Reflecting on finals...

Hmm, I shall now do some reflection on my finals. I've certainly not had much time to write about it while I was having my finals.

EC1002 - Intro to Econs
Okay, so first up, Intro to Econs! I had this paper almost four weeks ago. That was on 06/05 and it was to be my first ever UOL finals paper! The exam, as before, was to be held in Halls 7,8 and 9 of EXPO and I set off from home early that day hoping to get to EXPO earlier to orientate myself. Oh yes, since JL was in the east, I got him to come along as well to meet me at the exam venue before my paper. He then stayed on until after my paper.
Moving on to the paper, I found the MCQs quite manageable and managed to answer most of the MCQs quite confidently (ie. without any guesswork). However, there were still a couple of more challenging MCQ questions so hopefully I managed to make some good calculated guesses? Haha, I guess doing all those MCQs with ZH the few days before the Econs paper had been helpful.
I had some problems in Sections B and C though. Although I had done lots of questions on Sections B and C(long answer questions), and so could see a pattern in the papers from past years, this year's paper had questions which were asked quite differently and I screwed up quite badly in answering those questions. Indeed, after discussing about the paper with some classmates during the past couple of days, I realised one of the two questions I did was definitely answered incorrectly. I'm not too confident about my second question as well. So now I'm just hoping I did well enough in my MCQs to get a pass.

ST104A/B - Statistics 1/2
The day after my Econs paper, I had my Statistics papers. It was Statistics 1 in the morning at 1000 and Stats 2 later in the afternoon at 1430. As most of you might already know, our exam script was given to us without the statistical tables. When I asked the examiners for it, I was told to make my own assumptions first and the examiners will take our assumptions into consideration when marking. I felt this was quite odd. As it was, it later turned out that the statistical tables had indeed been missed out and so there was a re- exam for Stats 1.
As for the paper I had that day, it was quite manageable. This being Stats 1, there were more theory questions which required qualitative answers rather than calculations. As such, I was able to "smoke" some answers out as I had grasped the theory and understanding of the content. As for the calculations, they were fortunately still rather easy.
After the first paper I had that day, I went out and saw JL already there waiting for me. We had lunch at a nearby Mac's during which I tried to memorise as many formulae and what not hoping to salvage my Stats 2 paper. I knew it was going to be a disaster as I had done hardly any practice of those Stats 2 questions. While I was desperately trying to understand all that "Greek" on my notes, I heard from a friend that he had rushed home to get his copy of the statistical tables. Well, even if he did get himself there and back home in time for the next paper, there was no way that he would have been allowed to bring his copy of the statistical tables into the exam... right?
All efforts to salvage my Stats 2 paper proved futile as I entered the examination hall, having not absorbed anything from flipping through my notes at the eleventh hour. As it turned out, more than 70% of the paper was on Estimation which was the topic I chose to skip as I had no idea how to perform the calculations of questions from that topic. Thus, I just tried to salvage as much as I could and wrote as much as I possibly could, which was not a lot really. I was just hoping I had done well enough in Stats 1 so that the marks will even out.

MT105A - Mathematics 1
After a weekend of revision, I was back in the examination hall on Monday, the 11th of May. After my Econs and Stats paper were over, the next couple of papers were much more relaxing. I had Maths 1 on that Monday.Being Maths 1, the paper was really a breeze. I left the examination hall feeling I might just get an A for that paper!

MT105B - Mathematics 2
A week after that, on Monday again - the 18th - I had my Maths 2 paper. It didn't go too badly but it was definitely not as "smooth" as my Maths 1 paper. That was once again mainly due to a lack of practice in the months before the paper. Still, I should have no problem getting a pass for that paper. Hopefully after the grades even out for both my Maths papers I can still secure a Second Upper grade.

