Pharmaceutical Chemistry

I have more good news to share.

I just received my overall exam results, which are pretty much the average of my Promo results and the results of previous tests (although the former carries a greater weightage). Economics has been bumped up two grades from a D to a B, largely thanks to my better performance in the previous tests as well as moderation (a few marks were added to all scripts) due to the exam's difficulty.

Chemistry is also up from a B to an A which I solely owe to moderation; as I had mentioned previously, only 30% of the cohort passed it so the addition of bonus marks became a necessity. However, Bio's been downgraded to a B since I didn't do that well in the previous examinations. But in the end, I think it was a fair trade.

While I still look towards my Promotional Exam results as the more accurate indicator of my academic standing, the difference between these raw scores and my final averaged-out grades has huge implications. Thanks to the changes, I now qualify for H3 Pharmaceutical Chemistry without the need to appeal for it.

And it gets better.

My grades are actually good enough for me to take not one but two H3 subjects simultaneously! Jing Yew's been egging me on to add H3 Proteomics (study of proteins) to my workload, but frankly I doubt I am capable of mastering the exceedingly difficult syllabi of two H3s concurrently. As readers of my Runescape blog would know, I am still a slacker at heart at the end of the day despite my nerdy disposition and deep interest in the sciences.

There is, however, a not-so-small caveat. All interested applicants of any of the H3 subjects have to attend a few lectures at the start of next year, before sitting for a selection test to determine if they really are H3 material. I only heard about the selection tests during the H3 talk yesterday, so it was disheartening to suddenly learn that there was yet another obstacle between me and the subject I've been looking forward to taking during the whole of this year.

It'll all boil down to hard work in the end. I'll spare you the false humility crap and say that I really am smart enough to take on the accelerated content of Pharmaceutical Chem, but as with almost any other A-Level subject, that simply isn't enough. I also need to have the discipline to devote enough effort to excel in both the preliminary test and the final A-Level paper at the end of the year (assuming I clear the test). It's going to be a rough year ahead.

Mood: Excited, anxious

To Worry List

It's cool how all of my anxieties start to disappear one by one as the school holidays approach.

As I have already brought up in previous posts, my Promotional Examinations were out of the way by early October. This was followed by the submission of my PW group's Written Report - a 3000 word document we've been working on and perfecting since July - just last Thursday.

The eve of the submission date (last Wednesday) was horrible. The day started crappily enough when I woke up with a bad cold, which lessons in air-conditioned classrooms and lecture theatres seemed to aggravate.

Home was no better, as I was too tied up with the final edits of the Written Report to take a nap and repay my growing sleep debt. The content itself had more or less been finalised, but some last minute changes to the report's formatting and annex, as well as a Chinese tuition session, kept me working non-stop from the moment I returned home until around midnight. But that's all behind me now. Joey was able to get two copies of the 140 odd paged document (we had a hell lot of research in our annex) printed out on time for submission. I didn't allow all that rushing to compromise the Written Report's quality either.

And after yesterday, the Chinese A-Level paper is now also one less thing to worry about. I need at least an S (or Subpass) to not be obligated to study the subject for another year. The A-Level paper was more difficult than the one I sat for during the Promos, but even so, my final score shouldn't fall that drastically.

Oddly enough, ignorance saved me for the essay component. I chose to do the narrative as the topic was pretty standard. Translated roughly from Mandarin, the story I had to incorporate into my essay goes something like this:

I board a train and notice a man with a black suitcase standing right next to me. The train reaches another station; the man exits the train... but leaves his suitcase behind. I then suspect that the man is actually a terrorist.

Now there were two ways I could've gone about doing that. I could've made out the guy in the train to be an actual terrorist, or simply write about how I was mistaken and that the suitcase was actually harmless. Shawn later told me that the latter option was the only valid direction the story could take. He pointed out that the paper's instructions required us to write the title "A Misunderstanding" at the top of our answer sheet, which I had copied down blindly without bothering to translate for its meaning.

Miraculously however (if a 50-50 shot can be counted as miraculous), I had picked the correct choice and wrote about how the suitcase only contained some sheets of paper... but that was only because I didn't know how to write the word "bomb" in Mandarin!

But before I made that triumphant trip back home to indulge in hours of uninterrupted Runescape and TF2, I headed off to the school library with Cheng Heng where Jeannel waited for us. She had brought this stack of greeting cards meant for our CCA seniors and we were supposed to write encouraging messages for them as they prepare for their A-Levels.

Admittedly, I didn't know most of them very well, so I had to content myself with paraphrasing the generic motivational tripe Cheng Heng and Shawn had already written. Half way through the stack, I realised it would've been a lot more efficient to simply scribble "and Tim" next to where the two of them had signed off their messages. Jeannel somehow managed to voice her disapproval in-between her giggles though. I am so full of win.

Mood: Incredibly relieved

Keel Dem All!

