#and instead thought studying 10 mins before exam is enough to get good grades

[fyodorsushankaaa]

Why Gifted Kids Are Actually Special Needs

why am i crying over a video.

[thoi2020]

u have advanced??????? wow. tips to qualify mains please??? help me with my modules.how do i solve them?????????

hnnng idk bestie here's some short tips n like if u want something more specific u can send another ask or dm me?

pay attention in class. sit in the front. listen out for what things the teacher puts an emphasis on. ask questions. yes, even the stupid ones. especially the stupid ones bc those are fundamentals u cannot miss bc a shaky foundation leads to a shaky building. also pay attention to ur teachers. theyve been doing this since before u even knew about jee they know what theyre doing. most of them want whats best for u, and if not specifically that, whats best for them n their institute which are usually similar things. im not saying blindly trust them without criticism but have some faith. dont dismiss them they prolly know better than u. if id followed my teachers instructions i prolly wouldnt have had to drop (but thats a discussion for another day lol).

revise notes on a regular basis. like. the day u studied it in class. then the next day. then a week later. then 2 weeks later. then a month later. google the curve of forgetting for more accurate time stamps. use flashcards for formulae n stuff that u have to memorise like inorganic chem.

analyse past papers. recognise the most important topics. but also there are some small chapters that are quite easy and some people skip them thinking there wont be any questions from them. ive given 4 papers of mains, and i can confirm that is utter bullshit. 1 question each from units and measurements, mathematical reasoning, stats, chemistry in everyday life, polymers, are guaranteed. u can easily secure at least those marks by spending just a little bit of time on them. esp for jee mains its relatively better to cover a wide range of topics with medium depth instead of just some but with deep understanding (the latter works well for advanced tho).

make a friend or two whos in the same boat as u, preparing for jee n try to keep each other accountable. tell each other everyday what ure going to study that day n then check back the next day. remind each other hlep each other out. also be friendly with the class toppers sometimes they can solve ur doubts better than teachers just bc something they explain clicks better. whenever i get confused about logarithms i think back to what my 9th grade classmate told me when i asked him to explain in 1 sentence n had him repeat it slowly to me multiple times. its burned in my memory and helped me so much. 

practice tests. set the proper 3 hour limit and solve them. be honest w urself ure doing this for u. no point scoring 256/300 to impress ur teacher if u cheated bc on the day of the exam ure going to be screwed. in the beginning try out different strategies, different ones work for different ppl. like for me, math is my favourite and i find it easier than the other 2 so i do it first and it gives me confidence. then i move on to physics and then chem. some people look over the entire paper n solve the easiest from every section first, then the medium ones, then the tough ones. experiment in ur practice tests n figure out whats best for u n ur test taking. after the test, analyse. see what u got wrong, why u got it wrong. clarify doubts. mark problem questions to revise and solve again later. no point in solving more n more questions if theres no retention or learning.

for solving books specifically under the cut bc this is getting too long lol:

stick to 1 or 2 books max per subject. make them ur holy books and swear by them. if ure doing coaching then the modules provided by them are a very good option bc theyre specifically for jee and will cover what u need. coaching teachers will have a lot of experience with them too so u'll have an easy time with doubts clarification. if u choose other books tho, still consult with ur teacher and ask them to tell u what's relevant and what isnt and dont waste ur time on whats not. it might make u look or feel smarter to be solving questions on stuff thats beyond the scope of the exam but u literally dont need it and the syllabus is already very vast so ure just going to waste time and brainspace. like sure if ure interested study it in ur own time but dont make it an Important Must Do thing.

ok now that u have ur book with everything relevant to jee, make sure u devour them. study the theory alongside ur class notes. solve a few questions of corresponding topics the day they are covered so u dont have so many questions lined up at the end of the chapter. like if i studied friction in newton's laws of motion today, i'll solve the questions relevant to friction today itself. or u know this week. like,, keep it current. then while solving, speak out loud and explain the problem to urself like ure teaching someone else (or better yet, find someone to teach them to. stuffed toys, younger siblings, ur classmate, grandparents, online friend, whichever works). mark all the questions that took u longer than 5 mins or u cant solve at all. dog ear the pages. try them again the next day. then again a few days later. take the ones u still cant solve to ur teacher. try n ask for just a hint once and try again. and then if u cant then ask for the solution. DO NOT go on the internet. ur brain doesnt have to work for it then n u think u got it but u dont got it. make ur brain work for the solution so it'll remember. 

now that uve given a good shot to every question and figured out where u stumble. analyse a bit. find a pattern if theres any: like a certain concept that is weak or something ure not understanding. read the theory for it if u have to n ask questions to clarify. then solve these problem questions again and again until u know every question well enough to be able to explain to someone. skip over the easy ones u dont gotta do them again n again, focus on the ones u stumbled on. theyre the weak spots. no use strengthening whats already strong enough.

and uh keep a notebook of the solutions of the questions u solve so that u dont have to go crazy searching for them in an emergency. like ur paper is tomorrow and u cant figure out this question that uve been trying for 1 hour then its a good time to review ur previous solution and refresh ur memory. often if uve practiced enough n its just exam stress etc thats making ur mind go blank then just a hint will be enough to remind u.

also this is more general but just. be consistent. small consistent efforts over multiple days instead of a big one in 1 day. u’ll retain better and ur brain does better with multiple small chunks spread out over an interval than a lot of stuff in a small one. and its ok to to have an off day dont kill urself over academics ur health is more important always. not getting into ur dream college might fuck u up but itll heal but ur health is more precarious and not getting enough sleep or food will def fuck u up and the consequences are a lot harder to deal with. dont think about the big picture or u’ll freak urself out just think about the next small step u can take. getting 99 percentile feels impossible but solving 10 questions for it does not. dont get disheartened by test results if ure working hard n smart u wont fail. even if u dont get into ur dream college u’ll have an excellent work ethic that’ll take u places u never thought of in ur wildest dreams. more than anything, be kind to urself and work n play hard.

