Éclectique

Finally the weekend is over. Time for me to recover and recuperate. On Friday, I had my Bronze Medal examinations. I passed so now I'm a qualified life guard! Hehe! It was actually a lot of fun! There were only 2 timed events. The first was to swim 50m (any stroke), rescue the victim and tow him back 50m with the assistance of an aid (a short rope). The time to beat was 00:03:00 minutes. I clocked in 00:02:48. Hehe! The other timed event was the rope toss. You have to gather the rope, roll it so that you can toss it well to the victim who is about 10-20m out in 'open' water. Time to beat; 00:01:00. My time: 00:0043. Muahahaha! I also did very good for the other events. My 'victim' -- a fellow exam taker -- said that my chin tow was very comfortable. Muahahaha! Luckily for me, the guy was a floater, despite being on the heavier side. Me? I sink. Heh heh. Sorry. He had a bit of trouble with me. Hehe! Saturday was my SAT. Huh. Go figure, the ...

I passed my Computerized Test in one go! I'm glad I was able to. But you know what was weird? My score. Before I elaborate, the test is split into 2 'papers' with the first being a vision test and the 2nd the actual Law or Undang test. The 2nd part is split into 3 sections; the first 15 questions -- Part I --, the next 25 -- Part II --, and the final 10 -- Part III. The parts difficulty transition from easy, hard to medium. I scored 15/15 for Part I, 25/25 for Part II but 5/10 for Part III. Heh. Go figure, eh? Well, I was still able to get the passing mark so I'm happy. I got 45/50 which is 90%. Woohoo!! After that, I decided to go straight for the 3-hour Theory course. Unfortunately, the classes were full for the 3-hour Practical course so I'm taking that one next week. A week after that, I'll get my 'L' license or Learning Driver's License -- LDL. Hmm. What to do in that week before I get my LDL? Hehe. Hopefully I can hit PCP by mys...

Right off the bat I'm sure you guys are wondering either; (A) What on Earth do those acronyms mean? (B) Aqil mentioned them before... But I can't remember... Either way, I'll let you know. SAT stands for Scholastic Assessment Test -- formerly Scholastic Aptitude Test. TOEFL stands for Test Of English as A Foreign Language. Right now, these two are my top priority. Preparing for and taking the tests. For the TOEFL, I'll be taking TOEFL iBT which means internet-based test. I recently bought a couple of books to help with preparations. The titles are; Cracking the SAT 2011 Edition and Cracking the TOEFL iBT 2011 Edition . Both are published by The Princeton Review. Cracking the SAT 2011 Edition by The Princeton Review Cracking the TOEFL iBT 2011 Edition by The Princeton Review Insyaallah I'll be able to do it. SAT so far seems quite doable. Hehe! That's all for now. Au revoir!

Here it comes, The most important, Most challenging 4 weeks, Of our illustrious high school lives. It may only be 10 days, But the days are placed, Over a span of time, 22 days to be exact. 3 days, Then 4 days, Followed by 1 day, Again and Again. These 22 days are represented, By the most feared 3-letter acronym, Known to Malaysian high schoolers, It is SPM. It is our final set of hurdles, That last stretch, Witching hour, Zero hour. This is the leap, We took our breaths during the trials, Now we jump, But we are yet to begin falling. AQ 24th November 2010 Note: I wrote this on the second day of SPM, I think.

So I've made it through 7 subjects totalling 15 papers. Phew. 3 more subjects to go. That means another 8 more papers. O_O'. I have 3 days to brush up my Chemistry then one day to memorize Biology then 1 week to pour over my NatGeo magazines for EST. At least after Biology, I can hit PCP!! YEEAAH!!! So far, SPM wasn't too bad. Insyaallah I will be OK. I hope so. P/S I've managed to keep my promise of staying off Facebook for 3 weeks. I'll stay off until AFTER I sit for my EST papers. Why? Because I know I can do it.

Only 14 more days till SPM... Ouch. I'm not ready! Least of all for Add Math. I can barely pass, let alone scrape an A... 14 more days till the start of SPM. 10 days of exams -- not counting the breaks in between. So that makes... 13 days to go till I'm free! -Gulp-. -Sigh-. Time to hunker down & give it my all. After that, once I'm done with SPM, I'm going to blank out and forget about everything I've learned and refuse to study. That's a fact. Even if I don't want to -- pfft as if -- I WILL. Especially the last part. After exams, I always have difficulty studying. Things to do After SPM: Driver's license!! Putrajaya Challenge Park. No way is ANYBODY stopping me! Triathlon. Which reminds me; I need running shoes. S.A.T. This one is my parents request. :( There's a lot more on that list but not enough time to write it all down here. Not yet anyway.

Trials are over! Phew. At last. But unfortunately, those are only the trials. The real SPM is yet to come. -Sigh-. At least I'll get a break, I hope. Hehe. I'm going to enjoy not studying right now. Au revoir for now.

TRIALS -sigh- studystudystudy

The 1 week semester break has been extended to 2 weeks due to Eid il Fitri. So once school reopens, it's 3 days of school and then on Thursday, TRIALS! Huhu. So for those of us in Form 3 & Form 5, these 2 weeks is not so much a holiday as it is a study-a-thon. I feel our exam-oriented system is stressful on students and actually limiting our opportunities to be all-rounders. Too few are scoring A+'s AND excelling in the co-curricular activities. Our syllabus is heavy and I think getting heavier. History is about to be incorporated into the primary school syllabus. The Standard 1 kids are already learning Science. It is literally back-breaking work. Those little kids in Primary school can't lift all those books without damaging the back posture. And when we consider leaving the heavy textbooks in class. It's not allowed. What the? Anyway, I'm bored and having trouble sleeping. My birthday is in about 2 weeks and my family is asking me what I want for...

