Thursday, November 09, 2006
What needs to be done? 1902. It has been done, by 1715 on 091106 How's that for a fricken obscure title?
It's done. 12 years of formal schooling ended with my revs paper, at 1715 hours on 9 november 2006.
The last word I wrote on the paper (last paper, ever! Not counting uni, of course.) was 'ideology'.
Not a bad way to end off, I must say. Connotations of hope/ idealism/ promise/ potential? That's beautiful. Connotations of rigidity/uncompromising attitudes/ unrealistic hopes? Uh, let's just not dampen the day, shall we?
I try to refrain from doing post-mortems during the exam period, and I'm still reluctant to do so even after my exams have ended, but I need some closure, dammit. (While I'm still writing in the style I used for my revs exam,) I might as well get all the feelings (good bad or otherwise - you know, like 'meh') regarding the exams... clean out of my system.
English - I really liked the media anlysis, and my text essays weren't the best essays I've ever written, but then again I didn't have three hours at my diposal, and how often do you write your best essays in an exam? Even if they weren't awe-inspiring, they were solid essays.
Satisfaction scale: 7.5/10
Literature - Ugh. I worked my ass off for this. I've written dozens of essays (averaging five hours each - no wonder the exam, with only an hour on each essay, felt like such a cursory exercise in "Hey! Spot the theme/ character/ technique and cross-reference your brains out!") and in the days leading up to the exam I spent hours and hours plopped in front of the computer tapping away at the keys to type out 10 solid pages of Children's Bach quotes in Times New Roman size 10. Scary stuff. So while I'm happy with the quality of my analysis, I'm not happy with the quantity. The lack of a conclusion and the weak conclusion on my Children's Bach and Lear essay respectively just sums up my disappointment in what could be described, (alongside Revs,) as my worst and best subject simultaneously. That's the thing about Arts of Humanities subjects - you can hate them with a passion, you can exult in them, but by no means are those two feelings mutually exclusive.
Satisfaction scale: 6/10
Physics - I worked my ass off for Physics as well, feeling I had to live up to my school valedictory prize for Physics (which I felt, and still feel, should have gone to Leanne. If you're reading this, know that in my and many other people's minds, you are the person most deserving of the prize. But I'll like to keep the book prize, please. Stephen Hawking and a ginormous tome on the development of Astrophysics? Count me in!!) I thought the paper was good, I would have been happier if I had left more time for checking, but overall I'm happy.
Satisfaction scale: 8/10
Chemistry - I'm happy with the amount of work I put in for Chemistry, and I hope I don't jinx myself/ curse myself/ reveal my misguided complacency if I declare Chemistry the easiest exam paper I have ever done for any subject. It was the easiest Chemistry paper even compared to any of the (15) past year practice exams I've done. Ok. I'm just asking for it, right? I'm asking to be jinxed. I'm asking for a raw subject score of 10 if I go on about how easy it is, because in my experience I usually do worse for a subject I think I did well in and much better for a subject that I think I screwed up in. There's always room for caution, and going by that logic, there's hope yet for my lit paper.
Satisfaction scale: 9.5/10 (minus half for complacency factor.)
History: Revolutions - the difference between Revs and Lit is that Lit comes to me a whole lot easier than Revs does. The language of literature and the language of revolution are quite different. Both have to adhere to basic grammatical structure, syntax, etc. but in terms of essay writing, the styles are not at all similar. Revs is short, sharp, to the point (although I tend to ramble). Lit has to be succint too but there is more room for expression, for flow, for exploration. Funny as hell how my writing style in the beginning of the year for Revs was more suited to literature - I remember writing a heap of crap about the role of women in the revolution that was almost poetic but only earned me half the maximum marks available; while my writing style for Lit at the start of the year was more for Revs - slavish line by line working through of the passages and rigid, disciplined cross-referencing. Somehow I managed to reverse this about two months before the exams. ANYWAY, back on track (damn I go off on tangents so easily) I was very pleased with my China questions in Section A Part 1 and fairly happy with Section A Part 2. Russia Section B Part 1 was not in any way terrible but I felt I could have whipped my answer into better shape. Section B Part 2 was good. And that's it. On par or slightly below as compared to my practice exam (93%), so no complaints.
Satisfaction scale: 7.1286542/10 (because damn, perfomance on revs papers is hard to judge)
So yeah, not going to get a 99 or even a 95 and maybe not even a 90. But an 88? Should be possible. Then I can mooch off my parents for the next 3-4 years.
F*ck I'm self-absorbed. Need a change of subject! (no pun intended)
How are the As coming along, my dears??
The last word I wrote on the paper (last paper, ever! Not counting uni, of course.) was 'ideology'.
