First day of official lessons! :D

Today’s lessons was just purely on IDEA (Innovation Design Enterprise in Action). It was actually quite fun.

Well, we were suppose to have lesssons straight from 09:00 to 12:00. Lunch from 12:00 to 13:00 and lessons again from 13:00 to 15:00. In the end, the lecturer, Mr Joseph, completed his presentation by 10:15. Hahah! We had 2 hours and 45 minutes of break! So, me, Shi Min, Jericho, Raudhah and Joevin had an early lunch and we went to Moberly in our school to play pool! Fun fun!

And during our lesson after lunch, we had to brainstorm and present our ideas at the end of the lesson. It worked out pretty fine.

Anyway, I think I’ll stop here. My rashes are getting really irritating if I move too much. :/

We are not stupid.

Finally I got a chance to update my blog! (:

All right, I’ll start from Friday. On Friday morning, we went to Sungei Buloh for a walk. Well, I wasn’t very interested as it’s not the Singapore Zoo or the Night Safari where you get to see the really exotic animals such as the tigers, zebras, snakes, crocodiles, etc. In addition, I was feeling very hungry as our guide kept relating everything to food! Hahah. He’s a very entertaining guide though and we’ll get to meet him again for our camp at Kota Tinggi this coming Tuesday.

The presentation for the recycling project in the afternoon was pretty screwed. In the end, it was the 4 of us AGAIN — me, Shi Min, Jericho and Joevin. :X And, I wasn’t very satisfied with my presentation after listening to what the other clusters have to say. I mean, my cluster was the first one to present as we had to leave earlier. I thought we just have to give a very brief presentation, introducing our posters and we don’t have to go into details. So, I gave a very brief explanation on what was on the poster I was presenting. Oh wells. Frankly speaking, I don’t think we’ll win. :X

The thing I was look forward to the whole morning was SAILING! Woohoo! Sailing was totally awesome!! We get to be on the speedboat and we were brought around on the sea at really fast speeds! I totally love it! If only I have my own speedboat and license! Anyway, when it was my turn to try out sailing, I asked the senior I was paired with if we can capsize on purpose. And he said yes!! Cheers! I love capsizing in the middle of the sea! I think it’s a must to try capsizing when you’re doing watersports in the sea.

I enjoyed myself greatly at the sailing session. I’m actually considering sailing as one of the choices for my CCA. I mean, I’ve confirmed that I want to join the Student Exchange Club and I won’t change my mind on that. However, I want to join a sports CCA too. So, the current choices I’ve considered are: swimming, sailing, wakeboarding, cycling and tennis. Well, I have plenty of time to make my decision.

Yesterday, I went to Huiling’s place as I have absolutely nothing to do at home and no one to go out with! Huiling’s mom was very nice and prepared some food for me. Thanks a lot! (:

Today, I went to National Library with Huiling, Tuan Anh and Bu Fan. I have nothing to study YET. So, I printed out the list of modules for the first year and started reading up a little. Hehe. 

Anyway, tomorrow, I have to make a trip to Pei Hwa to meet Miss Krishnan as I have to redo the personal statement for the Lee Kuan Yew All-Rounder Excellence Award with her. >< Sigh. I’m thinking, why didn’t they show Miss Krishnan the personal statement earlier? So, I made a wasted trip down to Pei Hwa to sign the documents. Dang. Waste my transport money and time. >< The personal statement is sooooo difficult to write! I really don’t know how to write it well. ): Oh wells. And after going to Pei hwa, I have to go to SP for my group meeting for the camp performances and cheer. I hope everyone will be there.

Oh yeah. One more thing I want to say. I heard from Huiling that there are people who say that Pei Hwa students are stupid because the top 2 students chose to go to polytechnic and not junior college. And those 2 people are Shi Min and I. Okay. That’s very insulting. Hello? Please mind what you say. Can’t people just STOP stereotyping? I mean, Polytechnic is NOT a place to dump people who can’t go to Junior Colleges and it is also NOT a very slack education institute. Like, come on man, face it. We are not the only low pointers choosing to go to polytechnics. Anyway, just mind what you say about people, especially addressing the 2 people as Pei Hwa students in general. We are not stupid. We gave careful thoughts to our decision and decided it finally. It’s not like we chose to retake O’s right? dang. If that’s the case, call me retarded. I’ll probably agree with you.

