oh well.. i knew it!

You Are 72% Cynical

You're a full blown cynic... and probably even skeptical of these results. You have your optimistic moments, but most likely you keep them to yourself.

How Cynical Are You?

Promo Goals

I hope by now my students have set a good goal for their promo results... I know I have: top 5 in the cohort for 3R and 3H, and top 10 for 7B!

I know that many of you out there are stressed out and really busy, and I'm going to say here the same thing I wrote to my class' yahoogroups:

Life is like a marathon, and through it, sometimes we may feel discouraged or tired; the good thing is, how you end matters more than how you start. So PRESS ON! Lets end this year well!

Plan now and take necessary, proactive steps to attain your goal. Spot your weaknesses and plug them. Work on your basics if you are weak at them. Summarize your learning to key points. Summarize and define the strategies used to solve problems. Use these to make your practice more productive. Balance your equations.

Remember its not just practising a lot, its also practising the RIGHT WAY. So insist on doing your practice properly - proper understanding as opposed to copying, proper format as opposed to poor expression, properly writing out key points rather than have it all in one big mess(and missing out key and marking points). That's whats meant by studying smart. But still lotsa practice is needed for things like, helping with memory, and familiarity so that you can solve problems fast. If your old way of doing things didnt work for you, then you have to do it through new ways! No change = no improvement.

I've been too busy to blog recently yep so sorry for the lack of updates. I'm trying to press on till the end too :) - New notes coming soon.

SPAz

nuts about chem spaz? don't wanna be a spaz in the lab?

Watch the videos!

Seriously, go watch the videos, and visualize what you need to do for chem spaz. you need to get a level 8.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnQJ2q36d2E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIZ39gFsfqU

Make up SPA practice

For those who missed out on SPA practice, these are the make up schedules. Please inform me if you wanna go for any of these.

Also, for the real SPA, if you cannot come please have valid reason (its a national exam) like MC etc.If it is due to some school sanctioned event(away for competition etc) please let us know in advance as well.

Thanks.

Thursday...13 Jul...2 to 4pm...Chem Lab 1...Practice 2.........Chem Lab 4 Practice 1
Monday.....17 Jul...2 to 4pm...Chem Lab 4...Practice 1
Tuesday....18 Jul...2 to 4pm...Chem Lab 4...Practice 2
Thursday....20 Jul...2 to 4pm...Chem Lab 4...Practice 2
Wed..........26 Jul...2 to 4pm...Chem Lab 4....MOCK
Thursday....27 Jul...2 to 4pm...Chem Lab 4...MOCK

The doctor is IN!

Yo peeps,

i decided to set aside time to have consultations with pple

Its based on the free period/early days of the classes.
So if you are from a certain class and you got to see me, just approach me to make and appointment (otherwise i will assume i got no business for the day and close shop)

Make appointment in ADVANCE!~


The appointment will then usually be the timings we set aside here. Unless we make other special arrangements

So..
3R: Tuedays 11-12 or 1-2. I till take my lunch at the other slot tho
3H: Fridays 12-2
7B: Fridays 2-4

cya.

omg, i have sub average logical skills

Your IQ Is 120

Your Logical Intelligence is Below Average Your Verbal Intelligence is Genius Your Mathematical Intelligence is Exceptional Your General Knowledge is Exceptional

A Quick and Dirty IQ Test

What it all means is that i got no logical reasoning powers in my brain, although i look like i can really analyse stuff cos i can talk my way out of stuff. And Math is illogical dats why i'm exceptional. That includes general knowledge too. I mean stuff like the chemical formula of vanilla and chilli's capsaicin is similar is very illogical.

And finally i dunno why i'm a verbal genius, cos whenever i type or write, it comes out dsyelcix.