[chwesolai]

Cafe Girl, Grocery Boy | CH.4

[masterlist]

A/N: Don’t hate me but your antagonists for this story are Jeonghan, Jun and Seokmin. We all need a little bad boy!svt in our lives but I love those boys so don’t paint me as a villain, ok, let’s continue.

-You- After my little venture with Seungcheol, my shift ended and I swapped out with Joshua leaving him with the newbies, “Don’t scare them again, Shua.”

“You say that as if I always scare them,” he scoffs at me as we switch aprons, “need anything before you head out?” “Eh, not right now but I’ll head back over here before my date.” “You got it, wait, a date??!” “Bye Joshua! Bye V! Bye Chan!” I wave bye and rush out before being bombarded with Joshua’s questions.

I fast walk to my car, yet having about an hour before my exam. So I sat there, just thinking. I’m really going on a date for the first time in forever today. College hasn’t been too kind to me when it comes to dating. I’ve either been too busy or just too in my head when a guy would ask me out. Joshua even tried asking me out the first year we met. It didn’t work out in our favor. We found it better to be best friends instead of romantic friends, ya know? And I’m not the out-going type. I live in shadows, I’m never the girl in the spotlight.

But Seungcheol makes me feel a different way. He’s different.

Why is he so different?

-Seungcheol- “What are you smiling for?” Jihoon finally finishes his exam and walks out of the lecture hall.

“Took you long enough and it’s nothing, just thinking about something.”

“Thinking about her?”

“How’d you know?” I sarcastically answer while handing Jihoon the bagel I got him from y/n.

“Lucky guess, and thank you, I’m STARVING!” Jihoon practically inhales the bagel and repeats again that he’s still hungry, “Come on, I’ll treat you, lover boy, let’s get ramen.”

“I’m just going to ignore the lover boy comment, I’ll drive.” We walk off campus into the parking lot and continue to talk about how easy the exam was since we actually studied for once until we’re stopped by a voice.

The unknown voice parks his motorcycle and reveals himself as he removes his helmet, “AY COUPS WOOZ!”

Oh dear god.

“Hey Jeonghan, what’s up?” Jihoon reacts coldly.

“Come on, Wooz, don’t be so cold. It’s really cool, seeing you guys again! Really! And by the way, the place is looking really great now since you guys left, I appreciate your decision.”

Our silence gives Jeonghan his answer to his insensitive comments, “Any who, I’m going to my econ exam now,” he scoffs, “and have fun at your crummy place, losers. Don’t miss you for a second.”

We don’t either, asshole. Jihoon and I left that disgusting frat house about a year ago and haven’t seen any of those vile guys in a long time. They were easily the smartest, richest and the worst guys on campus. Their frat consists of scaring freshman to death, having strict rules on what your grades and GPA should be, and molding guys into what they thought was a good looking guy. Jihoon and I came from upper-class families too, but we were like them. They were a different breed. They put me and Jihoon in their frat as a joke. They ridiculed us daily for our looks, they constantly played pranks on us and last year, Jihoon snapped, like full on hulked out on them. He trashed the whole house, ruined half of their rooms, with my help, of course, and we were out of there.

Those guys did do one good thing for me, they led me to get a job. I didn’t want to depend on my parent’s money like they did. They led me to provide for myself and Jihoon and we got our own apartment. They may be evil but they helped me grow.

ANYWAYS.

Jihoon and I drove off, rolling the windows down, blasting the new 88rising album and just relieved.

“I can’t wait for this break, oh my god.” Jihoon sighs as he rests his head on the edge of the car window. “Couldn’t agree more.” I turned up the music as we continued to talk about our exam and our mid term break plans. I hope she passes all her tests. She deserves it.

“So, any idea where you’re taking her tonight?” “Not sure just yet. There’s this new chicken place that opened up downtown and I’ve been meaning to go there. But I’m not sure if that’s even romantic.” “Well, if you make it romantic, it’ll be romantic, promise.” “Ok Mr. love-expert,” I laugh as Jihoon begins on and on about how I should go about the night, “I think I just go with the flow and see what happens, ya know?” “She’s a business major, Coups. She lives and breathes plans. You can’t just go with the flow!” “You never know? Your major never really defines who you are.” “But it gives a good insight though. Only the top percent even get to be business majors.” “Whatever, so how does this sound, I pick her up from her apartment, we go to the chicken place, talk for a bit, I bring her to my favorite dessert place and we walk around the park?” “Straight out of a drama, I love it,” Jihoon places his hand on my shoulder, “You’re turning into a man,” he sniffles. “Shut up,” I punched his arm as I parked the car in front of the ramen place.

-You-

[time: 4:30pm]

I finished a little bit earlier than a majority of my class and I handed in my paper and walked out of the hall, feeling accomplished. Then someone calls out, “y/l/n!”

“Yoon!”