SC1179 - Contemporary Sociology in a Global Age
On the Wednesday of that same week, I had my last paper( not counting the re-sit for my Statistics 1 paper). It was my Sociology paper, 'Contemporary Sociology in a Global Age' to be exact. I was quite excited for this paper actually as it was the only paper I took where I could make use of what I had learnt in from writing General Paper essays. Moreover, I had studied a lot for this paper and English writing was something I was more confident in so I had been looking forward to taking that Sociology paper. By the end of my last essay, I sure felt that I had used most of the content quite effectively and most of the content was most certainly accurate.
There is one essay which I am quite confident in which was on the topic of 'Crime and Deviance'. I had spend quite a lot of time on that and I was really glad there was a long question on that. However, time was still a problem so there were a couple of rather rushed essays too. Those were likely going to get lower scores. I should have no problem securing a pass in this paper, and hopefully even an A or B grade? Well, this is a qualitative paper, so I guess I can be a little more optimistic on this one.

ST104A (re-exam)
The re- exam of my Statistics 1 paper rounded up my finals. I had only just taken it a few days ago on the 28th of May and it was surprisingly quite smooth sailing too. There weren't many questions I could not answer. I am sure that was a result of me having used a large portion of my time during the few days before that paper to really study the content in detail. After all, I was done with all of my other papers so I could focus all my time on this one module... haha! Yup, so I'm feeling really good about this paper and glad for the re- exam(unlike most of my peers, I'm sure). I'm just hoping I would do well enough in this paper to pull my Stats 2 grades up to get an overall pass.

Hmm, that's all for now. Till the next update. ciaoz!

Once in a lifetime experience

Hi all once again! I just got back from a rather quick meet up with JL. So what did we go out for this time? Well, race pack collection for a 10km NILA Run on the coming Sunday.

Now, that sounds kinda scary considering that we both just returned from walking 30.1km(that's 7 x 4.3km) around Bedok Reservoir for the 50 Hour Non Stop Run just yesterday. Despite just walking round and round the same loop seven times, it still was quite an interesting experience. For one, the idea of a running event happening over 50 hours is already an interesting concept. This meant that we could take a break during our run to go for a meal or a drink, and continue later. In fact, we could even run five or six rounds on the first day and come back again the next day to continue. So cool right? I was also going to have to walk 43km to get three medals which was our aim. Basically, we get one medal each after the third, sixth and tenth round. That is sure going to be a challenge!

Hmm, why all these talk about walking when this is supposed to be a run? Well, we did intend to do some running during this event, even if we didn't complete all 10 rounds running. However, it was only when we got there that I realised that the path we were to be running on was mostly sand, with only some short sections being hard, solid ground. This means that the ground which we were running on was really uneven. That sure made running much more difficult. Therefore, after trying to jog a little for the first two rounds, we decided to give it up and just walk the rest of the way. Due to not having trained for this run, we were both starting to pant quite a bit as well.
We decided to finish off our third round and then go for lunch as we were both getting a little hungry by then. We also really needed a break badly to catch our breaths, to get some reprieve for our aching legs and to get some shelter from the scorching midday sun. Haha, it was really a great mistake. I had totally forgotten that we would be under the midday sun for a good couple of hours if we started the run at 11am. Otherwise, I would have picked a later timing to start our run and prepare sunscreen lotion as well. We had a rather quick lunch at a coffee shop nearby, during which we hydrated ourselves with a cool drink and took a good rest sitting down. When we felt we had rested enough, we returned to the starting line to begin our fourth round. At the end of our fourth round, which meant that we had walked more than 17km, my feet were starting to get really sore.
By our fifth round, I was really starting to get quite familiar with my surroundings. The first landmark was a sort of generator I think. That was the signal that we had just started on the long route. Then next landmark was just before the 2.8km point which was the water point. A little further on and we'd pass by TP and then a bistro called "WAWAWA". Coming to that bistro meant that we were slightly more than a kilometre from the finishing point. Then we would pass by some rowing event happening on the reservoir before passing by a huge balloon of NILA floating above the reservoir before reaching the finishing point. Well, the balloon was supposed to be floating, but it was clearly having difficulty doing that haha!
It was also somewhere around the fifth round that we finally met up with one of JL's friends who was also participating in the run. Well, she was also walking too actually haha! She was only planning to do three rounds and get one medal but we did manage to persuade her to do six rounds to get a second medal. We decided to accompany her and end off with seven rounds that day, continuing the last three rounds the next day.
So, long story cut short, we finished off the last two rounds with our legs getting ever more painful, with us being so glad to move from walking on sand to solid ground. Interestingly, my feet felt less painful walking on solid ground compared to walking on sand. I could see that the others felt the same too as I saw them both hop onto the solid ground as gratefully as I did. Walking on solid ground sure offered much relief for our aching feet. I did realise that JL and his friend seemed to be doing much better than I did most of the way so I tried to just suck it up and hurry along, though I fell back quite frequently. For me, my ankles were hurting terribly with my calves and knees aching slightly. However, JL's thighs were the source of pain for him.
It was already 10pm by the time we were done. Boy were we relieved and glad that it was finally over. As we were all feeling really shagged out mentally and physically, with aches all over our legs we hardly knew which part was really aching, we decided to skip dinner. It was actually kind of comical; the three of us hobbling along gingerly on our feet. I wonder why we signed up for this to torture ourselves haha! We even wanted to take a cab home instead so that we could get some rest asap. JL's friend then suggested something called Uber which was really a much cheaper and more convenient alternative to taking a cab. I didn't know much about it so I just went along with the idea. Hmm,.. and it did turn out to be much better than taking a cab. It was definitely much cheaper and I got home in only 20 minutes!! I was really quite surprised too but relieved all the same.
Well, you might have already guessed it. We weren't ready to go for our last three rounds this morning and decided to give it up. JL's ankles were starting to hurt really badly by this morning, though my legs were feeling much better. It was still a really awesome experience, something I will remember for a long time to come!:)

