore we landed at Toa Payoh HDB Hub, and even Changi Airport! Haha, even saw Tianhao with his gf. Guess my gf and I are not the only ones running out of places to go in our small sunny island.

Am now sitting in front of the TV, watching EPL. Once again, just enjoying the whole feeling of being so free with no worries, well exam worries that is. I even bought my first music CD in like don't know how many donkey years, 'Treasure' by Hayley Westenra. Got to hear about her when I was running through YouTube during my rest times in the exam period, and realised that she has an exceptional voice. Furthermore, her songs are those new age and classical kind of songs which I really like.

Oh, and to all the avid followers of my blog, if any, I will be attempting to make some much needed changes to my very stale blog. Hopefully I will follow through what I plan to do, especially now that I have some time to spare.

Finally Over!

Yeah, and today marks the end of my exams for semester two, and just like that, I have completed my first year in NUS, well even though on the records I am already a year 2 student due to my exemptions. Anyway, today's paper was abit crappy. I think I spent more time flipping the textbook pages than writing stuff. Well, I guess that why it is an open book exam. But well, thank god I SUed the module.

What Remy said was right, after the exams, I was not really feeling all that happy, but more of lost. Suddenly exams just finishes, and the past weeks of routine just ends like that. If I add the final school week I spent in clubroom rushing my assignments, I had spent a total of 3 weeks staying over in the club room, with occasional trips back home to replenish my clothes and some rest. Amazing. But then again, I am real relieved. Exams are like the worst times of school life. Just see how dead the school is, how everyone is mugging so hard, and how the pressure gets to everyone, including me. Its just horrible to know that your whole semester of work and efforts all goes down to how you fare this 2 weeks. Then again, nothing will change, and exams will prevail.

Well, I guess I need some much needed rest now. Also finally have time to spend with my significant other, whom I have unduly neglected. And yes, Arts Camp and FOP will be next in line!! Gonna be exciting. And oh to those who still have papers, all the best. And pardon me, but do allow me to relish this taste of ending exams early, as I may not get this chance anymore. Who knows. Yipeeee!!

Not Again

Oh man, got kind of screwed again for today's second paper. And I just realised, its not good that I keep saying this kinda things, I mean, I do not have many papers left and if this is gonna carry on, all my papers are going to be screwed! Saturday's paper was screwed because the tips were wrong, and questions were totally unexpected, but today's one was even more amazing. The lecturer told us in the final lecture that it would be question 1 compulsory, question 2 choose either one. And when I sat down at exam hall today, I saw the cover page, and almost raised my hand to say I got the wrong paper. The cover page wrote "This paper has 19 questions, Answer All Questions!" And only when I flipped open, then did I realise the first section was actually fill in the blanks, and the 2 essay questions followed at the back was compulsory.

Some of you must be thinking, fill in the blanks good right. But no way. I am also sure some of you will understand why. Now that there is fill in the blanks, the lecturer's words of "there will be no right or wrong" has just been negated, and the worst thing is that, if you have been told that there will be 2 essay questions, you would tend not to pay attention to the minor details of the notes and books. But there we go, all getting surprises again. I am starting to wonder how the rest of my papers will turn out. In the end, almost half of my fill in the blanks, were blanks. Oh dear oh dear.

Well, there are some consolations though. My group did well for our project, although I must say it was a little unexpected. Furthermore, the two papers which I considered the most challenging are over. Feeling a little more relieved now. Although I know that 2209 on wednesday will be challenging too, at least it saves me the trouble of the most hated factor of exams, and that is memorising. Its open book. Thursday's paper is MCQ, and Friday's is an SU module. Before I know it, the long awaited holidays will finally be here! Just some happy thoughts that will keep me going.

And one advice to all of you, please do not look back at your notes and books after the paper is over. IT IS OVER. If you look back at one of my entries not to long ago, I mentioned that one of my weakness is that I tend to brood over things that are over, so from last semester, I told myself that I will never look back to check if anything it right or wrong. But thanks to Josh who started flipping the notes, it ignited my weakness, as he alarmed me to the fact that I had one question whereby I knew the right answer, but wrote the wrong answer. As usual, its the case of "If Only".

One Screwed, Few to Go

Yup, just finished my first paper this afternoon, Interactive Media. And omg, I think I kind of screwed it up. What a great way to start my semester 2 of exams.

For a start, this was a very strange module, as throughout the whole semester, the NM guys and I just could not understand what this module was teaching, as the lectures perhaps had more funny interactive pictures and youtube videos than there were words. So how to study? In the end we just relied on the tips from the lecturer, and found that hey, with her tips, there were actually quite a few substantial things to study. But one thing I noticed was that, everything that was worth studying, had nothing to do with 'Interactive Media' at all, and I commented to remy about this. But guess what, they exam made me eat my words. Questions we assumed were almost impossible to come out did come out, and it left us all stunt. Furthermore, only half of the tips were accurate. To think that the lecturer still told us before the paper that the questions were going to be 'easy' questions. Oh boy, in fact, there was a question whereby after the paper I went back to look at the notes, and I still couldn't really find the correct source or answer. And oh, what made it all worse, was that there were 5 questions, and all were compulsory. Bleah, wheres the freedom of choice!