“Hey lovely.” He wraps his arm around my shoulder and begins to walk out with me. “Hey loser,” I removed him off of me, “how’d you feel about that test?” “Exams are exams, y/n. They’re a piece of cake. How’d you feel?” “It was really easy, it was like she was trying to give us answers,” we both laugh as we kept talking about how inefficient our econ professor is, “She literally made the study guide verbatim for the test!” “I mean do we expect anything else out of her?” He chuckles as I stop in front of the vending machine, “that shit is full of sugars, y/n. That’s no good for you.” I put some coins in and type in the number for powerade, “And? What about it?” I say as I open the bottle, taking a big sip out.

He shakes his head at me and we continue to walk out. The rest of the walk was silent, minus the sound of clocks ticking, doors slamming, and little bits of conversations from the break rooms. I just looked ahead while I felt Jeonghan’s eyes burning through the side of my face. - “So, you doing anything tonight?” Jeonghan asks as we make it out of the lecture hall. “For once, yeah, I am. Why? What’s the main event tonight?” “Just a couple of us were planning on going for drinks and then going to the karaoke rooms. What are you doing?” “I got a date,” I looked at him all smug, we continued to walk to the parking lot. “Who is the lucky guy?” He said with resentment, regretting asking me where I was going. “I don’t think you know him.” “Trust me, I know everyone,” He rolls his eyes at him, “who is it?” “Seungcheol. The grocery boy I talk about,” I cross my arms at him, as he scoffs, “what now, Jeonghan?” “Nothing. You have fun tonight, y/n,” Jeonghan smirks and walks to his motorcycle, “tell Coups I say hi.” “Bye weirdo!” “Bye lovely!” He laughs as he puts his helmet on and drives off. Lovely. 

A nickname that’s only ever been said by him. Jeonghan’s been a friend for who knows how long at this point, and trust me, he’s asked me out numerous times throughout our schooling years. He’s attractive, just too much of an asshole for me. Our dads work together, both dominating South Korea’s economic industry. And we are the next in line for their spots, meaning we have nearly every class together. It’s annoying. But Jeonghan is a genius yet a meathead, it still boggles my mind. And he knows Seungcheol and calls him Coups?

Anyways, I find my car, and just sit in silence for 10 minutes. Then, I finally turn on my phone and check to see if I got any new notifications. * From 2hrs ago: (2) snap from shua* *From 5 mins ago: (4) iMessage from gyu*

Oh god, what did they do now?

I unlock my phone and decide to check my snaps from Joshua first. Just stupid picstures of them at work, making me smile a bit.

Then I scroll over to Mingyu’s text.

EMERGENCY! I KNOW UR PROBABLY TAKING AN EXAM BUT CALL ME ONCE U READ THIS! YOUR PARENTS STOPPED BY THE CAFE AND DIDN’T LOOK TOO HAPPY AND ARE LOOKING FOR U Y/N PLS CALL ME

“Oh shit,” I fumble with my seatbelt, buckle myself in and call Mingyu. “Y/N!!!!” “Jesus, Gyu calm down. Tell me what happened, I’m driving to the cafe right now.” “Ok! So! Your dad walked into the cafe, not making a scene and walked into the back and started calling out your name. But it was mine and Joshua’s shift so we were trying to explain to him you were in class, BUT THEN your mom comes in SCREAMING,” Mingyu begins to explain, nearly yelling as well. Telling me how my mom was furious at me for some reason, and kept on saying “where’s that boy? And how does she know him?” And my dad calmly got her out into their car and began to explain to him and Joshua why my mother was furious, “Your parents know about Seungcheol.” “Oh my god.” “I’m not even sure how they know Seungcheol, or how they know your relation with him. But they seemed really upset and good thing we covered for you because they think you have exams all day and shouldn’t disrupt your day,” Mingyu’s voice got quiet as I hear Joshua’s voice in the background, almost arguing with Mingyu, “Shut up, she’s on the phone right now.” “Why did you tell her! The two of them have a date tonight!” “I can hear you two.” I sigh over the phone, “I’m outside the cafe, I’ll be right in.”

I swear to god if Seungcheol’s parents are who I think they are, I’m going to end this. I really can’t have anything nice here.

[commastudying]

A thicc list of Tips for High School cuz I got you boos 🤠

The 2019-2020 school year has arrived :( Some if you may have already started school but I on the other hand start in September so I am watching everyone getting pulled into prison while awaiting my turn. Fun!!! Anyways this post is about high school tips since I know y’all need it (you might not but too bad,,)

• Do your fricking homework. Teachers may take questions from your homework and put in on tests. It’s good to start a habit of doing your homework everyday from gr. 9. Even if your teacher doesn’t check pls do it it’s going to give you at least a 10% benefit on your average.

• Join a few clubs. I don’t personally recommend being committed to 5 clubs for everyday of the week. You need time to finish assignments, do your homework, do other extra curricular outside of school, and treat yourself with breaks. I think joining two is the best and try to join a sports team if your comfortable.

• Also, don’t join clubs just because it looks good on your resume. High school is already hard and if you join a club that you aren’t committed to and don’t enjoy, you are going to have a terrible time.

• Try and talk to at least 1 person in each of your classes. Tbh, I don’t think you have to stress about making friends. They will come naturally but it is good to step out of your bubble and talk to people.

• Don’t overbuy school supplies. Wait for the first day of school and see what your teachers want you to use. I do recommend buying the bare necessities such as pens, pencils, loose-leaf paper, etc.

