Sunday, October 31, 2010

Studying is not easy.

Okay, it's Halloween, haven't posted in like, ages, and exams haven't ended yet.

It wasn't a hiatus, really. It was more of a "I feel like I'm dying and like my life is ebbing away and it's become so meaningless I have nothing to post about" thing.

Since our English paper is tomorrow (which consists of an hour's worth of essay writing), I'll launch into a full-scale practice essay for tomorrow.

I have one hour.

So let's start crapping.


As many concerned parents have made a point to constantly remind their children, whatever amount of effort they put into their education will be reflected in their future. In order for one to thrive in the fast-paced, dog-eat-dog society of today, one must prove one's worth beforehand. And one way to do so is to attain outstanding examination results. Consequently, the students of today are told to study, and when they do, to study harder. However, studying is not as easy a task as parents make it out to be.

Studying is defined by parents as simply sitting down, cracking open a textbook and reading, or practicing ironically countless calculations, in order to achieve As for examinations. It is, on the other hand, defined by students as a form of torture, where they are forced to suppress their desires to do more entertaining things and instead subject themselves to hours of being in a single place, struggling to remember and understand names, figures, and concepts. There are many reasons why students absolutely abhor studying, but only a few main reasons will be addressed in this essay.

Firstly, students rarely find what they are tested on easy. Even in the presence of sheer motivation, the most disciplined of students waver when they realise that they are unable to comprehend a single thing, or are getting all the answers for practice questions wrong. The process of studying then becomes more tedious as a result, what with consultations, additional research, and head-scratching. The subject they are supposed to be studying becomes horribly unappealing, and studying is reduced to a chore rather avoided. This causes students to become frustrated and lack the motivation and the self-confidence to reattempt certain questions or readdress the topic at hand.

Secondly, to a student with upcoming examinations, everything else suddenly seems intriguing and requiring attention. For example, a student might be sitting at his desk memorising the names of various granitic formations for his upcoming Geography examination, when the tapping of his pencil on the table becomes interestingly rhythmic, when the book becomes a comfortable resting place for his head, when his stomach becomes empty again, when the world outside seems like a much brighter place than indoors, and so forth. Distractions appear from out of thin air, which will inevitably lead to procrastination if not contained in time by discipline and the urge to pass said examination. It is unfair for parents to blame their children for such "time-wasting", as it is natural for their minds to automatically seek entertainment when bored. The human brain is constantly active, and its two responses to being bored are to either fall asleep, or to find alternative things to do. Additionally, things are made worse when a student feels guilty for not studying, so they wind up torn between studying and not studying. Perhaps if studying were made more entertaining, students would find it a more attractive activity to adopt.

The third reason why studying is not easy is the cause of studying itself: examinations. Exam papers are constantly shrouded in mystery until taken, rendering students unsure of themselves before entering the examination venue; insecure and agitated. Another reflex of the human mind is to simply avoid whatever an individual fears, loathes, or whatever makes the individual uneasy. In response to such a reflex, students shun studying, knowing it leads to exams, and knowing that they will never put in enough effort to achieve desired results in the end. A scenario to illustrate this point may go like this: A student invests much time and effort in a paper, but when results are released, he discovers with much disappointment that he is still unable to improve his score. His confidence wavers and his willingness to work harder dissipates into thin air. To sum it all up, the word "studying" becomes synonymous to the word "unhappy".

Although it is evident from this essay that studying is not the most elementary of tasks, it remains a necessity that helps students survive their future out of school, and also to live up to the expectations of their parents. It is crucial not to forget the importance of a positive school report. Only with good qualifications out of school, then can one find oneself in a favourable position to further one's education and hence climb higher up in society. If a student values momentary comfort and happiness by not making the effort to study over the long-term feeling of accomplishment when he or she looks back at a well-deserved high-paying income, for example, then he or she will certainly live to regret the decision. With this said, it can be concluded that sadly, studying, as difficult as it may be, still has to be done.


Okay, my hour is up.

And yeah, I really don't like studying, but we've got no choice and what's got to be done has to be done.

So bring it on, world. Bring it on.


Okay, better go now. It's bad enough I don't post for days without me coming up with a ridiculously long-winded post.

Adieu.