So much has happened. Sad, happy and everything in between. A fast-forwarded version would be like this. Editor's note; most events listed below have happened whereas some have yet to happen. I watched Toy Story 3. And I cried. Well, not sobbing crying but yeah, I shed tears. I really grew up with that movie. During the 1st movie, Andy was moving to a new house. Around the same time, I was moving back to Malaysia from the US. Sad times. In the third movie, Andy is 17 & about to go to college. So am I. I got an invitation from a friend to participate in the Urban Downhill event of the King of Fraser's Hill mountain bike carnival/bash/event/wtv. But I can't go. Huhu. I learned how to take out my back tire, take it apart (tube & tire only) and of course put it back. Another milestone in learning about bikes. My grades are slowly climbing. Yaay! Except for Add Math and Chemistry. Huhu. I'm paying more attention in class than ever before. Which is a g...

I know it is already the 2nd of January and I know this should have been written the LATEST by 31st December but I finally got around to writing this -- and thinking about it. Hehe. I've color-coded them by the way. Red means VERY important, Purple means preferable but optional and Green means it's just something I want that isn't important. Hehe. So my New Year's Resolutions -- which are in no particular order of importance are; A full-face MTB helmet. Preferrably -- or rather, hopefully -- from Specialized or SixSixOne but I don't mind any other brand. As long as I like it -- duh. Elbow/forearm + knee/shin guards. This too I would prefer SixSixOne. Or maybe Fox Head but again, I'm just hoping. 10 A's for SPM -- duh. Improve myself so that I study hard AND smart. A lot. Without burning out. That means minimum 1 SOLID hour a day. Then I can play, a bit. Get Abah a bike and hit the trails one fine weekend. Get a scholarship to M.I.T and do en...

The exams are finally over! Woohoo!!! Well, mostly. Next Monday is just EST & Civic. This is just some post I've been working on. I recently got a mountain bike for my birthday -- apparently its a downhill bike -- and it really spurred my budding interest in mountain bikes. So my goal is to try out a mountain bike course. The one is Sek. 13 looks really cool. I heard there's one in Putrajaya. Oh well. I've looked up videos of downhill mtb and it looks AWESOME!! Dangerous but I think I'd enjoy it. I did some digging around the internet and apparently these people wear some serious armor. Those things are going to be expensive... Ah well, people can dream, can't they? So, here is my post-exam goal/wishlist. Haha. Go mountain biking. Either downhill or just the regular trail, I'm fine either way but considering my lack of armor and the kind of falls downhill guys take, I'll stick to the trails. Get a helmet. A full face helmet. Kinda lik...

I'm sorry everyone! I've been neglecting my blog. As many of you know -- and experienced -- we had our exams recently. It was OK. Phyiscs and Add Math felt easier. I'm afraid I messed up my Chemistry. NOOO! I used to be good at Chemistry... Hopefully, I'll pass, at least. Now I am free! Muahaha. I'm not going to school today. Not that I don't want to -- I really want to -- but my parents aren't letting me go on two reasons; Exams are over and they don't expect any learning to take place Fridays are the busiest days of my week. It's kinda a bummer but at least I'll still get to see Liyana on Saturday during Add Math tuition. Hehehe. Anyway, I was reading QM's blog and her latest post is about phobias. So I clicked the link on her blog and took a look at my fears. I know I have them but I am not paranoid by them or anything. They're more like annoyances than anything else really. Except buzzing/flying bugs. I always involunt...

Worry. There are so many things to worry about. Exams, H1N1, relationships, etc. Which reminds me, my Exams are near, my Add Math is weak. I haven't started studying yet. I'm afraid I'm going to fail Physics and Add Math -- again. I don't want to fail Physics and Add Math And to make everything a whole lot worse; Liyana is very, very sick. I hope she gets well soon. She's under a self-imposed quarantine.

Bonjour my readers. I'm sorry for not updating recently. I've gotten my results and there are terrible. T-T. I just started tuition. My first class was today. Physics. Much better teaching than the one my class got. This Saturday there's going to be 3 events in one day; Report Card Day (Hari Terbuka), Civic Carnival (Karnival PSK) and Co-op Day (Hari Koperasi). Brilliant going. Yahoo. Remind me to send a congratulatory note to the genius who arranged that. I'm cutting school that day to go for my Add Math tuition. I completely blew that one. T-T. That's all for now. Au revoir

The first week of the new semester is approaching its end. It's been a roller coaster. My grades are improving -- minutely -- but I'm not happy with them. They're horrible. So I'm considering tuition. Considering. Haha. After 10 years of formal education, I'm finally voluntarily considering tuition. Hey, I got 5A's for my UPSR & 7A's for my PMR with that formula. But I fear that my luck is running out. So I don't want to risk it. I'm definitely taking at least Physics, Chemistry, Math, Add Math. Considering between BM and Bio. Hmm.

Finally! At long last! The exams are OVER! EST was good. A little worried about my report at the end but otherwise, I'm great. The beginning of the semester break hasn't been off to the best start but I won't divulge into that. P&C stuff. Shh. But all considered, today has been good. I played PS3 from 3-7 then 9-10. Muahaha. Tomorrow I'm going to be escorting the teachers for Teachers' Day & then I am free! Yippee. There's really a lot more I want to blog about but I'm not really in the mood to go any further. Like I said above, "the beginning of the semester break hasn't been off to the best start but I won't divulge into that."

I don't think I have a brain anymore after Physics today. It was SOOO DIFFICUUULT!!! Quite frankly, I'm amazed I didn't completely blank out...