Quick update

I’ve got a recycling project to complete by tomorrow. So, I’ll just give a quick update.

Yesterday, we went to a recycling plant and it was rather boring actually. That explains the project I have to complete with my group. We had a camp briefing and we have to think of 2 performances and a group cheer. After that, my group had to go for our sports session — Muay Thai. It was fun (and violent)! I love the kicking part.

Today we went to ACRES to do some voluntary work. And I did gardening. :/ Pulling out weeds. Really dislike plants! They irritate sensitive skins like mine! ><

Anyway, we’re going to Sungei Buloh tomorrow and also SAILING! Whee! Looking forward to it.

2nd day!

Today was SUPERDUPERUBER FUN!

Together with my group (B) and group A,  I completed the Forest Adventure course! It was located at Bedok Reservoir and the Forest Adventure course is actually some high ropes activity that you have to complete on your own. No belayers, no supporters. It’s really cool. It’s like you connect the stuff to the ropes by yourself. Just ensure that you’re attached to something at all times. There were a total of 4 ziplines. So, we get to do flying fox a total of 4 times! In addition, there wasn’t any instructors at the flying fox station itself. Just attach everything properly and we’re ready to go. (: I was the second person to attempt this whole rope course. Feels great to be in front!

After the rope course was dragon boating. (: It got really wet! We had some mini race and my team did great! 

Tomorrow, we’re going to the recycling plant and we’ll have our camp briefing too. A few of us decided that we’ll wear a green shirt tomorrow. hahaha. I might want to stay back with Shi Min to check out the library for books after school tomorrow. Anyway, hope it’ll be another fun day!

A New Life at Singapore Polytechnic

Today marks the very beginning of my life in Singapore Polytechnic! I was really excited! Anyway, before I continue about what I did at SP today, I’ll talk about yesterday.

I had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do yesterday. I purposely woke up late in the morning (10:00). I washed up and read the papers really really slowly. Then I had my breakfast. After breakfast, I watched the Korean Medical Drama (New Heart) as I was left with the last 3.5 episodes. Then I had lunch. After lunch, I finished watching the medical drama. Having nothing to do, I went to take a nap at 15:30. I set my alarm to ring at 17:30. However, when it rung, I purposely continue to sleep till 19:00. I took a shower and watched the first part of Collateral which was showing on Channel 5. And halfway through, I had dinner then I continued watching.

Like, zomg? Couch potato lifestyle is really NOT suitable for me! It’s like too slack and boring. Zzzz… I wonder how people survive being a couch potato forever. :X

I used the computer later on and went to bed at 00:45, knowing that I had to wake up early in the morning. However, I couldn’t sleep the whole night!!! I listened to piano music which will enable me to relax and I’ll fall asleep by the 3rd or 4th piece. But it didn’t work last night. >< I started using the computer for 30 minutes at 03:00 and went back to bed. I tossed and turned, feeling so warm on my bed. >< I think I only managed to get a light sleep from 04:45 to 05:30. Then from 05:40 to 06:30. It sucks when you can’t sleep. ><

Anyway, I was glad that it was 06:30. It just means I don’t have to toss and turn on my bed.  

I left home at 07:00 and met Shi Min at Outram Park station at 07:50. We were at SP by 08:00 and we were suppose to reach at 08:30 for registration.

Today, we found out that there are only 3 students accepted to the Biomedical Science course at SP through Direct Polytechnic Admission (DPA). That’s so cool! And Shi Min and I are in the same cluster — 3. Unfortunately, for the grouping, I’m in group B while she’s in group A. Let me explain a little about these 2 types of groupings. The 5 clusters (by numbers) are used for sports, community services and company visits while the 4 groupings (by letters) are used for the Forest Adventure, Dragon boating, Camp and Gungei Buloh trip.