I would rate this paper as one of the worse I have done so far in my short term at NUS, but you know what, I am not really feeling all that bad about it. Quite surprisingly indeed. For one, its because of the experience from last semester. Last semester I spotted alot of topics for the few modules I had, and to my surprise, almost all of 'spottings' came true. Many a times I flipped to the question paper and I knew that I had the answers to all of them, just that I needed time to reproduce them onto the answer sheet. In fact, by the end of the exams, I was happy that I could answer almost practically all my exam questions, except for one, that is the 'describe the picture' question for soci paper. I actually had only the last 10 minutes do that section, and I had to resort to leaving a space after every line just to fill up just one page. And guess what, I didn't do so well for all the rest of my modules, except soci.

Morale of the story, well from my point of view at least. Exams and the marking of scripts are really unpredictable. Who knows, the rubbish I wrote today may turn out well, but then again, it may all go down the dumps. So, don't fret over your papers now, because you will really never know whether it will turn out as expected. Then again, this is no excuse to not study. To the next paper, theories .....

Last Minute-ness

The only reason why I am blogging now, is because blogging is one of the many things which I feel like doing now, but not study. For the last few days, I haved played more games than I have played throughout the entire semester. Deep down inside I really know that I shouldn't, but somehow I just cannot bring myself to study. Although I must say that my progress is slowly improving. The only reason why my progress is improving is because I am left with less than 48 hours to my first paper, and am starting to feel a little worried. And I attribute all this to one personal characteristic of mine, my last minute-ness.

Since my primary school days, I have always been a very last minute person. Good or bad I don't know, although quite obviously its more bad. However as Reuben once told me before, sometimes its last minute work that produces the best work, and somehow or rather, I agree. Most, almost all, of my assignments, are usually last minute. No matter how early I start, it will all still pile up right at the end.

And its exactly the same for my examination studying. I had a total of 7 days to study. As I had found last semester's studying method quite good, I stuck to it. I started from the back few modules. I told myself I would complete my last 2 modules in 3 days. In the end, I took 6. I know this may sound like an excuse or just some baseless reasoning, but I really think that last minute-ness is in born, well in me at least. Yes, it can also be said to be a habit. But at least a habit has a chance of being kicked. Somehow or rather, this can't.

Happy Studying my friends!

Horrible Period

This is horrible. I really hate this time of the year, exams. However much I have said before in army that I miss studying, I am taking all that back. Don't get me wrong, I like school, the vibrancy, the fun, the activities, the friends, and sometimes even assignments. Yes, I do like assignments when they are fun to do, and especially so when at the end of the whole project, the final product just gives you a great sense of achievement. But why must exams play such a crucial role in education!

I can go on and on talking about whether or not exams are important, whether they are the fairest means of assessment and so on, but I guess many have already dwelved over this issue, and I believe till today there still isn't a conclusion or solution. And why is it that you somehow get the urge to play more games or sleep more during this period, despite knowing that time is running out on you. Somehow always during this period, I just want to get away from school life.

Today is already tuesday, my first paper is on Saturday, and I have only finished studying one module. And guess what, I SUed that module. I am sooo in trouble.

I am so gonna start taking my non-examinable modules from next semester onwards. 5 a semester seems to be killing me.

End of the Semester

And just like that, my second sem in NUS has come to an end. It was a real hectic end, rushing to hand in 2 major assignments on the last day. In fact, it was 4 assignments and 1 presentation all in the last week. 5 things to settle in 5 days! Just glad its all over.

Many people say that is crazy, and I agree it is, but from my point of view, it is not that bad. People fail to see that since mid term test until this final week, I had totally no assignments, tests or any presentations to settle. Its just that everything fell on the last week, and me being quite a last minute person, packed everything into the last hour. Furthermore, I think that I am one who very much prefers projects than essays. Think it is also due to my poly experience, where I remember I had 17 assignments, big and small ones, packed into one semester. Somehow or rather I made it through.

Well, this means that I can finally start on my revision, though still feeling the fatigue from my rushing of assignments. But just before I start to do that, maybe just a quick recap of some lessons learnt this semester.

1. Group assignments really make you see the bad and ugly side of people, and this is something really sad.



2. I have really seen how people can work their way into the good books of teachers, or maybe they call it 'diplomacy'. The scary thing is that I realised that it leaves everyone with no choice, but to jump onto the same bandwagon. Sad fact of life.



3. A total of 18 different MC projects also came to an end yesterday, and I just cannot believe how much we have actually gone through. Looking back, how much we have done for this 18 projects could be worth the same amount of work some other people have put into one semester of studying. So to solve my equation, in the context of the MC, its 1 NUS + MC commitments semester = 2 NUS semesters. Therefore, be proud of our achievements 27th :)
   



4. I tend to brood alot over things that are over and done with, or maybe more for assignments and results. Good and bad. Good being at least this shows that I am still concerned over my results, and bad, I just can't get the fact into me that they are already over and done with and I should just move on!
   