Shopping

Its been so frustrating shopping for records. I was looking for Death Cab's albums and I went to them all, Gramaphone, HMV, Borders... they've only got the EP- Stability, I managed to get Plans from gramaphone tho. But what I was really looking for was Transatlanticism and Photoalbum

And only HMV had Transatlanticism.. at a mind blowing 43$!!! I almost flipped when i saw the price OMG double-eww-tee-eff daylight robbery.

So I was resigned to just listening to music over Pandora... fortunately Pandora linked thru to Amazon..

So off I went to Amazon.. Transatlanticism was selling only for 12.99$ USD! That works out to be 20$SGD only!! I figured since I was going to pay for S&H, I may as well order more CDs..... so.. I bot Photoalbum, We got the Facts and We are Voting Yes, and Something about Airplanes!

All in all that worked out to be a total 56$USD incl. S&H. Onconversion thats about 90$SGD. Which works out to 22.50$sgd per CD. Amazing! Buy original!..
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Oh If you dunno what's Pandora, its simply amazing
Its an internet radio station, with a twist. You key in your favourite artiste or song title, and they produce a playlist of songs which are similar just for you. Great for discovering new music or artistes you'll like. After I got Pandora, I completely gave up on Singapore radio. Its all noise.

Go check it out --> www.pandora.com

Passion

Your True Love Is a Scorpio

Why you'll love a Scorpio: Strong and sexy, Scorpio will overpower you into falling in love (before you even realize it!). You'll love being swept away by Scorpio - into a world of insane passion. Why a Scorpio will love you: You don't mind letting your Scorpio take the reigns, as long as you know you're truly cared for. Loyal and devoted, you would never do anything to set off insanely jealous Scorpio.

What Sign Is Your True Love?

Haha I'll love a Scorpio?? but I am one! maybe dats why I love myself so much :P

Anyway, I think anything you do in life is fun only if you've the passion :D

I laffed when i saw the result

You Are Scary

You even scare scary people sometimes!

How Scary Are You?

3N

hey 3N peeps.. there were somethings I wanted to say during my gdbye and all da best speech today.. that i didn;t manage to say... well i was too focus on trying to deliver the message for you to press on and be consistent and reach your highest goal.

I wanted to say I'll be missing you all, and erm I never mean to "abandon" you all. its just.. an administrative thing i gas, distribution of workload and such. Hopefully I can catch you pple for lunch someday? tag on my blog if you are here!

love you all.

Common Test Results 2

I'd also like to announce good news more systematically

Technicals: MSG(Mean Subject Grade) almost works like reverse of GPA, A is 1 point, B is 2 points.. etc etc E is 5 pts, S is 6 pts, and U is 7 pts

So MSG is the average grade point for the whole class.

%A-B is the percentage of candidates from the class that obtained either grade A or B, and % pass is obviously the percentage of candidates that passed (obtained E and above)

There are a total of 40 JC1 classes taking Chemistry.

Against the entire cohort,
3R has been ranked #1 for MSG, #1 for %A-B, #2 for %pass. #1 for overall. congrats!

3H has been ranked #6 for MSG, #5 for %A-B, #5 for %pass. #4 for overall. congrats too! Though I think 3H should have done much better....

7B beat 7A, keep persevering people!

3N I'm not gg to post your results.. since technically I don't teach you anymore.. but all I gotta say is, you guys are smart enough to do well k, just be more focused, and attentive, and learn on a daily basis!

Congrats to individuals who made top 5% of the entire cohort
Ranking....Name.......... Class......Score(%)
#11............Lawrence.....3H.......... 83.1
#19........... Shimin..........3R...........79.1
#24............Hwee Juin... 3R...........77.7
#37............Bibianna.......3R...........73.0
#48............Xinhui...........3R...........70.9

Common Test Results

After days of gruelling non-stop marking, and data entry and processing, followed by compilation of statistics, the collated common test results are out!!

Overall, cohort wise, it was somewhat ....discouraging... to put it mildly.

For a straightforward paper with mostly fact and recall with some application and evaluation question.. we really expected better. I just feel sad.

