TERM 1
33+1 / 45
The first test of the year! After the long holiday it felt pretty awkward being back in school and waking up early again. But i adapted, I guess. Science this term seemed much more complicated compared to last year, but it never ceased to be interesting! This was a more advanced version of the chemistry we learned last year. Last year we went just had to recognize the elements and the periodic table; now we learned how to utilize it to write equations, and the like. Its wonderful how we seem to grow with our Science syllabus. Every time we start a new school term, we learn new things and grow with everything we learn. This term was full of practicals and we got a chance to go to a number of times. I was still in partly in my 'holiday-mood' even though I was almost halfway through the terms and exams were round the corner. Chemistry has never been my forte - I'll always be more comfortable with Biology, and I had no idea about physics because we hadn't started on it yet. But I tried what I could, and I revised. Sadly, owing to some careless mistakes, I missed the minimum A1 grade of 34 / 45 by 1 point! After looking through my paper, I realised that the teacher had marked my last question wrongly. Oh, the expense and anticipation when I was carefully looking through every question to make sure that my marks were counted properly, and I could clinch that last 1 mark. It was like some epic and really cliche movie, where at the last second before you think the hero is going to die, he someone finds a way out. I was elated beyond words. A borderline A1. Hurray *applause* However I knew that this A1 was not enough. I needed to do better, especially since i lost some marks to careless mistakes that I could have easily avoided. I knew that I could do better than this, and I wanted to. Besides, with many of my classmates getting high marks like 37/45, what I got was hardly a feat, there wasn't anything to be proud of. Well i guess this term was quite a fruitful term, although my other results did not term out to be what i expected, there was room for improvement, and also time to improve. With the March holidays approaching, although they will probably turn out to be not much of a holiday, but more of 'home-studying' week, I will have to treasure my time and use it wisely. My Term 1 Results are as follow ELL - A1 CHINESE - C5 IH - B3 MATH - D7 INFOCOMM - A1 SCIENCE - A1 MSG : 3 |
I will also post a summary of my favourite practical of the term beside my termly reflection :)
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Term 2
31/45
This term we continued a little with our chemistry, further learning how to write equations and also to balance them! I found this especially challenging, but I never asked for help nor did I actually put in effort to clarify my doubts - that's something that I've come to regret now. Aside from that, we started on Biology again! This is the first Bio subject that we are taking this year; Reproduction in Plants. I love Biology, because its always so vivid and interesting. Its so easy to relate it to our everyday lives, as compared to other subjects. When you see a butterfly fluttering around a flower, you would go, "Oh! That's pollination." or "Oh! That fruit is full of seeds that serves as a storage for starch!" But when you see something cooking, its not like you go " Oh! The heat causes the .... to break down and .... !" That would just be weird. Reproduction in Plants is quite an interactive topic, as we got the chance to go to the labs a number of times and also study and investigate the school's ecology. We went to the school garden once to take a closer look at the plants that the school offered and their characteristics. Sadly, I was sick that day and missed out on such a meaningful opportunity :(. I had made a resolution to improve my MSG this term and I did. But when I improved one of my subjects, another would deprove! Its so frustrating, but i guess i have to get used to it. I need to spread out my revision time equally so that I give my weaker subjects more time, but at the same time do not neglect my stronger subjects. A B3 this term, while the class average was about 75. How humiliating. I guess this is a life skill that I've yet to acquire. Perhaps this coming month-long holiday i can spend the improving my Chemistry. This test, I did pretty well for all the Biology questions, but when the Chemistry questions came out, I was stumped. Even when I thought what I did was right, they were. The Chem section ended up pulling down my entire score... We also started a little on physics, and we learnt how to draw simple ray diagrams! Results this term : ELL - A1 Chinese - C6 Math - B4 IH - A1 Science - B3 Infocomm - A1 MSG : 2.67 |
My favourite practical this term :
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Term 3
This term we continued our Physics and Biology.
For Biology, we started with Human Reproduction, not exactly the topic I'm most interested in... Nonetheless, like i said in my previous reflections, I like biology so much because we can apply it in our lives so easily. Its like when you see "... Oh nevermind. I shouldn't get started on that... We studied STDs and contraceptives too. STDs were quite disturbing, but i guess that serves as a deterrence to for people who 'cannot control themselves.' Contraceptives were interesting not because of the scientific part, but because it was related to much more, like family planning, the main reason for contraceptives. This topic has thought me not just about Science, but also about personal responsibility. For Physics, we covered alot. We continued on our physics from last term, learning about more laws and rules of light, and many other cool phenomenons like refraction, total internal reflection and its application in life. Who knew that optical fibres used light to transmit data, before this I always thought that light was simply a form of energy, not a mode of communication! Physics this term has also answered many of those questions I've always wanted to ask, like why do those objects underwater look so weird when we look at them above water level? Now, I finally know. Light isn't just about straight rays, or illumination. Its about efficiency. Convexed mirrors make it so much easier for shop keepers to monitor those blind spots, optical fibres make transmitting data so much faster than wires. Ray diagrams are not the easiest to do, but they sure are easier than chemistry. Although it took me some time to comprehend how to draw ray diagrams, i finally got it after some effort. As for my results this term, I managed to climb back into the A1 range, after falling behind last term. But 34 and a half, is still nothing to feel good about. Another thing i realized is the opportunity that I threw away just like that because I did not put enough effort. Exemption. My friends brought up the subject of Science exemption recently, and I was thoroughly disappointed. Of all the subjects, Science is probably the easiest to acquire exemption for. Tests are not hard to ace, as long as you put in enough time and effort, something i think i lacked. So now, I guess my revision for EOYs begins. And I have promised myself, that exempted or not exempted i will put in my best from now on, and I will settle for an A1, and nothing less. |
My favourite practical this term:
This experiment included a converging lens and a screen. We had to find the focal point of the lens, and also find the optimum distances to show a sharp image, and the changing properties of these images. It was enchanting, how the lens projected the scenery outside the science lab onto the screen, and it was just like it, as clear and colourful, just that it was a little smaller and inverted. Nonetheless, it was really interesting.
But the highlight of this practical was partly because I was playing about with the lens with my friends, and when we put our phone screens infront of the lens, we were awed. It became like a mini-projector, and we were playing videos and watching them on the small little screen ( although we were not supposed to ). Its interesting how one simple experiment like that can give way to such interesting discoveries, and the amount of fun we get in the process! |