Anyway, Shi Min and I spoke to a few of the directors and they’re all very nice and positive. We got to tour around the campus too. The most boring thing for today will be the training on the internet services available and creating those email and library accounts. Haha.

Oh yeah, we got to know the activities for the next few days! Here it goes:

3 Feb (tomorrow): Forest Adventure and dragon boating (HAHA! DB! Kind of guessed they’ll make us do that!)

4 Feb: Visit to recycling plants, Recycling project, briefing for camp, sports (for my group, we’ll be playing Muay Thai. What’s that??)

5 Feb: Community service with SAVH, ACRES & NEA and completion of poster

6 Feb: Visit to Sungei Buloh, presentation of project, sports (my group will be doing SAILING!! Woohoo!!!)

10 – 12 Feb: Overseas camp at Kota Tinggi, Mawai, Johor

16 Feb – 14 Mar: Lessons and activities (General Elective Modules will be Effective Speaking Skills, Understanding Data, Essentials of Marketing, IDEAS) School will start at 09:00 and end at 15:00 from Monday to Friday, except Wednesday. There’s no school on Wednesdays. hahaha!

Anyway, I’m interested in certain things in SP.

•  I’m going to join at least 2 CCAs. I will join Student Exchange Club for sure! Hahaha. And maybe the swimming team.
• I want to apply for Diploma-Plus Certificate Programmes and obtain a Certificate in Phlebotomy.
• Volunteer for the Singapore Youth Olympic Games 2010 and the Singapore Grand Prix for the next 3 years I’m in SP.

Oh yeah, after the tour, I’ve found some potential mugging places in the campus! The library is quite good as they have a hell lot of course-related books. Some books are not even available in NUS! hahah. The Moberly is a nice place to mug at too. There’s a garden that you can sit there and study. In addition, there’s also a cafe there. Actually, I think the Moberly at SP is one of the coolest place! Click on this link to check it out: http://www.sp.edu.sg/SPweb/appmanager/home/default?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=SP_CS_Life_Moberly
Shi Min and I bought a SP jacket for ourselves at the Moberly too! Hahaha. Maybe soon, we’ll purchase the SP shirts.

Starting from yesterday, I’m no longer entitled to student prices for public transport. ): Today, a trip from my home to SP (which includes a 10-minute bus trip to Hougang and a 16-station train journey) cost me a total of 2 bucks. That’s like way too crazy!! >< Oh wells. I guess I just need to get used to it.

Tomorrow is a new day with great activities! Can’t wait for tomorrow. And I want to SLEEP WELL tonight.

The results are out!

Woohoo!! The GCE ‘O’ Level 2008 results are out today!! After all that waiting, it’s finally here.

I went to school not knowing  what to expect. I spent my time yesterday trying to predict what I’ll achieve. So, my initial prediction after doing the exam papers, my best L1R5 and L1R4 is 9 and 6 respectively. And, my worst for L1R5 and L1R4 is 15 and 11 respectively. However, there was still a possibility that I screw it up as there’s such a thing called moderation.

Shi Min called me at lunchtime, telling me that Miss Lo wants to meet both of us at 13:40 at the general office. When we met her with Alastair, she told us that we’ve been selected to be interviewed by the PH Times students and maybe the press too as we did RELATIVELY well. At that moment, I was glad to hear that I didn’t screw up. But still, ‘relatively well’ didn’t sound very good. :X

Later on, when we joined the rest in the hall, the percentage distinction and pass for each subject was revealled. Next, the students that scored 8 distinctions were shown on the screen — Desmond Khoo and Koh Shi Min. Cheers man!! And then, the page changed. 7 Distinctions. Zomg. Ng Hui Shan. Like, omg! Haha. I was the only 7 distinctions holder. hahaha. But I was totally shocked. The most distinctions that I’ve ever achieved was 5.