• During your breaks, don’t be a couch potato. When you get into higher grades, it will basically become a fight between your stamina and other people’s stamina. I’m not saying that you should build muscles like John Cena but be active for 30 minutes a day at least.

• Also, you should preview what you are going to learn for the next school year. There are resources such as textbooks in the library sometimes or you can buy textbooks from bookstores and get your money back by returning them when you are done using them. I also recommend buying workbooks. They only cost $15 but if that is too much for you then use online resources such as khan academy.

• start your assignments right after you get them. You don’t have to finish all of it in the first day. Spend 30 min a day to get it done instead of pulling an all-nighter to finish. The quality of your work will decrease if you try to finish is when your tired and don’t have much time.

• write outlines for your essays. Write down your topics, how you’re going to start the intro and conclusion, ideas for titles, etc.

• a lot of people say to become friendly with your teachers and a lot of people don’t like this idea lmao. You don’t have to go up to them and ask them about what they did on the weekend. Just say good morning or good afternoon while you see them walking in the halls. Don’t be a douch for god’s sake. You aren’t the only one to get stressed out. Also, they can be more lenient towards late assignments, unfinished homework, etc. 

• when learning a new language at school don’t try to hate it so much. You can’t quit the class anyways so try to enjoy what you’re doing. Review words and grammar at least once a day and try to watch short cartoons in the language that you are trying to learn.

• I personally recommend writing notes before classes (unless the teacher does not teach from the textbook). While your classmates are trying to scribble down information your teacher is teaching, you can follow along with the teacher easily. If they give you information that is not in your textbook or you didn’t write down, you can write that down quickly, without missing anything.

• Don’t do drugs or drink alcohol. It’s not “cool” or “quirky” to do any of these things. It will just mess up your life. There are no benefits whatsoever. Also, if you do drugs or alcohol, don’t bully others into doing it. Mess up your own life, not others’. Always say no drugs kids. 

•  Don’t cram unless you really seriously have to. Cramming will not help you with your grades. Pls don’t do this. Just give in an hour a day for a couple of weeks before your exam or test to study. 

• Actually read the books assigned. Don’t be a bad person and go on shmoop, litnotes, etc. and read the summary of your book. There may be material that you can only get from actually reading. It will help you with projects in the long run. 

•  Don’t abandon reading in your free time during high school. There will come a time where you start to feel as if your comprehension skills, literature skills, vocab skills, etc. are not competent enough in your english class. 

•  When you’re writing notes, pls try to connect the info together. Tbh, that is why people use mind maps. Instead of writing info all over the place, connect them together. For example, “The atmosphere has many gases.”  and “The atmosphere is important to our survival” can turn into “The atmosphere is important to our survival because it has many gases.” Voila.

•  Try to understand the concept of what you’re learning instead of just memorizing first go. This means to organize your thoughts and understand “why this is happening.” Teachers will put questions where you have to “apply your knowledge” and understanding the concept will help you with this. 

•   Be friends with your upperclassmen. They aren’t scary and they can really help you. Ask for advice about classes and how to cope with high school.

 That is the end of my high school tips for you! This was really long, i know, but i hope you found some helpful tips that will make your years at high school a little bit better. ;-)

[livingbutamireally]

AY2019/2020 Y1S2 Module Reviews

AY2019/2020 year 1 semester 2 review

Wew this semester was more of a honeymoon period for me still since I cant advance past CS1010S - this is only the first CS mod i have to take big oof. First half of the sem was spent mostly on (re)doing CS1010S AFAST and the rest went to catching up on other modules that are of relatively lower intensities compared to modules i imagine i will have to take next semester? The most challenging mods this sem goes to CS1010S, EC1301 and also.. ST2334? About half of the semester was done at home though due to the COVID-19 pandemic and so the never-ending heap of online lectures to review (for which i am always behind on unfortunately). I have no need to S/U any module this sem fortunately but that also means I might have effectively wasted my last COVID S/Us. I’m also the kind that is happy enough just to pass.

Modules taken this semester:

CS1010S (AFAST)

GEH1031

GES1041

EC1301

ST2334

MKT1705X

CS1010S Programming Methodology (Python) – AFAST

School of Computing

Prof: Ben Leong

Exam Dates: 16 Jan (Midterm Mock - not graded) / 24 Feb (Practical Exam) / 28 Feb (Finals)

Weightage:

Coursemology – 25%

Participation – 5%

Midterm test – NA

Practical exam – 20%

Final assessment – 50%

Since i took the alternative finals i have updated the final weightage for this module (last sems CS1010S had different weightages).

As we already know, this module (or any CS modules in general) easily has the highest workload compared to other modules, except this time without needing to complete missions every week? Also since its a re-module, there were no lectures/tutorials/recitations for this module and the prof spent lesser time than the first module with us. There is just one consultation slot per week that lasts about 1.5-2h, where the TAs/ prof Ben goes through exam questions over the past years and where students get to voice any doubts they might have. Hence, a lot of self-discipline is required on our part to grind past year papers consistently and drill our brains. Not sure if i’ve mentioned this before, but it’s nice of them to provide comprehensive worked solutions for about 50 exam papers (or maybe more) the profs claimed it was the only module in NUS to be doing this. Prof mentioned he was a bit disappointed in our batch as many werent putting in considerable effort right from the start aka ponning consultation slots arranged over the holidays (in December) - which is a lot of effort coming from the professor to arrange this just for our batch (first batch of CS1010S AFAST). Just name me any prof who does this for their students, coming back over the holidays to teach unpaid. Those who were not at level 50 in Coursemology had more time now to finish the missions/side-quests needed to achieve level 50 and get the full points for Coursemology (as we were expected to in Sem 1). Things were a bit rusty after the holidays at the start but it became better with practice. Was a bit disappointed at not being able to get question 2 right during the written paper (finals) it was a bit of an IQ-ish problem solving question. Anyways winged the 4m what-did-you-learn essay question (as usual) at the end as a saving grace and passed albeit by a very bit. I improved by 2 marks ?? compared to the last semester for finals, not the nicest thing to see after so much effort being put in but still. I think I’m just better at writing essays than coding....

