The end of year 11

Hello!

Keke...once again it's been quite a while since I have blogged. I really should try to constantly blog rather than blogging every once in a while. You never know, that might actually get me more followers :P

Hmm..it's been a tiring week so far. Starting our prelim exams, I was totally freaking out. Our first exam was english, something which I only studied seriously the night before as well as some off-hand studying on Saturday...I dunno what I was thinking. I was actually more scared about Economics which was on the Tuesday rather than English which was on the Monday. Something just didn't sit right with me about Economics...maybe something to do with the fact that there was just so much work that we had covered in eco (a WHOLE year's worth of work!) and english was just Clueless and Emma. But yeah, it felt so surreal doing the first exam, I don't think it really occurred to me that we had actually started exams during the english exam. I felt so wobbly and shaky after it (side-effects I get from doing exams). That was when it occurred to me that exams had officially began.

I must say that English wasn't too bad. Well...I didn't really have any pre-determined expectations, but according to my standards and the amount of past papers that I have done during tutoring, I would say that it was fairly challenging, but not to a large extent. I'm not saying that I did extremely well because I always manage to make some kind of silly errors during English exams. I tend to had a weird mind set during such exams, something which doesn't really work well to my advantage.

Well anyways, considering I finished my exams in the morning, I went with a group of friends, my "eco buddies", to study at the library. Unfortunately, it didn't go as well as I had expected it to go, although we did drill in a fair bit of info. I think it was more to do with that fact that the topic we were revising wasn't exactly the most exciting topic in the world rather than our lack of commitment and attention. We actually didn't really fool around too much. But eventually we called quits as we could no longer concentrate, or in my terms, "ran out of steam". I went home after that, had a nap and some food, as well as watched some things before doing economics study. To be honest, I was most worried about Economics within all my subjects. It seemed the most daunting, especially in terms of the amount of notes which I had to revise and memories.

So when it came to the Tuesday, I was extremely scared. I even went as far as to praying the night before as well as the morning before the exam, a ritual which we all tend to do within the family. My grandma, as sweet as ever, made some special tea for me which was suppose to help me stay awake (requested by my dad to make for me :)) and she also made some soup to give me strength. My little sister gave me her cat charm, her lucky charm, and I also had my own fish/koi charm which all my sisters and I have taken with us to our selective exams and other exams. Furthermore, I wore my lovely earrings which my cousin from hk bought me when she was here (I vowed to wear them to all my exams). So all in all, I think I was very well equipped in terms of good luck charms.

I walked shakily into the exam, dreading it till the last second. But once I started reading the exam and checking out the questions, I found it all to be not too bad. That's not to say I did well as I was totally clueless about my essay, writing whatever came to mind to fill up the space. I remember my sister and one of the economics teachers had advised us to bullshit, as long as it made sense and had some relevance, as it was better than writing nothing at all. And boy, did I utilise such a point. During the exam, there were quite a few people who asked for more than the 5 already given pages for the essay, which I found really shocking. I mean, what in the world could they write that would take up so much room, unless of course, they had big handwriting or lots of diagrams. As for the multiple choice and short answers, I would say that they weren't too bad. I was able to answer all of them. But man, I had time to check at the end, and I came across the question "What is the difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion?" I wrote down my answer and then when I came across it when I was checking my work, I felt that there was something off about it and changed my answer around.

BIG MISTAKE! I actually had it right the first time and by changing it, I already lost 2 marks. I'm still kicking myself over it. Haha..I tried the 'washing hands when you regret something' technique, but it didn't really help...

Anyways, you would think that because I have done such an error so many times before, especially during multiple choice, that I would learn from it. As the saying went "we learn from our mistakes". Of course, I'm different and decide to challenge that idea, as well as the idea that "your first answer is usually your correct one". Silly silly me. Ahh well, what can I do... Hm...maybe I'll actually learn from it this time :P

After economics, I felt so relaxed! I literally felt as if weight had been lifted off my shoulder and I could finally breathe again, as sappy as that sounds. I went home, did some surfing on the net, ate and went to sleep. Which reminds me, during the economics exam, because I had only had a bowl of soup and tea in the morning, I was hungry. And thus, the inevitable gurgling of my tummy in protest of not eating something substantial came. It was really loud in my opinion, especially within the confines of exam conditions, where it was practically silent. I was so afraid everyone could hear it, I was internally shouting at my stomach to stop! Haha...thankfully no one mentioned it, so I'm just going to innocently believe no one heard it :D

Anyways, I studied maths, going through all my notes and taking out the ones which I found difficult. I did some past papers to, although nothing too hard. As bad as it seems, I didn't actually prepare much for the maths exam. I actually find them very fun, especially when I know what to do. While all other subjects, you tend to have so little time left, always racing against the clock to finish in time, in maths, you usually can cruise through the exam fairly well, having enough time to check your paper thoroughly as well. Of course, that isn't usually the case, it depends on how hard the paper is set. So yeah, I was excited to do the maths exam, as nerdy as that seems.

So, this morning, I came to school, not nearly as nervous as I was for my other exams. However, when everyone started to come, revising over their work, I started to get nervous: heart racing, palms a little sweaty. But once I got into the exam and checked out all the questions, I was a little calmer. When it was time to start, I took a steady approach to it, calmly working through the questions, making sure I paid detail to the answer. You are probably wondering why the hell I would be so calm under exam conditions, but considering we had 3 hours to do the exam, I think you could sort of understand. I was actually able to finish the exam before 2 hours was up and sat there going through all my questions, practically re-doing the questions to see if I had done the correctly. Of course, there were some questions that I had struggled to do. Those were the ones which I came back to first, once I had finished the exam. I managed (hopefully) to figure out the right answer. After checking my exam, I STILL had time left. So I decided to fix up my graphs, making sure I included all relevant information. You tend to lose marks if your graph is too "furry" if you know what I mean. And I have a tendency to make mine "furry", so I spent some time to smooth out the lines. With less than 10 minutes left, I went through my paper, checking to see if I had answered all the questions. And within the last few seconds, sat there, waiting for the commanding "Pens down"

All in all, I would say that the maths paper was not too bad, though at times it could be a little challenging.

What was frustrating was the fact that, in the morning, I had gone to the toilet to ensure I wouldn't have to within the exam. But of course, in exams, people tend to have weak bladders due to their nervousness, so I had a bit of an urge to go during the exam. I find that so annoying. To have to go during the exam could be really time consuming and potentially risk some precious time of yours. But of course, you have to go because you can't concentrate on your work if all you can think about is your urgent need to go to the toilet. Hopefully I won't have to during any of my remaining exams.

And thus, this ends the first 3 days of my exams. I have a day off tomorrow, so I'm really excited about that. I have modern on friday, which I am planning to study after I finish blogging. It shouldn't be too bad, I just have to work at a steady pace and make sure I read the questions carefully before diving straight first into answering it. Hopefully the sources won't be too bad. Other subjects I shall worry about later one :D

So yeah, that concludes my post. I hope I haven't bore you with my dull recount. And for all those people doing exams around this time, I wish you all the best of luck (or in lucy's case, break a bone!)

~Aurora

P.S. Let's all work hard!

P.P.S. I bought myself a tub of my favourite ice cream, connoisseur's cookies and cream, which is currently one sale for half price! (sadly the sale ends today :(). I'm planning to eat the whole tub by myself once I finish all my exams. Can't wait!