Next, the top 6 students of the school were asked to receive their certificates from the Principal. 6th was Lois Poh!!! Cheers!  5th was Desmond Khoo! (((: 4th was Christopher Phua!! He’s really awesome! Totally great improvement! 3rd was Seah Jundi! 2nd was me and I didn’t even expect that. :X 1st is of course, Koh Shi Min!!! Brilliant!! Well, the school did great actually. There was a huge improvement.

So, here’s my results:
English – A1
Chinese – A1
Combined Humanities – A2
Mathematics – A1
Additional Mathematics – A1
Biology – A1
Chemistry – A2
Physics – B3

L1R5 – 7
L1R4 – 5

So, I’m very satisfied with my results. Unexpected, but great. hahah. Now, I’m just looking forward to the start of school at Singapore Polytechnic!! (:

Tomorrow I’m going to work as an operator at the zoo for the first time. I hope it’ll be good. hahaha.

Just stop it.

Hmm… what a day! Just 2 weeks after our preliminary examinations, we are given 2 mock exams, one yesterday and one today. Basically, I was feeling rather good today (before my social studies mock exam when I didn’t think about it). I received the rest of my results today and calculated my L1R4 and L1R5. I did better than I expected. I mean, this is the preliminary examinations. The exam is supposed to be more difficult than the actual ‘O’ level exam. With such an unprepared me who has problems trying to study properly, I didn’t expect myself to do better than my mid-year examination. Generally, I’ve improved. However, for subjects like Chemistry and Physics, I didn’t do that well. I’ll just state the grade for my subjects here:

English – A2
Chinese – A1
A. Math – A1
E. Math – A1
Biology – A1
Chemistry – A2
Physics – B4
Combined humanities (Geography + Social Studies) – C5

L1R4 – 6
L1R5 – 11

Looking at this, I’m starting to doubt that the preliminary examination isn’t a good gauge for the Os. I don’t know. Some teachers said the exam is actually very easy while others said it’s slightly above Os standard. I’m confused. I need to know how I should study for the rest of the days before the Os. Oh wells, I just follow my way. I’ll work on my Physics because it is very possible to score a distinction for Physics. Tuan Anh is going to help me with that I think. Thanks a lot!

There’s a question that I’ve been wondering about: Why do people like to irritate/annoy/disturb me?? I have enough of it already, you know? There’s a limit to my patience. You know what I dislike being called. You know what I dislike being described as. Why do you still say/do all these on purpose?? Just to annoy the hell out of me? Is that really that enjoyable? I’m sick of it. I don’t like it. I’ve repeated ‘stop it’ so many times and it’s often ignored. Please, by doing such irritating stuff, you’re making my impression of you become worst. I don’t like doing that, but that’s a normal reaction. Put yourself in my shoes. I really hope all these will stop. Just stop it.

Anyway, I’m going to relax a bit tomorrow. I’m going for a swim (hopefully) with my friends. It better be a good swim. No rain. No other problems. I just want to play some sports! I think if everything goes well, I’ll swim like nobody’s business.

Sigh. Everything better go on well. Stop all the extra problems. I have enough to think about.

Started off pretty sad, ended off pretty good.

For some reasons, I was pretty sad at school today. I guess I’m still upset over the fact that I’ve been getting rejected by my friends and worst, my study buddies. It’s getting really annoying now because at this point in time when studying is very important, I just can’t find a single soul to study with me. My study buddies, basically, disappeared. I get all sorts of reasons for it. It’s annoying because I called so many times trying to contact them and can’t. When I finally do, I figured that I get rejected because of their reasons. Then I ended up wasting my time and money on them. I mean, if you don’t want to study with me, then just say it, right? Why make me call repeatedly for weeks and make yourself apologise so many times because you know you aren’t going to join me? In fact, the number of times you apologise will be the number of times I get upset with myself for being so stupid trying to contact people who will say ‘no’ to studying out with me. So, basically, I have LOST all my study buddies. What a silly thing to happen when it’s only 35 days left to the Os. In addition, I figured that my supposedly ‘friends’ aren’t asking me to study with them anymore. I figured that they have their own little study group that doesn’t include me. What the hell has this world come to? I’m being so idiotic here because you know what? I feel like total crap now. Well, just imagine this happening to you. I have enough of “Sorry, … …”.