Results for the PE

Mean is 14. Median is also 14. Standard Deviation is 7.6. Highest grades was 30/30 Question 1 turned out to be harder than we had intended, but Q2 was quite easy and most of Q3 was doable by most, as you can see in the results. Passing mark for PE is roughly 10/30. 

Mean is 51/10, median is 53/100 and standard deviation is 14.4. Highest was 81/100. Generally, the performance was much worse than we had expected. Pass grade for Finals is roughly 40/100.

Basically, if got 10/30 for PE and 40/100 for Finals and you have done your Coursemology assignments you can expect a C grade. If not, then prepare to SU. CS1010S is not graded on a curve. We set question to test that you have mastered certain concepts and your final grade is a reflection of what you seem to have mastered as reflected by your exam performance.

This whole module was done by recess week so we have more time to focus on other mods. Honestly will be happy enough just to pass. Now, how do i survive CS23030 and CS2040 rip.

GEH1031 Understanding the Universe

Faculty of Science (Physics)

Prof: Cindy Ng

Weightage:

Term Test 1 (3 Mar) – 25%

Term Test 2 (16 Apr) – 25%

Video presentation 5 Apr – 25%

Video critiques 17 Apr – 10%

Astrophotograph 17 Apr – 10%

Quizzes – 10%

Ng is relatively a slower-paced lecturer, which is good for someone like me who cant keep up with faster-paced profs. 2x on her elearning lecture videos makes the best pace imo. Her lecture slides are concise and simple, and will suffice in revision. While she does explain more in depth especially for concepts that are harder to grasp (not many) during the lecture i love that she keeps her lecture slides straight forward to the point. Everything was in point form, short and sweet much appreciated. Also if you pay attention to her lectures, you will do well for the quizzes at the end of each chapter for sure. Though i think you get the marks for quizzes as long as you did them before each deadline like participation marks kinda (?) rather than being graded on whether you answered them correctly. I didn’t do too well for term test 2 unfortunately and I also only just found out you can display the statistics of where you place among the cohort in LUMINUS and needless to say I didn’t place too well. It’s a relatively manageable module though there’s still a lot of content. Term test 1 consisted of MCQs and about 3 2m questions which she call “essay questions” which can be misleading for some (like me!). The MCQs are very tricky and most come in the format of these options: is A/ is not A/ is B/ is not B and you have to pick the right combination (2) out of these 4 options to score 1 point, which of course means less chances of getting them correct compared to the usual 25% in a typical MCQ. Term test 2 was held on LUMINUS at home, and this time since its an e-exam there was only 10mins to do about 25 MCQ, leaving only 0.4 minutes = 24s for 1 MCQ, which proved to be really stressful for many as voiced out by other cohort mates in the forum section (so very valid). The e-exam also had an essay component, 2m per question with 4 questions under 10 minutes. The implementation of this time constraint was to prevent cheating but the duration given was (I feel) unreasonable. As for the video presentation, we had to come up with a 7 min (at most) video most of which lasts 5/6mins on a news article in 2020 regarding astronomy. We had to form groups of 3 at the start of the semester, and were told to look for members on the forums if we did not have enough members. It is not necessary to show your face so you can be creative! For my group, we had a Germany graduate exchange student to work with us which was really cool.  Our group’s theme was NASA’s discovery of exoplanets with the use of TESS which was wrapped up in March, before the deadline in April. Really thankful for him to prompt us each week for progress and have it done and over with instead of rushing it last minute when things get busy during reading week. (I think the guy was really done with us im so sorry Philipp if you are reading this.) Also since term test 2 was done by mid-April we had more time allocated for other modules to prepare for finals (swee). Video critiques were supposedly 50 words long if i remembered correctly but i didnt find out until i hit the submit button and :_D i left 1/2-liners for each. One of the criteria of this video critique was showing that you have watched the videos of other groups well but i dont rmb my critiques proving that ive watched the videos carefully though i really did. I think our group did the best in our cluster though! (based on the critiques). For the astrophotograph, we could take part in the astronomy sessions held on a Friday of every month to use the telescopes but there wasn’t any this semester sadly due to the pandemic.