Ah well I do have one good piece of news for myself and prolly some of my audience here...
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errr no there is no moderation in view of world cup


The good news is, 3R is the top class amongst the whole cohort, in terms of class average score (mean subject grade or MSG).

See 3R, I did tell you in class that I was least worried about you and you all will mostly do fine yah? I was right! This is a tribute to your consistent efforts and great attitude...Most of the time I'm right about stuff.

So as an encouragement to others... it's not too late!! remember, building knowledge is like constructing a building. It takes effort, planning, deliberate action, and most of all consistent effort and time. You can't build a great piece of architecture overnight! The foundation must be laid, and usually that is the slow and ugly part. you cant see the building for a long long time. But once the foundation is laid carefully and firmly, through day after day and month after month of careful consistent effort, the rest of the building can spring up easily and quickly.

If the foundation is not laid properly, the whole building cannot stand and will collapse. And yoiu simply can't build a good or wondeful work or architecture if construction is done hastily. With hasty work, you just end up building a couple of shacks.

And so it is with learning. Learning is a daily affair, when you give thought, deliberation, and meticulous attention to what you are seeing and hearing- that builds foundation. Last minute mugging just doesnt cut it, you don't learn anything, but just have a hodge podge slum of desperately memorise snippets.

For some of you who've been trying hard, don't worry, maybe your building takes longer to materialize but keep at it; one day it will appear! You might want to check on the building plans tho...

So there seeya folks

perseverance

yo people, persevere for your common tests k, dun let the trauma of the previous papers get to you when you do the next few papers.

And yes, it shd be said that diamond _HAS_ a giant covalent structure. you can't say that it is a giant cov structure. cos it isnt. its simply a chemical element. which possesses said giant cov. structure get it?
*sigh* and its not right to say that I2 is a simple molecular lattice. It HAS a simple molecular STRUCTURE.

and i dun even wanna talk abt the abuse of because, therefores, hence, and thus.

In the past, exams used to have this phrase in the instructions: "Candidates are to note that marks will be awarded for proper/appropriate use of language in expression of answers."
which really is an euphemism for marks will be deducted for bad language. :)

ughh

i'm so dead.. the marking is killing me.. and so many students have such a poor ability to express themselves,.. its as if when they do science, their english gets thrown out of the window...

very often i see statements like "diamond is a giant molecular structure"

the answers written are at times are not structured in a logical fashion, or similar points are repeated, or lots of irrelevant points are written while key points are omitted... ( these are the trying to smoke the examiner/just whack type of answers)

this is such a trying time!

answers to alkane quiz

its CDCCADDBCC

How to study for exams.

After observing students' performance for tests, revision tests, remedials, and doing a postmortem with them for why, even those who worked hard and are smart, don't do very well in exams, i've concluded that they are not preparing well for exams.( for the revision tests, which are a lvl std, most are getting 40/80)

I should say they find find it difficult to bridge the gap between theoretical facts and application/evaluation/problem solving. This is because they do not understand the following principle: learning to prepare for exams is not about just mugging, its also acquiring problem solving skills. In devising solutions to problems, its not just sufficient to arrive at the "final answer". All key factors should be addressed, and given due consideration. Problem solving skills are not just useful in exams, they are useful in a whole lot of situations in life...

I think in fact singaporean students tend to treat exams as a... i dunno how to say, as a....unnatural animal. what i mean is that to them exams are just exams and somehow not related to problem solving in real life. this is at the same time true and not true.
Under the old A lvls/ and even o lvl exam system, many singaporean students have learnt, and teachers have also encouraged, a drill approach with a mindset of "memorising" without real understanding, answers to questions (problems). to them, they do not need to understand why/how the answer is crafted in particular fashion. Students, witha desire to feel secure and to do well, as well as teachers even, are equally guilty. They want to be able to simply regurgitate facts, to supply a direct and PREMADE answer to any question. so that they will never be wrong.And they just want the final answer. And if the marking scheme requires the working, then the working is also part of the "final answer" to be mugged for.