So, you guessed it, I got rejected again today. So, I went to study alone at Starbucks. I had a pretty nice time there ALONE. The weather wasn’t too bad out there cause I always occupy the table outdoors. I ordered a venti java chip frappuncino with whipped cream blended in it. I think it’s probably this beverage made me feel better. I finished what I planned to finish — geography essay, english planning and biology. Great. I was happy. So, my study plan went pretty well today.

That’s about it for today. I’m annoyed at the moment.

So many things happened! :o

5 hours, not enough?

Yesterday, as mentioned, I found a study mentor, Germaine, and we planned a study plan for me. 5 hours of studying on Saturday, 4 hours on other days. Germaine managed to convince me that that was enough. Today, asked others for their opinions, Dory said that it should be double! Woah. 10 hours?? :O Then others said that it’s “Study SMART, not study HARD.” I knew that long ago. I’m just worried that 5 hours is too little. I tried to ask Mrs Lim to give me advice on that and she said that she can’t as it depends on different individuals. Well, so, is that enough?

Best Class Award

Guess what? My class, 4E1, won the Best Class Award! Cheers! 200 bucks for the class. We’ll probably use the money to have a good celebration after Os!

Results

Over the past two days and today, I’ve received my preliminary examination results for English Paper 2, A. Math, Chemistry and Physics. Good and bad.
English Paper 2. There was improvement actually. A huge improvement for the part on summary. I scored 22/25 for summary and 13/25 for comprehension. So, out of 50, I scored 35, which is 70%. A2.
A. Math. I’m actually rather satisfied with my A. Math but it could’ve been much better without those annoying careless mistakes. I scored 76/80 for Paper 1 and 91/100 for Paper 2. Overall, 44% and 56% respectively, I scored 92.8%. A1.
Chemistry. It was terrible. Lots of careless mistakes and it could’ve been way better! I scored only 31/40 for Paper 1 and 55/80 for Paper 2. Overall, I scored only 71.7%, A2.
Physics. Totally atrocious, but I kind of expected myself to fail. I didn’t. I scored 28/40 for Paper 1 and 44/80 for Paper 2. Overall, I scored 60%. B4.
Anyway, I have more papers to receive next week. I hope I’ll be mentally and physically strong enough to take it.

After school today…

I was extremely tired and exhausted. I felt like my brain was asleep and dead. I had no one to have lunch with and no one to study with. What a disappointment. So, after chatting with Gena for awhile at the LRT platform, I’ve decided that I’ll study at the McDonalds (newly-renovated) opposite my house. I was glad that it wasn’t packed and I had a good seat. I looked through my Chemistry paper, checked the errors and did corrections. I finished everything. I started packing up…

I wrote a love letter. The first one I’ve ever written, but not for someone I know and like.

I started packing up then a woman who just took the seat next to me said, “Excuse me, can you help me write a letter? I don’t know how to write.” She said that in Mandarin. So, I said, “sure, no problem.” After one moment, I was like, oh shit, I can’t remember how to write Chinese words very well! >< I told her that and she said that I’ll write in English. She wanted me to write in BIG handwritings cause the recipient has some problems with his eyesight. It took me awhile to practise writing BIG words. Then she started. She continued speaking in Mandarin. That’s when I figured out that I was going to translate everything she said in Mandarin, into English! Hahah. The recipient is actually an Indian guy from India who is in the Singapore prison at the moment. Basically the letter included things like, “I miss you very much!”, “I am very worried about you.”, “I am worried that when you return to India next year and meet up with your family, you will forget me since you don’t need me anymore.”, “I will love you forever no matter what happens.” and “I will wait for you forever.” hehehe. Of course it included other things as well. As she told me what to write, she told me more about that guy and her too. :X She’s about at least about 35++ years’ old actually. :X Finally, she wanted me to draw something cute in the letter. I didn’t know what to draw. Haha. At last, the letter was done! *phew* She asked me to write the address and stuff.