I went out with Titus yesterday to Sim Lim Square to get Team Fortress 2.

He's been promising me that he'd eventually get the game since the start of July, but had always kept putting it off for reasons ranging from examinations to general busyness in school. His latest excuse concerned money, or more accurately, a lack of it.

He's a huge David Archuleta fan and fairly recently spent a chunk of his cash pre-ordering his latest album. I've been jeering at and teasing him about it for over a month now, until last week when Titus suddenly announced that he was fina-friggin-lly going to buy TF2. He asked if I could accompany him to the video game store, and I was so ecstatic about the news that I actually made the decision to pay for the game for him.

In retrospect, I probably should've done this sooner as that would've spared the poor guy from my tirade of insults (which mostly involved putting his and "Archie's" sexuality in question, but the less you know the better) during the past month, but what the hey. TF2! Phwoar!

It gets better though. As if the prospect of finally fighting alongside Titus in the various TF2 maps wasn't enough, my dad gave me $100 during the trip to the store so that I could get a game of my own. Score! Definitely more than I had bargained for! Not daring to push my luck though, I still paid up the $32.90 for TF2 out of my own pocket, and returned the $45 worth of change after buying myself Resident Evil 5.

Oh, and I hate to bring up an old rant, but I've got $200 worth of unsold Fun O'Rama tickets that's been lying in my drawer since last Wednesday. The $100 from dad and my $32.90 could've gone a long way in helping me get rid of them, but excluding the school fees, I can't see myself spending a single cent any more than I have to on my bully of a school. I find it very disconcerting that I'll be handed yet another $200 stack of tickets to sell before the term ends.

Mood: Excited, happy (for a change)

Promo Results

I received my Promo results on Friday.

General Paper - 63 - B

Chinese - 60 - B

Chemistry - 67.5 - B

Biology - 73.5 - A

Mathematics - 67 - B

Economics - 50 - D

So I am stuck with a garden of Bs. I'll admit that the B for Chinese is a bleeding miracle (I jumped five friggin' grades) that I am simply overjoyed with, but I can't say I'm very pleased with my overall results.

Students have the option of taking a H3 subject next year, on the condition that they meet certain criteria; they need a B average and an A for the corresponding H2 subject. I've barely cleared the first criterion, but I was intending to take H3 Chemistry and only have a B for it.

It's possible for students who don't quite make the cut to make an appeal. I'd say my odds are fairly good since the Chem paper was stupidly difficult this time, with a 70% fail (a score below 45) rate. But since the initial plan was to get my straight As and completely clear the H3 requirements, a "maybe" or even a "probably" with regards to the appeal getting through is far from satisfactory.

But I guess it won't matter in the end as long as I'm able to take the additional subject. It'll open up a lot of opportunities in the year ahead, and even without the straight As this year, the Promo results are certainly decent enough for me to build on. Judging by the gradual but consistent improvements in my grades during the whole year, it'll only be a matter of time before I get that flawless report card.

Mood: Disappointed, hopeful

Post-Promos Events

To all you grammar whores out there reading this, I have a question.

Is "The Chronicles of Me" grammatically correct, or should it be "The Chronicles of I"? I've been pondering about that for a while, but never actually brought it up until today.

Anyway, the Promos ended on Wednesday, so it was back to school on Thursday and Friday. Lessons have yet to resume; the school has chosen to pre-occupy us with a series of inter-class games... which was met with a less than enthusiastic response. I cleared the first two rounds of Human Checkers because the other classes' teams didn't show up, before losing to Jeannel's group during the third. Walkovers for the win!

Perhaps the silliest thing about this post-Promos event is that most of my time was spent waiting for the rounds to start, as opposed to actually taking part in them. It probably would've helped if I had signed up to participate in more games, but I think the school would've been better off scrapping the entire thing and allowing us to go home early. That would've also saved the Student Council members a lot of trouble, since they were the ones who were tasked with organising it.

But that isn't to say that these two days were entirely useless though. I sat through the graduation service of my seniors on Thursday morning, and met up with Mrs Choong for my PW consultation on Friday to discuss my group's Written Report.

Much to my chagrin however, the school has also made use of this period for the official launch of Fun O' Rama 2010, the school's biennial (I know I mistakenly said annual in a previous post; please ignore that) fund-raiser fun fair. Next week, they'll be handing out $400 worth of Fun O' Rama coupons to each student so that we can sell them during the November to December break.

Presumably, the real work will start when school re-opens in January, when we have to begin the arduous tasks of setting up our booths (it's two per class), collecting the necessary materials and wares to build them and stock them up with stuff to sell, as well as hunting down as many sponsors as possible to pay for the goods.

The school's recognised that the upcoming shed-load of work the carnival involves can be quite disheartening, so they've tried to doll it up for the students by dedicating a Powerpoint slide on what everyone will be getting out of the fair. Obviously, more money for the school was mentioned as it was too prominent an objective to be conveniently left out. I was expecting another rambling on the oh-so-wonderful joys of Service Learning, but they were a little more creative on this occasion.