Final countdown to Finals...

It's 16 hours more to the start of my first UOL paper that I will be sitting for.
I guess I am quite prepared for it. Just a little bit more of last minute reading to do, light reading of course! Actually I've been studying for two whole days since yesterday with ZH, just doing Econs for the whole day.
Of course I know I shouldn't be doing that, but once we start it's kinda hard to stop.
The result - am having a splitting headache now and am very very tired, mentally shagged...
Haha, I haven't felt this tired in a long while, phew! I sure hope I have given my brain a good warm up over the last two days. I will be going in for the real thing tomorrow.
And of course I've also got to simultaneously be preparing for both my Stats papers as I won't have time to prepare for them tomorrow. The Stats exams are right on the day after my Econs paper.
All the best to myself for tomorrow I guess. I'm ready!!
Haha I am actually really anticipating taking my first UOL paper as a University student!
I am surprisingly calm... I hope that's a good thing?

New look to usher in the New Goat Year

Well, as you guys may know already ( from my earlier posts), I have decided to leave my hair long until after Chinese New Year (CNY). This is the first time I'm not getting a haircut before CNY, and I expected many relatives to comment about my really long hair. So here's what happened during CNY.

Reunion Dinner
This was a much smaller gathering but still there were some who did not know I had been keeping my hair long. Once again, the same comments to leave my hair this way as it looks really nice.

CNY Day 1
I received several rather interesting comments about my hair today. This was a much larger gathering of relatives as compared to yesterday so it was likely I would get more comments about my hair. Anyways, their sentiments were much the same. All said to leave my hair long. I received comments saying I looked "groovy". "feminine". "nice"
Just before I left, someone even shouted randomly " Keep that hairstyle! And buy some Korean clothes!"
Laugh My Fucking Ass OFF! Hahahaa
Tomorrow's CNY Day 2 with another round of gathering. I shall see what they think.

Spring is near!

Heys guys! I'm back again.
I've been feeling kind of light and relaxed these last couple of days actually, which has also helped improved my mood too. I'm also not feeling as stressed up over my revision as I think I ought to be, since Prelims are only two weeks away! You might think that I am likely very prepared for my Prelims already hence I'm feeling so at ease. Unfortunately, I'm not. Which makes it all the more surprising that I am in the mood to feel so chill and cool now. I've sort of thought about this a little and come up with three possible reasons.
Firstly, Chinese New Year is approaching!! Haha, it's not like I'd have much time to celebrate CNY really seeing as I would likely be busy preparing for my Prelims examinations. Still, how can I not feel the CNY atmosphere all around me with all the red and gold decorations coming up on every shop and street, and even in people's houses too? Just knowing CNY is coming and that spring is arriving is enough to lift anyone's spirits. Don't you agree?
Secondly, all my lectures for this semester are going to end this week! That means no more classes. Doesn't that sound like music to the ears? Hahaa... Not really. Classes may have ended but there is still lots of revision and studying to be done, no thanks to the upcoming Prelims of course. Hmm, I think I better get used to this idea of CNY being "burnt" as this is going to be the case for the next two years. This is due to me taking a University of London(UOL) course and Prelims will be taking place around the same period for the following years. Still, the idea of lectures ending is still something to be joyful about.
Lastly, I think this relaxed mood could be due to the cooling weather that has been the norm this past couple of weeks, especially at night. Thus, this cooling weather might actually be what's keeping me so chill and cool of late.
Ahh... good mood aside, I am feeling really tired now. So till my next post, ciaoz!