Then complaining that she hasn’t receive a letter from him this month and said that he say he will write to her once a month. She showed me the letter that stated that and confirmed with me if that was true. The letter stated, “I can only write a letter a month to you.” Well, I told her that that means that he can only write her a letter once a month and not twice and stuff. But it does not necessarily mean that he will write to you. She still kept trying to convince herself that the guy will write to her every month and he didn’t. Oh wells.

Done with the letter. What now? Text messages??

When I was packing up the rest of my stuff and wanted to tell her that I’m leaving, she asked me to help her send a text message to a girl from the Philippines who is that guy’s ex-girlfriend. So, I helped her type the message which mentioned about that guy saying that the relationship between them have ended and he just misses his daughter. Etc. Once I’m done with that 4-page text message, she looked at it and wanted me to help her send a message to an Indonesian girl. She said she wants to find out what’s that girl’s relationship with another guy. Gosh. She made me scold the girl in the message! >< She made me scold that girl ‘bitch’. ): Anyway, the last few sentences for the message gave me a shock! She wanted me to write to her to warn her not to harass that other guy because she is his WIFE, if not she’ll be sorry for it. :O She is his wife? She loves that other Indian guy in the prison? Gosh. This is so messed up. :X Oh wells, My ‘job’ was just to send the messages. Once I was done with that, I told her I need to go and she let me go. haha.

Last surprise, I think

When I reached home, I saw a letter on the coffee table. Hmmm, an envelope with MANY STAMPS. Pretty attractive too. hahaha. I was hoping that it’s for me. xP And true enough, it was for me! It was a surprise letter from Jake! Woah. It was very very surprising. hahahaha. It has a card for the Independence Day of Ukraine. That’s very cool. Thank you so much, Jake!

Well, I guess I’ll just stop here. What a long entry today.

Different approaches. Which is better?

This morning started off with feedbacks from Mrs Ali regarding our Social Studies source-based questions. I was listening attentively and copied down notes. After Social Studies was supposedly English lesson. However, Miss Krishnan wasn’t at school. So, Miss Lo took over her lesson and she gave us a lecture. It was harsh and pretty demoralising, although some of the things she mentioned were true. Her lecture left the class really quiet and she left the class with lots of disappointment.

Mrs Lim, on the other hand, was extremely positive. She came in during Chemistry lessons and told us inspiring stuff. She did her best to make us feel better. I don’t know about our Chemistry results. Our results have not reached our targeted MSG yet. However, she was happy. She believed in us. She gave us her support.

Two teachers, two different approaches. The negative approach and the positive approach. Which one is better? Apparently the positive approach! I was really grateful for how Mrs Lim sees the whole thing. I mean, I really don’t think that negativity and scolding is going to help at all. It causes us to panic, freak out and for some, break down. What will help now is by going through the mistakes with us, giving us support, believe in us and we will feel better.

Anyway, during the past weeks, I’ve been wondering how to come up with a good study plan for my Os for the remaining time. It was really silly. I’m so not a ‘follow the schedule’ kind of person! I just needed a plan that will work. Today, I panicked cause I still didn’t have a plan! So, I suddenly thought of the idea of having a study mentor. I found someone who’s willing to help me and I’m really grateful for that. That person is Germaine (from Amsterdam!). It’s really cool. He helped me a bit with planning out the subjects to study and stuff. He was really comforting and convincing. Well, now, my plan is out and I am pretty confident that I can follow it cause I have a mentor now! hahaha. Really, thank you very much! (:

All right. Now I’m sleepy, tired and irritated by the eczema. So, I’ll (happily) go to bed. Have a good day/night everyone!