This is not the right mindset, to exams, and indeed to life. This is , to me, one of the major shortcomings of our system. To highlight what i mean, I've met graduates, and postgraduates, in the course of doing research work.

Now the nature of research work should be.. RESEARCH! that means dealing with the unknown. So skills like analysis, evaluation, generalising, deduction, induction all need to be used. Suppose we want to investigate a certain system, what do we do? well we hypothesize about how the system might be like. We compare with perhaps similar sorts of examples in nature that we already know something about. We take a similar experiemental protocol for those systems and modify them based on our hypothesis abt the current system we want to study. we conduct our experiments, and record data. based on the data collected from our system, we analyse and deduce the actual state and properties of the system as well as evaluate out modified protocol. make assessments, modify the protocol somemore,and try again. sounds very tiring and challenging yes? as well it should be.

The thing is, the typical singaporean graduate doesnt want that. they want a secure job, make enough money.. that sort of thing( so the mindset they bring to their school as kids, they also bring to their life as adults). and if the govt wants to make research one of the economic engines, then thats what they'd do. so i've met people who say, they are at a loss or don't want to create a their own/new experiment protocol. they don't want to read up and trawl the libaries, journals, an internet for similar examples/info where they can learn from and adapt solutions. They wish for a boss who would think the whole thing through and just give them instructions on what to do. They just want to be .. robots.. secure robots that is. (same as students who do practicals. they just want to follow the lab manual. they do not question, or understand even, why certain steps, apparatus, and reagents are used. to me.. thats like being robots. you dont need intelligence to follow instructions. you just need training.) I always feel a strong urge to tell these people, dude, you are in the wrong job. research means dealing with the unknown duh. In fact I like bosses that simply share with me ,a goal, a vision, and perhaps offer some advice and teaching in terms of experiential stuff like where to start, like look for info, and perhaps important factors to consider and pitfalls to avoid. and then after that leave me alone to figure out the answer.

Ok haha i digress...i should address some of the major components of info mgmt and problem solving(and adapted as exam technique) on the next post.

i have a fragile ego.

I came across the brochure for ballet under the stars and thought of suggesting that as a class outing, so i smsed this girl.. call her CL
me: hey lets go for ballet under the stars!
CL: what, you mean for class outing right?
(i was thinking like duh .. of course.. but i decided to play a prank so....)

me: no, its just you and me.

after a looong pause..

CL: HUH?? why me????....<--------at this point i was like.. waaah wat a response.. like she was called up for detention or punishment.. like the prospect of going out with me was torture!!! *sigh*

white slip for CL the next time she's late. hmph.

haha actually i just laughed my head off. :)

The Idea of God

I was just chilling this afternoon and as usual when i chill, my thoughts start to wander off ... and I started think, how come I can never be as pious as other christians.. or for that matter as pious as any other person is to his/her own religion?

but then, I've never been atheist or gnostic- i truly believe in and love God... so i figured, its because i really treasure the idea of having God. To me, if there is no God, no eternity, no karma, then perhaps life will seem more pointless( ala john lennon's "imagine").. like whats the point of doing anything? in the end it all becomes dust... and whats the point of planning, or trying hard, or being good? just eat, drink and be merry. So yep there must be a God. And of course i've experienced God in my life.. tho i won't go too much into that... anyway..

But I don't want to be too near to God... i think his holiness will burn me...

and when i look around at the immense suffering brought about by religious fanaticism( wars, genocide, injustice to women etc etc,) , i wonder.. is it worth it? and almost every religion/cult has been guilty of bringing about suffering. but maybe its not the religion itself.. but its the people in the religion... imperfect human beings thinking that they are acting in the infallible will of whichever God the believe in, but in fact they don't know better than any other human being .. or perhaps they are downright worse, manipulating others to think that they alone possess special knowledge of the divine.