5. This semester made me realise how useful the skills and knowledge I have learnt in poly could prove to be. And I really think that this is gonna somehow make my life in the next few semesters a little easier to get by.
   



6. This semester has also proven that a certain hypothesis of mine holds true. Don't really know how to pen this thought of mine down here, but I will sum it up by saying that beauty and first impression not only works on the basis of human interaction, but also on your assignments and presentations. Thats where photoshop is king.

Well, I guess alot can actually be learnt from just 4 months of school. Can't really believe that exams are just one week away. Time to jump onto the mugging train. Gd luck to all for your exams!

And psssstt, future project group mate, cheer up. Sorry if the NM guys made you angry, we didn't mean any harm. We will buy PCK vcd and lunch for you next time ok!

One Down

Ok, I am going to eat my words from my previous post, again, and have decided to post, just one day after my previous post. Quite remarkable considering my post rate is now like once every 2-3 weeks. There are just some things which I think I have no place but here to rant and let out.

Finished my 2219 presentation today, and it was pretty fine. Once again, I would think that it could have been better. Mike did fine, but I think he stuttered pretty much. I kind of expected it as he had said before that he is not very fine with presentation, and tends to stutter. In fact, when he said he needed to rely on his powerpoint notes, I already had my worries. And it was only after the presentation that made me think of, why didn't I offer to do more of the presenting.

Not saying I am very good at presentations or what, but I think since my poly days I have had a rather fair amount of presentation experience, and had even gone through a communication skills for business module in poly. Therefore, I tend to be able to present without notes, as just by viewing what is on the slides, most of the details just come rather automatically to me.

I guess what held me back from offering to do more of the presenting, was because he was already compromising by sacrificing whatever powerpoint work he had done to use mine, and he also commented that he was worried he did not contribute much to the project, so he wanted to do the presenting. On my part, as mentioned in a previous post, I was also compromising, and taking into consideration that I should put more trust in my group mates, I allowed it to happen.

This may sound a little on the 'rude' and 'authoratative' side, but I think from now, I will start volunteering for presentations, both presenting and preparing the slides. Since I have had experience in poly doing all these stuff, so why not contribute. I always believe that presentations are very important as it is a very crucial ending point to all the work you have put into your project.

Well, like mentioned, it was not all that bad either. In fact, I am rather glad our tutor actually came up to us at the end to say how he was impressed at the creativity of our slides, website and ideas. Hard work paid off again. Hmm, for now, let me brood on it for a while more, before I get back to my 4 other assignments.

Hell Week

For those of you who have been consistently visiting my very dead blog, yes do not rub your eyes, because I am finally adding another entry today. After my very long absence, I have decided to post an entry, although I think it may be very long before I post another one after this.

I have been very busy lately. Arts club stuff has more or less ended, but then all the school work is piling up and I am having some difficulty coping. I don't know whether it is a blessing or not, but all my assignment deadlines fall in the final week of school term. The blessing being I could concentrate on my arts club commitments without affecting my school work, but then now that all the deadlines have come together, I am in for a hell of ride next week.

Yup, today is Sunday, and here I am in clubroom. I was telling Mike just now how it feels like the army days, booking in and feeling miserable on a Sunday night. I felt the exact same feeling just now on my way to school, with my bag full of clothes, knowing that I would not be going back for a few days, and knowing that hell awaits me. I have one presentation and 4 different reports due in the coming week. Someone save me. My friends are all saying that they have finally completed their assignments, and can use next week as an extra reading week, but here I am rushing my assignments till the very last day of school.

Oh, and I just wanna add, that I am so not comfortable with group projects. Didn't really want to use the word hate, as I guess it hasn't reached that stage. The reason for having group projects is for everyone to have a fair share of contribution and workload, so that a rather 'big and heavy scale' project would not be too taxing on the individuals. However, it doesn't seem to be that way for most of my group projects. I find myself putting in alot for group projects, but in saying this, I am not saying that my group mates did not do anything. It is just that I tend to put in more effort than I should, as I always want to make sure that the project is up to standard. Don't know whether this is good or bad, but sometimes I just don't really know the exact point to stop and step back. I think part of this feeling I have came about because of a bad experience with a group project last semester.

Hmm, I still very much prefer individual work. You don't have to go through the 'not very fool proof' and 'not very fair' peer evaluation system, you don't have to find that 1% chance of a lifetime where everyone is finally free to meet, you don't have to compromise with what everybody ones, you don't have to see the ugly side of some people, and you get marks according to how much you have really done. Then again, I may die if I leave everything to individual work, because I don't have the group mates to actually push and pressure me.

Oh, and if you're reading this and may have a chance of doing a group project with me in the future, don't worry. I am just ranting. I will still be nice to you, promise :)