GES1041 Everyday Ethics in Singapore

Faculty of Arts and Sciences (Philosophy)

Prof: Chin Chuan Fei

Weightage:

4 Journal Entries – 20%

4 Reading Quizzes – 20%

Group Report – 10%

Group Presentation – 20%

Finals – 40%

Chin’s lectures are pretty enjoyable, his voice/tone really suits lectures. He is a very approachable person too and willing to share a lot of experiences relevant to the topic at hand. He includes snippets of related videos in his slides many of which are insightful that made me share with my friends too. There is a total of 4 main themes in the module which are namely inequality, meritocracy, multiculturalism and migration and he also introduced the use of an ethical toolbox to helps us reach a more definitive thought process especially for an abstract topic like philosophy. I didn’t realise this was a philo mod when bidding for it so I was really surprised when i went for the first lecture (like bro it clearly says ETHICS what was i thinking). I also thought it would be something similar to Social Studies but was proven wrong. There are compulsory readings to do each week, about 20 pages long usually per reading and they are all chapters from books written by other Singaporean philosophers regarding the themes gone through which helped to widen my perspectives and broadened my horizons, those were some really good selection of readings. I have learned more things than I previously knew about the foreign domestic workers, migrant workers, racism in Singapore among the many topics we have dealt with.

This module is for those who are : 

Comfortable with reading a lot every week (i put a lot here because i dont usually read)

Comfortable with writing essays (journal entry) 500 words each

Proficient in English (some of the expressions used can be quite complex and may take you a much longer time to process and understand especially with the reading quizzes that tests your comprehension of the readings - really just comprehension in true GP fashion)

Have a lot of experience in this field, those under social work would have many and will be able to share relevant experiences in the journal entry

Interested about the aforementioned themes

Reading quizzes are like comprehension style questions: do your readings and the questions tests you on what you have read so you just have to look for evidence of each option, the questions will refer you to the specific page/reading that will guide you (nice of them to do so). Journal entries and reading quizzes occur on an alternative week basis so reading quizzes followed by journal then reading quiz again and so forth. Nearing the end, you will be grouped according to who you sit close with and you will work together with your group members to work on a project that will have 2 overlapping themes about any policies/ observations of Singapore. It is advisable for the scope to not be too broad. e.g. we chose to talk about offering Muslim food in school canteens vs non-Muslim food (fewer food options for Muslims) and this encompasses both the multiculturalism and inequality themes. The group report will be due before the presentation and it helps identify some main points you will then talk about later during the presentation. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the group presentation this semester was done on Microsoft Powerpoint through voice-over slides. God bless, and there goes the need to memorise scripts especially with the finals season so near. The professor was really accommodating and gave us more time to prepare the voice-over slides when he announced that it will be held on powerpoint too. Finals was 20 MCQs in 1 hour on LUMINUS, the questions were similar to the reading quizzes (5 MCQs per quiz).

EC1301 Principles of Economics

Faculty of Arts and Sciences (Economics)

Prof: Ong Ee Cheng

Tutor: Devika

Weightage:

Pre/post-lecture Quizzes

Class Participation

Midterms 7 Mar

Finals 29 Apr

Can’t find the actual breakdown of scores sorry!

Bell-curve is really really steep for this one since its purely MCQ. Divided into micro and macroeconomics so first half of the sem was micro then the other half was macro. Finals was about 70% macro and 30% micro since micro was already tested for midterms. Every week, there’s a pre-lecture quiz to be done before the lecture and a post-lecture quiz due before the next lecture to reinforce your learning. There’s also supplementary readings that were given but i gave up on it by the third week. The way it is taught is a bit different from what I was used to in JC the things they focus on is also a bit different. There’s more calculations than JC whereas JC economics was more conceptual? I took only H1 economics so a lot of concepts were fresh for me like monopolism, comparative/absolute advantages, income elasticity etc. Both midterms and finals was held on Examplify with a lockdown on everything including wifi. The lecturer also provides additional practice questions in the form of quizzes nearing the exams instead of exam papers. To be honest, I felt this module was hard?? Not sure if anyone else felt the same way, it was a struggle.. I thought it was a fluff mod and boy was i very wrong about this. Also important thing to note is though this mod has MCQ-only exam, the MCQs are not 4 options but 6 options long with many tricky options and of course time constraint. Finals was 70/80 questions long in 1h iirc. Midterms was 40 questions. After the 3rd (?) tutorial, there was no more physical tutorials held just zoom tutorial sessions which only 3 ppl in my slot regularly attended. Towards the finals, a lot more zoom sessions were opened up and we could attend other TA’s zoom sessions this was a godsend thank you. My tutor wasn’t really clear in her explanations or maybe it is just me her accent came off a bit strong. I emailed her some questions but even now I have not receive any answers from her, she told me next week, and the next week became next next week and so on. I guess she must have had a lot on her plate. I didn’t think she was a good tutor. I flunked my midterms (5% percentile) so I was a bit dejected.

ST2334 Probability and Statistics

Faculty of Science (Statistics and Applied Probability)

Prof: Chan Yiu Man

Tutor: Li Shang

Weightage:

1. Quiz 1,2,3 (CA1) – 30% (?)

2. Finals – 60% (?)

Prof was really funny and friendly. Although his tutorials left me confused (my friends would care to disagree), his lectures were still pretty good. He always emphasised knowing what we are doing rather than doing the math blindly. The tutor was fast in his replies whenever I asked him questions by email. This module is an extension of statistics in JC, probability and many more probability distribution (F, chi-square, t test, z test) with terms we have never encountered before too (unless you took BT1101 but this mod focuses more on deriving the values than having a program-R calculate it for you). Ever since the outbreak, the lectures were converted to e-lecture slide style but each lesson would take 4 lectures (4h), instead of the 2 lecture per week so we had to spend more time watching the videos than usual. It is easy to be behind on videos when there is only e-lecture videos so much discipline is required to stay on task.