I'm so unholy; men are so evil, how can anyone ever say that they can execute the will of God? I'd rather just cherish the Idea of God.

INTJ

Try this! http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp

Your Type is INTJ
Introverted
Intuitive
Thinking
Judging
Strength of the preferences %
11
50
75
11

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To outsiders, INTJs may appear to project an aura of "definiteness", of self-confidence. This self-confidence, sometimes mistaken for simple arrogance by the less decisive, is actually of a very specific rather than a general nature; its source lies in the specialized knowledge systems that most INTJs start building at an early age. When it comes to their own areas of expertise -- and INTJs can have several -- they will be able to tell you almost immediately whether or not they can help you, and if so, how. INTJs know what they know, and perhaps still more importantly, they know what they don't know.
INTJs are perfectionists, with a seemingly endless capacity for improving upon anything that takes their interest. What prevents them from becoming chronically bogged down in this pursuit of perfection is the pragmatism so characteristic of the type: INTJs apply (often ruthlessly) the criterion "Does it work?" to everything from their own research efforts to the prevailing social norms. This in turn produces an unusual independence of mind, freeing the INTJ from the constraints of authority, convention, or sentiment for its own sake.
INTJs are known as the "Systems Builders" of the types, perhaps in part because they possess the unusual trait combination of imagination and reliability. Whatever system an INTJ happens to be working on is for them the equivalent of a moral cause to an INFJ; both perfectionism and disregard for authority may come into play, as INTJs can be unsparing of both themselves and the others on the project. Anyone considered to be "slacking," including superiors, will lose their respect -- and will generally be made aware of this; INTJs have also been known to take it upon themselves to implement critical decisions without consulting their supervisors or co-workers. On the other hand, they do tend to be scrupulous and even-handed about recognizing the individual contributions that have gone into a project, and have a gift for seizing opportunities which others might not even notice.
In the broadest terms, what INTJs "do" tends to be what they "know". Typical INTJ career choices are in the sciences and engineering, but they can be found wherever a combination of intellect and incisiveness are required (e.g., law, some areas of academia). INTJs can rise to management positions when they are willing to invest time in marketing their abilities as well as enhancing them, and (whether for the sake of ambition or the desire for privacy) many also find it useful to learn to simulate some degree of surface conformism in order to mask their inherent unconventionality.
Personal relationships, particularly romantic ones, can be the INTJ's Achilles heel. While they are capable of caring deeply for others (usually a select few), and are willing to spend a great deal of time and effort on a relationship, the knowledge and self-confidence that make them so successful in other areas can suddenly abandon or mislead them in interpersonal situations.
This happens in part because many INTJs do not readily grasp the social rituals; for instance, they tend to have little patience and less understanding of such things as small talk and flirtation (which most types consider half the fun of a relationship). To complicate matters, INTJs are usually extremely private people, and can often be naturally impassive as well, which makes them easy to misread and misunderstand. Perhaps the most fundamental problem, however, is that INTJs really want people to make sense. :-) This sometimes results in a peculiar naivete', paralleling that of many Fs -- only instead of expecting inexhaustible affection and empathy from a romantic relationship, the INTJ will expect inexhaustible reasonability and directness.
Probably the strongest INTJ assets in the interpersonal area are their intuitive abilities and their willingness to "work at" a relationship. Although as Ts they do not always have the kind of natural empathy that many Fs do, the Intuitive function can often act as a good substitute by synthesizing the probable meanings behind such things as tone of voice, turn of phrase, and facial expression. This ability can then be honed and directed by consistent, repeated efforts to understand and support those they care about, and those relationships which ultimately do become established with an INTJ tend to be characterized by their robustness, stability, and good communications.

formatting

i really need to figure out this litle formatting glitch.. its so irritating.. sometimes its centred, other times its left or right justified.. grrr