Hiya, short update before I go off and hit the books (again).
So far, the A Levels exams has been nothing but a shocker. The GP paper had really open-ended essay questions that you could go very wrong doing them, the comprehension passage was somewhat easy to read but the questions were just weird. To me at least, I know of people who found it excruciatingly easy, so I'll see if they end up with A1s next year =P. I think my AQ response was weaker than my usual standard, mainly because I didn't have enough time to complete it, the summary was crappy, I missed out quite a lot of points. So yes, GP was a disaster.
Bio... what can I say except Cambridge is out to make a statement this year. Major topics like the nervous system, osmoregulation, evolution, DNA, Transport in mammals and the liver never came out. Can you imagine my horror when I really memorised essays for these topics only to not have them come out AT ALL?!?!?! Instead, I had to resort to doing essays for homeostasis and enzymes for which I am only fairly confident for the first 2 parts of the respective questions out of 3. I didn't have time to finish the paper and made a critical decision to do the genetic diagram and get the full 4 marks rather than waste my time pondering over passages trying to get 6 marks which I probably won't get at all. In the end, I went back and did half of the 6 marks lol.
Chemistry... another Cambridge nightmare. I must admit, the easy ones were characteristically manageable. I was expecting something slightly below the AJC prelim paper standard, the standard questions were their standard, which is fine with me, but the hard questions were harder than even the TJ paper. No kidding. Question 7 of the paper was a killer, with 2 NMR spectrums and a deductive question thrown together. I lost some 14 marks already I reckon. Considering I more or less threw question 7 away, I probably lost 8 marks there, plus 2 from an earlier question and a few careless mistakes here and there. Ouch. I hope paper 2 will be easier, after the nightmare that is paper 3. I even heard that some RJC students found it challenging, can you imagine that? Cream of the crop, creme de la creme (pardon the spelling) students of my cohort, RJC students, commenting that the paper was challenging?? I thought they'd say that it was a walk in the part. I tried their paper's mcq and COULDN'T do it. NOt that I couldn't do it, but man, it was difficult!!
I've officially finished my maths paper, the only subject other than GP that is truly completed. Paper 1 was kinda easy, I reckon. It was uncharacteristically more difficult than the usual Cambridge standard, but nonetheless generally manageable, maybe 'cause I had 50 minutes to look around, check my answers and come up with steps to solve the parts I couldn't solve. Btw, did you know that for the functions question, if you had completed the square, you would have gotten the inverse? I didn't get that part until the last 10 minutes! The good thing is, I still got it =). Paper 2 was 3-4 times harder than paper 1. I SWEAR. I spent the night before doing some 40 maths sums, out of with 35 was on statistics, and still found their stats questions difficult. I tell you, Cambridge is out to make a statement this year. I didn't verify the first part of question 1, and did the wrong thing for question 27. Argh. Can I say that again? ARGH. Other than that, I don't think I made other major errors. So I reckon my A for maths is still pretty much on track, whereas I've adjusted my hopes for GP down to a B3 and still hope that the other papers can salvage my bio and chem grades.
I went one week without the computer, impressive huh? Especially when I have the computer right in my room, so the temptation is always there. Plus it helps when you don't have a proper table to work on 'cause the computer is sitting on it that you gotta throw your keyboard on the floor, making it nonsensical to even try using the computer (the keyboard's on the table, FOR NOW). I received my UCAS confirmation letter, which means that my university applications have gone through and are in the process of being processed (lol). I've also received an email from the University of Manchester about my application. I hope they accept me... of course I probably won't get to go w/o a scholarship and as the papers go on, that gets further and further away.
I woke up this morning.. and found out that I've got double eyelids on BOTH EYES. Yea, you probably think that it's nothing much. My eyes have been behaving weird for ages I tell you. I was born with single eyelids. THen.... a few months ago, I started getting single-double eyelids, single on the right, double on my left. So if you looked at the photos on this blog, they're mostly the single-double variation. Today, for me to get double-double eyelids was quite the surprise. So I took a picture without even showering etc so as not to agitate the eye such that it would revert back to its singlehood (I've since tried rubbing my eyes and washing my face to rid the double eyelid to no avail) so my hair looks extremely dishevelled. Pictures will be posted below.
I've decided on the paint colours for my room and will be ridding it of it's ice-cream reminder. Yes, whenever I walk into my room, I think of ice cream. Yellow on top reminds me of corn ice cream and purple reminds me of the yam variation. Now my colour depends on the brand my parents intend to go for. Nippon paint : Love on the walls, and some lighter shade of pink on the ceilings ICI Delux: Scarlett on the walls and as above for ceiling.
Before I end this entry, I have something to say. I think my wisdom teeth are coming out *shudder*. Yes, I can see their outline and colour *eek* below my gums of my lower jaw. And I can feel them! Yes, whenever I use my molars to chew (who doesn't??) my gums get really sore 'cause they get pressed on the wisdom teeth underneath I reckon. And I was looking at the alignment, yes it is clear enough, and it doesn't look like it will come out straight. It's a little slanted, and leaning towards my molars. Does that spell extraction??? Of course that means a trip to the dentist post-exams as well, and I wanna go back to seeing my (cute *ahem*) orthodontist at the NDC but he is notoriously busy and you have no idea what it is like trying to get an appointment with him, that you end up waiting for MONTHS. I have an appointment for 3 months later and can only get one 6 months later. Nightmarish huh? My next appointment is next year btw and I wanna get this over and done with. I don't quite like the dentist I went to get my root remnant extracted, he has shaky hands (like me, yes I have double standards!!). Shall I go threaten the receptionist and be mean if she refuses to give me a December appointment? I've never really tried that though, so even if I do, my mum's gonna have to do it for me. Don't get me wrong, I have no qualms about being mean and assertive to people I know (lol), but when it comes to adults.... that's quite a problem. I want Dr. c***!!! Lol.
Alright, I should go off, pictures here. Erm, enjoy???
I'm a 3rd year student in what is probably the largest autonomous university in Singapore majoring in a Science-related subject (well it sorta IS SCIENCE). I'm known to be introverted, sarcastic (at times), funny when I rant (which isn't a good thing lol) and somewhat of a loner. I miss LA and would move there in a heartbeat :(
Thank you =) I hope I do better than I think I did as well , of course there's no way of knowing till March next year =S