Finals was proctored with zoom and held on Luminus in the form of a quiz. We were expected to scan and submit a pdf with our workings after the exam. I did not have time to finish about 8 questions (a lot of marks gone) there were a total of 30 questions, spent too much time in front on the easier questions. I did study for the later questions but had no chance to utilize what I have revised (sad). I am really dead for this module i hope i dont fail this.

Update. God bless, thought i was really doomed for because i lost so many marks from not being able to finish 8/30 questions that have the most marks rewarded. Guess i really took time to make less mistakes on the previous questions.

MKT1705X Principles of Marketing

Business School (Marketing)

Prof: Regina Yeo

Tutor: Ms Canley

Weightage:

Individual Assignment – 15%

Group Assignment – 25% due in tutorials 4/5

Subject Pool – 10% *

Class Participation – 10% *

Final Exam 30 Apr – 40% *

* not too sure, checked from other reviewers

Individual assignment questions (total of 5) for tutorials 1-3 are given at the start for which the tutor will go through in the allocated weeks. We get to choose the question we want to do and if that week, the question will be discussed that week will be the deadline for our IAs. The other questions in the IA do not have to be submitted but will be discussed in class. There’s class participation for this module so people were more eager than I was used to, to answer questions in class. I had no opportunity to though in this module (halfway into the semester it became elearning), the tutor had too many hands to pick. The tutor was very accommodating and knew our difficulties and was willing to work out compromise. However, her classes were centered mainly on her experiences (which can be a bit boring) it could have been better if she went through the content. Understand that it is a fluff module that requires many examples, but would be good to relate them back to the content we are expected to master. Tutorials are held every alternate week and we are expected to do the individual questions even if we do not need to submit so that we have something at least to share in class. Subject pool was giveaway marks basically do 6 research surveys and u will get the full marks for that. Final exam comprises of 3 essay questions (40m, 30m, 30m) that you have to submit in 1.5h (i thought it was 2h during the paper rip mad rush for the end), no references/research needed but there’s a plagiarism checker by TurnItIn on luminus basically testing the application of concepts to examples.

I got a B+ for group assignment, and A- for individual assignment. I think i can only do essay styled questions, is this a sign to do arts.....

Oh the presentation was changed to a one-shot video recording (no stitching of individual videos together) instead of an actual presentation in front of your tutorial mates. I think a lot of other groups also read off their scripts but ours was really obvious. The tutor grades (structures her own bell-curve) based on those who attempted the same question to be more fair rather than comparing among all the different questions so in a way, the difficulty of the questions won’t affect your grade.

Epilogue. this is probably the last and only time i could do this well.... even if it does not fit the conventional definition of doing well......

[changedaily]

The Plan

The X Effect Day 0

January 06, 2017

Here’s the plan on how I’m going to start developing 11 new habits; it’s called the X Effect 

I didn’t come up with this.. I actually found it on reddit. The concept is simple enough.. pick a habit you want to develop and make a 7x7 table representing 49 boxes for 49 days. After completing a day of the habit, using a red pen, cross it with an X. The goal is to have 49 red Xs in your box, meaning you have completed that habit for 49 days. You have to be completely honest with yourself- if you didn’t complete the habit, keep the square blank and reflect on why you failed that day. Trust me when I say that you won’t want to have a blank, because seeing all boxes crossed will be so satisfying. I know for me personally, avoiding blanks in my charts is enough of a motivator to complete the habits for all days.  

11 habits might seem like overkill, but some of these are pretty easy and I’ve already been doing a couple of times a week, so I just need to make sure I’m doing it every single day. Meditating, exercising, visualizing, drinking 2L water are all things I have been doing for a while (just not every single day) so the point of me adding these is to make sure it becomes a daily thing. The other habits I’ve added will be new to me; some of them involve doing things, while others involve avoiding things; we’ll see which type is harder at the end. Let me get into more detail of each habit and why I want to develop it as part of my daily regimen. 

(1) Meditate for 15 minutes: I want to become a meditation master both for spiritual reasons and for practical reasons. On one hand, I want to become more enlightened, find consciousness, kill my ego, find pure bliss and peace. On the other hand, I want to learn to control and observe my thoughts so I can learn to ignore negative thoughts in my everyday life, and learn to increase my focus which can translate to everyday tasks such as working and studying. Also, all the other cool benefits that meditation brings.. like more happiness, better health, better sleep, etc. The steps I’m following are from the book The Mind Illuminated by Culadasa. This book outlines 10 steps of meditation- I’m only at step 2 where I’m learning to focus my attention on my meditation object (breath) while keeping peripheral awareness. Meditation used to be hard for me, even just doing it for 5 minutes was a challenge and I was always thinking about the timer.. but I’m at a point where I can keep my attention on my breath for longer periods of times, and some sessions fly by and don’t feel like 15 minutes. I already feel the effects in my everyday life. I’m able to be more mindful and present, I can analyze my emotions better and let go of negative thoughts and emotions more easily, and I’m a lot less reactive to external events than I used to be. I’m excited to see what the next steps bring me. 