Econs coaching

I've been helping out a classmate with Intro to Economics revision for the past few weeks, about twice each week. It's not that I'm really good with the mod, just that I had studied Econs before in JC so I understand it a little better. Frankly, I was not too confident of actually coaching him initially. Still, I thought I could try to help so I just carried on with it until now. I guess I can say I'm not doing too badly? I'd rather call it studying the mod together than coaching him. I don't think I'm competent enough to be considered coaching haha.
After studying the mod together for the past four weeks or so, it sure has helped both him and me. For me, having to coach him means I have to know the topics well. As such, I've been revising Econs in more detail than I usually would, and even more frequently too. I've also finally started doing my tutorials as a result... hehs.
Anyways, I just came back from another studying session with him, and he mentioned that he is now able to follow revision during lectures better. Haha, that sure is a relief to me. At least we are both benefitting from this.
The exams are less than two weeks away and I'm sure we would have finished revising the content by then, plus completing some past year revision papers. That is my plan anyways...

Success in Socio essay!

Just got an essay back from my lecturer. It was one which I had spent at least two weeks writing and submitted quite recently. To my delight, my efforts paid off and I scored quite well for this assignment.
To be honest, I had been pushing back completing this assignment due to the fact that I just didn't know how to begin writing. As the deadline for the submission drew nearer, I then contemplated rushing an essay out just for the sake of submission, or even not to submit it at all. I sure have serious issues with procrastination eh? By the way, I did intend to hand my assignment in. I just thought of taking my time to do up a proper piece of work before submitting it to have it checked at a later date.
However, the lecturer was nice enough to extend the deadline for another week. I guess the number of assignments submitted was very little. Still, whatever the reason, I then decided it was time for me to really sit down and give some thought how to complete the assignment. For one, I sure had some more time to prepare the assignment so I should be able to produce a pretty decent essay. For another, the lecturer was nice enough to give us more time to complete the assignment and I sure didn't want to disappoint her. Moreover, I also realised then that I didn't have many more lectures and thus there was little opportunity left to get feedback on my writing. So I decided on a day to read up my subject guide in detail and to do more research on the content and studies so that I could understand the content better and hopefully be able to better plan my essay.
After spending the time to find out more about the various sociologists and the studies that they had done, I found writing the essay to be much easier than expected. Of course, there were still times when I faced a mental block due to not having done much writing recently and so the language didn't flow as smoothly in my mind. By the time I was done, I was quite happy with my work. Well, I was more relieved that the essay was finally done actually. I rewrote the essay a second time to tidy up my writing and the essay was finally ready for submission! I was still not too clear of some parts of the content and so the essay was not as well as I would have wanted it,I just used information from the subject guide on those areas, with little research done by me.
Fast forward to this morning, my essay was returned to me and I was really delighted to see that I got 71% for it. Not only that, I saw the word "good" written next to a few paragraphs and the word "well attempted" at the end of the essay;)
So now I've finally got a decent essay as a benchmark for future writings. I've still got lots to work on of course, and this isn't much to celebrate really, since I took weeks to complete this. I sure am not going to get the luxury of time during my examinations.
Oh yes, before ending off, I also finally had a "consultation" with the lecturer at the end of class today and she has requested for me to drop her an email so that she could provide me more readings for the content which I had problems with. I'm definitely going to be putting in more effort for Sociology after today.
Okay, it's late, I'm going to bed.
ciaos...Zzzzz