Not a bad way to end off, I must say. Connotations of hope/ idealism/ promise/ potential? That's beautiful. Connotations of rigidity/uncompromising attitudes/ unrealistic hopes? Uh, let's just not dampen the day, shall we?
I try to refrain from doing post-mortems during the exam period, and I'm still reluctant to do so even after my exams have ended, but I need some closure, dammit. (While I'm still writing in the style I used for my revs exam,) I might as well get all the feelings (good bad or otherwise - you know, like 'meh') regarding the exams... clean out of my system.
English - I really liked the media anlysis, and my text essays weren't the best essays I've ever written, but then again I didn't have three hours at my diposal, and how often do you write your best essays in an exam? Even if they weren't awe-inspiring, they were solid essays.
Satisfaction scale: 7.5/10
Literature - Ugh. I worked my ass off for this. I've written dozens of essays (averaging five hours each - no wonder the exam, with only an hour on each essay, felt like such a cursory exercise in "Hey! Spot the theme/ character/ technique and cross-reference your brains out!") and in the days leading up to the exam I spent hours and hours plopped in front of the computer tapping away at the keys to type out 10 solid pages of Children's Bach quotes in Times New Roman size 10. Scary stuff. So while I'm happy with the quality of my analysis, I'm not happy with the quantity. The lack of a conclusion and the weak conclusion on my Children's Bach and Lear essay respectively just sums up my disappointment in what could be described, (alongside Revs,) as my worst and best subject simultaneously. That's the thing about Arts of Humanities subjects - you can hate them with a passion, you can exult in them, but by no means are those two feelings mutually exclusive.
Satisfaction scale: 6/10
Physics - I worked my ass off for Physics as well, feeling I had to live up to my school valedictory prize for Physics (which I felt, and still feel, should have gone to Leanne. If you're reading this, know that in my and many other people's minds, you are the person most deserving of the prize. But I'll like to keep the book prize, please. Stephen Hawking and a ginormous tome on the development of Astrophysics? Count me in!!) I thought the paper was good, I would have been happier if I had left more time for checking, but overall I'm happy.
Satisfaction scale: 8/10
Chemistry - I'm happy with the amount of work I put in for Chemistry, and I hope I don't jinx myself/ curse myself/ reveal my misguided complacency if I declare Chemistry the easiest exam paper I have ever done for any subject. It was the easiest Chemistry paper even compared to any of the (15) past year practice exams I've done. Ok. I'm just asking for it, right? I'm asking to be jinxed. I'm asking for a raw subject score of 10 if I go on about how easy it is, because in my experience I usually do worse for a subject I think I did well in and much better for a subject that I think I screwed up in. There's always room for caution, and going by that logic, there's hope yet for my lit paper.
Satisfaction scale: 9.5/10 (minus half for complacency factor.)
History: Revolutions - the difference between Revs and Lit is that Lit comes to me a whole lot easier than Revs does. The language of literature and the language of revolution are quite different. Both have to adhere to basic grammatical structure, syntax, etc. but in terms of essay writing, the styles are not at all similar. Revs is short, sharp, to the point (although I tend to ramble). Lit has to be succint too but there is more room for expression, for flow, for exploration. Funny as hell how my writing style in the beginning of the year for Revs was more suited to literature - I remember writing a heap of crap about the role of women in the revolution that was almost poetic but only earned me half the maximum marks available; while my writing style for Lit at the start of the year was more for Revs - slavish line by line working through of the passages and rigid, disciplined cross-referencing. Somehow I managed to reverse this about two months before the exams. ANYWAY, back on track (damn I go off on tangents so easily) I was very pleased with my China questions in Section A Part 1 and fairly happy with Section A Part 2. Russia Section B Part 1 was not in any way terrible but I felt I could have whipped my answer into better shape. Section B Part 2 was good. And that's it. On par or slightly below as compared to my practice exam (93%), so no complaints.
Satisfaction scale: 7.1286542/10 (because damn, perfomance on revs papers is hard to judge)
So yeah, not going to get a 99 or even a 95 and maybe not even a 90. But an 88? Should be possible. Then I can mooch off my parents for the next 3-4 years.
F*ck I'm self-absorbed. Need a change of subject! (no pun intended)
How are the As coming along, my dears??
# posted by me lah @ 7:16 pm 
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Oh yay, finally you decide to take down the tagboard which is causing much inconvenience when visiting your awesome blog. ((: haha, anyway, I hope you emerge good in your exams! Now you do well in chem? (or so you say, and I believe!) Mrs Ang would be too proud! haha, and my papers are starting only on monday, and I've got Lear only then. Haha, so far I've got GP, and trust me when I say I have no clue whats happening in the world! You take care! Enjoy post-exams!
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