(2) Visualize for 15 minutes: The point of me visualizing is to reach my subconscious mind and program my new self-image, by using imagination and emotion. In my visualizations, I picture myself in various scenarios that I want to happen. For example, my goal is to get straight As next semester (I already achieved that during last semester) so I visualize myself opening my final grades and seeing all As. Because I already experienced the feeling of getting straight As, I can translate that same emotion into this visualization to trick my body/mind into thinking it’s real for the next semester. I do this for other things I want to happen- such as how my body looks like skinnier, me having great friendships, me being more social/outgoing, me being kinder/friendlier, me being able to afford things like trips and an expensive apartment etc. the list goes on. I also use this time for affirmations. Anything to reach change my subconscious mind. The exercises/processes I use for visualizations come from the following books:

Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz

The Power of your Subconscious Mind by Joseph Murphy

Break the Habit of Being Yourself by Dr. Joe Dispenza

(3) Exercise- Gym or Home: I want to make this a daily thing because it makes me feel good, and to help me lose weight. My usual routine is to go to the gym and do cardio for an hour, then alternate days between arms and legs. If I’m too tired to go the gym, I have dumbbells and ankle weights at home that I can use for Pilates and other weight exercises. I will be posting progress pictures over the next 49 days to track my progress with my body.

(4) 2L of water: This one is fairly obvious- we all know the benefits of water. However, water is never something I get enough of unless I consciously think of drinking it. Usually I’ll have 0.5-1L a day, so I want to use this exercise to increase my consumption.

(5) Study for 15 mins: This means a minimum of 15 minutes a day- but usually I’ll probably do an hour or two. As a 4th year University student, I have never given much thought to my grades until this year. I have always been a procrastinator and never kept up with studies. I somehow was able to slide by with some As, some Bs, some Cs and a couple of Ds. All my exams were studied the night before and all my projects were done last minute- it was draining and unmotivating. However, this year I decided I need to increase my GPA and get all As. Last semester, I started to really keep up with my readings by making time each week to do some school work. This allowed me to understand and absorb the content more easily, which made me more prepared for the exams. I ended with three A- and one A+. Next semester (which starts in 10 days) I want to achieve five A+. Since my semester hasn’t started yet, I’m going to start studying for my classes before the semester starts. I have already gotten 2 of my textbooks, so I can start reading the chapters. By the time the semester starts, not only will I be prepared but I will have already started to make a habit of studying daily.

(6) Stay off social media: This is going to be one of the hardest ones. As a millennial, I pretty much grew up with social media and being addicted to the Internet. It all started with creating a neopets account in Elementary school.. then went on to explore the creepy world of Yahoo Chat.. then came a Myspace account in grade 6-7, then Facebook and Twitter became popular throughout grade 8 and high school.. and in University all the other ones started to pop up like Instagram, Snapchat, etc. I feel like I’m so used to putting my life online that I feel empty when I go a few days without letting people know where I’ve been or what I’m doing. If I ever feel down about myself, I’m used to just validating myself through likes and comments. The main reasons I’m staying off social media are to become more present/mindful, and to increase my self esteem. I’ve gotten to a point where I feel unloved and unworthy if my pictures don’t reach a certain amount of likes. I find myself constantly comparing myself to my friends and wondering why they have 500+ followers and 200+ likes on all their photos, while mine only have 20-50. Another dangerous thing that I have noticed is when I go to places and do cool things, most of my thoughts are on what picture I can take that at the event will look cool on my Instagram and show people I’m trendy.. instead of actually enjoying the moment. Now I’m still going to use Facebook Messenger because at this point I consider it a messaging tool since a lot of communications with friends happen over this app, especially group chats. By staying off social media, I mean that I will stop (1) posting (2) creeping other people (3) scrolling through my feeds, 

(7) and (8) No Sugar or Dairy: This is mainly due for health reasons and for weight loss. Chocolate and sweets is my one downfall and something I have no willpower over. I can never just eat a piece of chocolate, I always consume the entire bar. Besides, we all know the dangers of sugar and how we’re addicted to it, so why not get rid of it. When I mean sugar, I mean sweets and desserts and soda.. I know sugar is in a lot of other things like sauces and dressings, but for now I won’t count that. As for dairy, I’m fairly certain dairy causes me to break out, so I’m including it in this challenge. It will also prevent me from eating things like chocolate and ice cream. 

(9) Wake up With Alarm: This means I will wake up with my alarm every morning. I’m still going to allow one snooze, but the idea is that if on a Saturday morning I put 2 alarms for 9 am and 9:30 am.. then I will be out of bed by 9:30 am and not snooze until 2 pm (like I usually do). This is so I can regulate my sleeping pattern and not feel so exhausted during the week. I can also be more productive on weekends.

(10) IF 8 hours/16 hours: This stands for intermittent fasting.. I eat between 1-9pm (8 hours of fed state) and not eat between 9pm-1pm (16 hours of fast state). There’s tons of information you can find about this online and the benefits for it. This is something that I was doing last semester.. not purposely, but because I was so busy and stressed that I only had time to eat twice a day. I ended up losing weight doing this without even trying. This is also going to help my save money, and cut down my decisions throughout the day.

(11) No Data: This one is fairly simple; don’t use data on my phone. Why? Because I only have 1GB of data a month and I ALWAYS go over which means my phone bill is always ridiculously high. My plan is to stop using my data altogether and only use WiFi on it. If there’s an emergency and I need data (i.e. I’m lost in the city and need to pull up google maps), then I will allow myself to use it and not leave a box blank, but I will leave the box blank if I use my data to browse the internet during times that I’m bored in areas without WiFi (like I used to do). 

So that’s it.. those are the 11 habits I will start implementing tomorrow. Let’s see how this works out! Thanks for reading.