P.S. Mystery solved: Kurt Schneider can sing. Made my day.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Detrimental.

Just done watching The Amazing Race 17 episode 5.

Happy 'cause TeamJumba's still in it. You know how he has to compromise the race by choosing less physically challenging roadblocks just so his dad can keep up? I think that's really nice of him.

And I'm kinda glad 'cause the volleyball team got eliminated. They're not exactly the nicest team (in fact, I don't really like 'em 'cause they badmouth other teams all the time).

It's k-k-karma, baby.


Last day of proper lessons ended today.

Nothing spectacular. Had two hours of Chem, an hour of Math and an hour of Malay. Just revision, revision and more revision.

Exams are coming. Oh yeah exams are definitely coming.

And it's scary. Oh so scary.


Like we were saying earlier in the canteen while celebrating Faiz's birthday, "What exams? After all, they only determine the rest of your life. Nothing important, no, not at all."

It's funny how we're able to talk about throwing away our future so casually.


Ugh, pivotal life moments.


Reading days start tomorrow till the day after. Starting 'em off with Geog consultation (why oh why did I sign up for that?) followed by two hours of Physics.

Sounds fun.


Going off now. Have to start striving for that future we talk about but have slim chances of making a reality.

Hm.


P.S. Paul the psychic octopus died today. People say it was too bad he didn't see it coming, but I don't think it's a good thing to be able to predict your own death.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Obscurity.

Loving the weather right now.

Living with no air-conditioning totally makes us more sensitive to weather changes. When you've got air-conditioning, it doesn't really matter what the weather outside is like. If it's hot, no problem. If it's humid, no difference.

But take a look at us air conditioner deprived people.

We definitely appreciate cool, non-humid weather much more.

Thankfully the haze has cleared up, too.


PE today was weird. Last PE session of the year, so we got to play poisonball and monkey and captain's ball. Dr Sun is sexist (for the billionth time, not 'sexy', like Yos keeps accusing me of saying).

He kinda likes to split the class into guys and girls, and encourage ball throwing at girls. That's so unfair.


English was weird too. Did that paragraph development thing. English worries me right now. I don't think I can make it.

Level briefing-ed during mentoring. This year's OBS got cancelled (I'm kinda indifferent, 'cause I wasn't going to join anyway). It's funny how Ms Fong blatantly takes advantage of these things to talk about our impending Bio paper.


Math kinda scares me too, and Geog is just a bunch of stuff to read up on about rocks.

I honestly can't look at anything with the words "limestone" or "granite" without thinking of tower karsts, sinkholes, castle koppies and bornhardts. It's like it's taken control of my brain.

Mr Chia was talking about the CAST diagram a few days ago, and the bunch of us went, "karst?"

Yeah, it is that sad.


All right, better be going now. Last day of proper classes of the year tomorrow.

Night.


P.S. Man, had so much fun teasing Stanley about yesterday's race this morning. Joshua and I were all like, "So, Stanley, who crashed out yesterday? I wonder who. Oh, and who won? Hmm. I wonder who." We're so mean.

P.P.S. Farewell assembly was kinda nice. I think I would've liked it more if I hadn't been desperately needing the bathroom through it all.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Yeongam 2010

School tomorrow. Again.

Exams coming soon. Again.

Listening to songs from KurtHugoSchneider's channel. Again.

Ferrari won an F1 race. Again.


The internet connection is horrible. Don't like it at all.

Don't school authorities know that connection to the internet is probably what keeps us alive? We'd be a lot happier if it was fast.

Anyway, highlight of my day was the first Korean Grand Prix at Yeongam. Took all afternoon, 'cause the race got delayed by the rain, and lap times were a lot slower and there were plenty of safety car entries and accidents.

Alonso first and Massa third, wedging Hamilton in between. Yeah, I admit we kinda got lucky there, but you know, if your car catches fire (Vettel), or if you crash out (Webber) and take someone (Rosberg) with you, or just end up in a really horrible position and can't make it back up (Button), you could always blame it on the driver or the team (which is kinda mean, so I'mma say they were all unlucky).

So yeah, that's how both Red Bulls didn't finish, and how poor Rosberg had his race ended by Webber (Mercedes was doing pretty well, 'cause Schumi got fourth, his best finish of the season so far).