Apparently, Fun O' Rama will help foster the entrepreneurial spirit within us. Win.

And that's not all. Just as the carnival's namesake suggests, the school has also assured us that we'll be having fun organising the event. Awesome.

All that work.

To have fun.

Any ACJC students here see the glaring irony? Or have you, overcome with outrage due to their attempt to pull a Tom Sawyer on you, already spontaneously combusted and are unable to type a response?


Mood: Indignant, irriated

Aftermath

Whew. The Promos are finally over.

I sat for my last paper, Chinese, just yesterday and am now enjoying a two day break; Tuesday and Wednesday are still exam dates, but I don't take any of the subjects being tested. I'm not quite home-free as there is still the Chinese A-Levels and PW in November to worry about, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

The Bio Olympiad, however, is still something to be legitimately concerned with. The internal selection test is next Wednesday and I have fallen way behind in my preparations. I was doing fine until the week-long break some time in September, when I shifted my focus to the Promos. Prior to that, I was covering an average of one chapter of the 1200+ page textbook every two to three days.

I'm not going to blame burn out from the Promos for my current inaction despite me having the entire day off. I continued to clock up quite a few hours of Runescape and Team Fortress 2 even when I was still smack in the middle of the exam period, so there is really no good reason to account for my current lassitude.

In all likelihood, discouragement from being forced to abandon my Olympiad preparations for so long and the usual culprit of laziness are the reasons for my lethargic funk; whatever the problem may be, I hope I snap out of it soon. Seven days left. Damn.

Anyway, for the curious, I've listed below how each of my papers went. I don't have the results yet and probably won't until the following week, but I can still make a very rough gauge of what my grades will be like based on the papers' difficulty.

The General Paper - Finished everything on time and I have a good feeling about the essay component. I'm hoping for an A, but you just can't tell with this particular subject due to the open ended nature of the questions.

Economics - See above.

Biology - Careless mistakes have cost me at least a couple of marks for the first section, while section C wasn't particularly well attempted. Did myself justice in section B, so here's hoping for another A.

Mathematics - From what I've heard, it was generally a do-able paper, but I still lost a chunk of marks! Apologies for being so repetitive, but I can still get my A.

Chemistry - A phail paper, as far as the most of the entire JC1 cohort is concerned. I walked out of the exam hall to see a girl crying, as well as to hear a chorus of swears from the guys. I've lost a hell lot of marks, but definitely not quite enough to deprive me of an A unless there happen to be several undetected careless mistakes in my script. Yeah. An A's still very possible.

Chinese - The so-called "bane of my existence", as my friend Jing Yew had quipped. Frankly, I thought it was a good paper, at least by my standards. I want my damned pass.


Mood: Relieved, guilty

Of Exam Stress

Promos begin tomorrow. My school allowed the whole level to have today off to give us more time for revision.

As expected, Ian’s been bombarding me with phone calls all weekend for help in Biology, Chemistry, Math and even for some tips for the General Paper. I suspect that he would’ve asked for assistance with Economics as well, if it wasn’t for the fact that the syllabi for the two Economics courses we’re taking are slightly different. Not that I’m against helping out a good friend or anything, but I can’t help but wonder who else in the class the guy has been harassing for the last few days.

Although poor Ian seems to be struggling, I can confidently say that I’m more prepared this time in all of my subjects, compared to July’s Term Examinations. I’m not sure if it’ll be enough to get my straight As, because there was still so much more work I could’ve done during the past week, but I don’t think that listing - with regret - the additional topics I could’ve covered if I had been more focused would do me any good. All that would achieve is to get me excessively worried about tomorrow.

I’m certain my classmates are also very anxious, but, for those who were present, this funny incident on Thursday really helped to take the pressure off us, if only for a while.

I had settled down at a table in the school canteen during one of my breaks to catch up on some studying. Sometime after I had started work, I noticed one of those helium-filled, metallic balloons (this one was shaped like a pig) tied to a bag at a table just in front of me. Unable to ignore the ridiculous sight, I interrupted Nick’s studying to point out the hovering blob of pink to him.

A picture of the pig balloon, courtesy of Nick's phone camera.

We both chuckled at the balloon, before resuming our work. Mere minutes later though, we heard yelling and turned to face the pig balloon again, only to see that it had somehow wrenched itself loose from its anchor, and that it was now being chased by a few people as it made its ascent. We got up and followed the balloon out of the roofed canteen, and heard someone behind us exclaim, “Pigs can fly!”, playing on the well known satirical expression.

The balloon, successful in its escape. It's now just a small speck in the sky.

“Swine flew,” Nick added, grinning like a fool at his pun. We looked at one another and laughed. It was a fun break.

Mood: Worried