Driver's championship is totally wide open now, with Alonso leading (yay).

Two more races to go.

I wish I could watch races live on television.


Okay, better go off now. Don't want to die during school tomorrow.


Adieu.


P.S. "Your eyes, your eyes, make the stars seem like they're not shining." "Yeah, they really aren't shining, 'cause of the haze."

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Year End Boarding Dinner 2010.

Feet ache, but man, we only get to do this only once a year, so totally worth it.

Year End Boarding Dinner 2010 just ended. It was surprisingly shorter than last year's, though. It's like last year, there was plenty more in the programme, and this year it was just performance, eat, some random game, eat, more performances, awards, more performances, disco.

It's almost as if they were rushing to get to the disco bit.


Yeah, plenty of fun.

When you're losing your voice and going deaf at the same time, you can't really tell how bad either is, 'cause you can't hear how bad your voice is, and you don't know whether you can blame that on bad hearing.


Kinda hungry now, actually. Hm.


Okay, the high-ness is wearing off.

Tired.

Night.


P.S. And yeah, totally wore a dress through it all and totally survived. (Quick, congratulate me.)

P.P.S. Wish we could've had the dinner after exams, but what to do.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

∆U = Q + W

I didn't think it was possible, but I'm afraid I might have run dry of bullsh*t juice.

Just finished with Geog module journal 2, and I'm totally done with the sixteen journal entries we have to do for English.

And because I seem to not be able to count, I accidentally did an extra article, which makes seventeen in total.

I am such an idiot.

Could've saved me half an hour of my life, but no, I can't count.

So this is why we learn how to count in kindergarden. To prevent you from accidentally doing too much work.

I feel so cheated.


Did our graded class task on our Math journal today during Math (man, I seem to be able to talk about nothing but journals in this post). Was all right, I guess. But as all journals go, bullsh*tted a lot there, too.

Mr Chia asked us what a model was, and he overheard me saying something about people dressing up in clothes to display them and walking down runways. I swear, teachers give me the weirdest looks.

Speaking of runways, I totally miss Project Runway.

Need to catch up with it soon.


Geog was all "do your Karst tutorial" but we kinda used the time to talk about other things instead. Whoops.

Went through two questions on thermody during Physics. ∆U = Q + W -ed our way through. I don't know why Yos gets so agitated when we ask him how to do Physics questions. We're like, "Hey, I don't understand this-" and he's all like, "Howcouldyounotknowit'scommonsensejustsubinthevalues..." and so on.

English, English. Let's not talk about English. Almost failed SA Essay 3. Tsk. Deterioration much. It's horrible and I feel awful about it. It's not cool to suck at something you were once actually good at. Not cool, man.

Time to bring myself to bring on the big words.


Last Bio quiz of the year was okay, and extra Malay was all about us completely failing at cloze passages and imbuhan-ing and recalling peribahasa.


Okay, better go off now.

Need to do something other than typing and writing.

Adieu.


P.S. How on earth does one "walk like a girl"?


Wednesday, October 20, 2010

20/10/2010

Listening to the Phantom of the Opera soundtrack right now, wishing I could go on another holiday.

But I won't dwell on what can't be done (actually I can, but going off overseas a week before exams is probably just going to get me into a whole lot of trouble), and instead focus on what has to be done.

Exams exams exams they scare me, they do, these exams.

They say that the more times you go through something the easier it gets, but I find that particular saying really stupid.

It's not true for everything, you know.

Take breaking a bone, for example. Breaking your leg the second time probably won't hurt any less than the first time.

Or making a huge mistake in life. Making the same mistake again certainly won't be any less detrimental.

And exams. Oh exams. It's like the more you take the harder they get. It's ridiculous.

You can't deny that now, can you?


Feeling super tired right now. Should sleep early tonight.

Had a load of nothingness at school today. Two hours of talking over some Physics past year paper, half hour of break, an hour of non-existent Malay, an hour of "do-your-own-work" ACE, another half hour of break, then our final two hours of Bio for the sem.

Feel kinda sad. I like Ms Fong. She's an awesome teacher.


Okay, can't seem to be able to keep my eyes open.

Night.



P.S. It's been ages since I've made the date the post title, but this was too good to miss.