Au revoir, STPM!

Before anything else, I've got a confession to make. I kinda forgot the specific way that I used to blog stuff before the exam, so I'll just type my heart out today :)

picture taken from Meredith's in Brasilia (blog)

December 13th, 2011.
3:59:59pm.
It was the last ever moment of school life for myself and some 30 plus schoolmates that had endured one and a half years of sweet and sour together for the past one and a half year (plus minus).

After that, we were emancipated. Faster than I can turn my head, actually; almost everybody left school within 5 minutes of passing up the last paper with quick hand waves. They disappeared so fast...and I actually had a good chat with the security guard before leaving school.

So long, school. So long, school uniform - in the cupboard you go, for sale at a future date. Same goes for the textbooks in the bookshelf. The workbooks and notes are going back to school next month to be used by my juniors (if they want to that is, and whatever salvageable). As for the black shoes...my sister's still in school.

How were the remaining 4 papers, you ask? Here's the breakdown:

Makro: Somewhat manageable for me, but Mikro was easier for me. From personal experience, STPM economy students can be classed into those who fare better in Mikro (all the details and graphs) or Makro (seeing the big picture and concepts that influence country and international economy). As a detail freak, I fall in the former category. I like Makro too though :)

PP2: There was that 'belanjawan tunai' question...I didn't read it but I did remember doing it with my teammate last year in our actual business plan (mulling over all those numbers did take a considerable amount of days) so I can do it...only later found out that I 'salah istilah'. Right concept, different words - whether it gets any marks depends on what says the examiner. Overall it was doable.

Sejarah 2: Was hard. Normally the other paper (Sejarah 1) is considered the harder paper because of its stricter marking scheme and wider syllabus but this time there's only one question that I remembered the scheme answers due to a presentation last year...the rest I 'vomited' out whatever facts I knew. I really don't know what to expect from this paper.

PA1: Did I redeem myself for the suckish PA2 paper? In a sense, this paper was easier than I expected. Still, there were tricky questions in the first few pages...Have to keep my fingers crossed for this one.

picture by Bob Cotter

Next question. How to spend the next few months of freedom? Here's what I will/might do:

• Learn/refresh driving. My word on driving myself to collect the STPM results in February 2012 still stands.
• Go shopping (when needed and by taking advantage of year end sales)
• Find a part time job -I actually am scared at the idea; I've heard the tales (more on that in a later post) of working. Oh well, life's full of new experiences right?
• Volunteer - for any group/ministry/project that needs help. Worth the experience, too.
• Do (a lot of) research on legal studies - read law books (my dad go and download quite a few on our Kindle, so I do owe myself reading time)
• Research and write short stories and articles (this is besides Remag - I've always wanted to do that. One step closer to the dream of writing and publishing a fiction book (more if possible) in my lifetime, heehee)
• Join the youth/YA groups of other churches. I'm not planning to change churches or whatever, and I still can help the youth group in my home church but if possible at a different time, I want to learn about fellowship and God in an unfamiliar setting to avoid being complacent and lazy in matters of faith and following God (which does describe me now...sigh), and also to get to know more people in the same age/slightly elder age group, which is really few in my church now.
• Travel whenever there's the time and money for it...even if it's nearby :)
• Assist my sister in SPM (whatever I can remember that is)
• Skills courses (e.g public speaking, business skills, perhaps even self-taught typing. Not to mention drum and guitar, and taking my piano classes seriously ARGH!)
• Sports! For getting fit and getting out of phobias such as fear of water. I so wanna swim argh! No nearby pool though so it's inconvenient for the time being.

Well that's all I can think of now...in the next 9 months let's see how this goes...

In the midst of STPM

photo by Johan Le Bail

 Today I'm gonna share some short personal thoughts on passing the STPM 1/2 way mark, and a little on life so far.

I admit that STPM has changed my schedule for the past few weeks for both good and bad.

The good: I don't spend hours online or take over-long naps, substituting both to hit the books. I've also learned on relying on God to help me persevere in answering tricky exam questions - not giving up no matter how hard the question may be or how stressed (and impossible) I feel at the moment.
The bad: My hormones are probably hyperactive due to the stress levels, causing some rather unpleasant physical hormonal effects (won't elaborate so much on them here).

As for the exam performance so far, I'm really thankful for the fact that one subject is broken into 2 papers, as the 2nd paper can make up for the first. Going by individual subjects:

PA2: After writing all those individual section tips on this blog, you may have thought that I would score on this paper...but the verdict is that I really, really screwed up on this one. Even though I personally don't believe so much in reading spot questions, I do read them to ease my revision. Only one 'spotted' question came out in the C section! My essays had a lot of facts BUT may have been over the 350-word mark - I didn't have enough time to count them and I wrote a little over 2 sides of a page for both essays. Since one page is roughly 200 words, a little over 2 pages can mean a little over 400 words! I redid section E half- way through after spotting a tricky question requirement that I didn't pay attention to initially, which ate into the time I needed to do section D. I only managed to finish the chart (12 marks gone at least). I didn't have time to do the pie chart - and the worst thing is that I actually knew how to do it. Before the exam I spent time learning how to draw that exact type of pie chart complete with measurements and other requirements...sigh.

PP1: I'm grateful that none of the questions were too overwhelmingly difficult, and I answered all questions required (2 compulsary and 2 optional). There were some sections in the questions that I forgot the exact 'scheme' answers and toed with logic, though.

Sejarah 1: Many 'spotted' questions came out, leaving many of my friends jumping for joy. However, I didn't specialize reading in the spot questions like them (just skimmed) so there was 1 question each in Tamadun Dunia and Tamadun Islam where I didn't remember the 'scheme' answers. I did make sure that my facts were correct, though, so after the exam I was relieved to find out that my answers in the exam for the Tamadun Islam question were similar to the scheme's (hopefully I'm right). I'm not sure about the Tamadun Dunia question though.

Mikro: Another subject where I made many posts on this blog, this paper came in the hot afternoon on the same day after the Sejarah paper. The objective part was easy - there were only 2 questions where I was unsure of the answer. The essays were a little tricky though, and I know I've made a mistake in one of my long essays (a 5-mark penalty). The quantitative part was calculate-able (though my graph isn't exactly the neatest - limited space pushed the numbers for the x-axis out of the graph paper!)

Well, all hope is not yet secured (and lost) as there's still another half paper to go per subject. Especially for PA1, where I know I have to score an almost perfect score (at least 45/60 marks, to be safe more than 50 - I've yet to score that high in PA1 ever!) if I want to ace that paper. Well, I'll do my best and turn my worries over to the Lord :)

As for life so far, I have to admit that I'm immature to handle reading quite a number of posts on FB, blogs, and other media that talk about sensitive issues as well as people criticing others harshly. I won't go ahead and make myself all upset reading them for now. In the meantime, I just want to learn things (thus admitting that I'm weak which is hard but I need to do it). I've been approached by a potential mentor and if I meet her again anytime soon I'm going to say yes (I hope her offer still holds!).

Notice: Off for STPM studies...

Sticky (Nov 5,2011 - Dec 13, 2011):

photo by Renato Ganoza

As STPM is only around two weeks away, I'm taking a hiatus/break from blogging during the period mentioned above. No more study posts, you ask? Yup, for this time being I need to hit the books and finalize notes the old-fashioned way - and seriously studying for the sake of a better future. Blogging will resume after the exam (including the unfinished study posts on Mikro, Makro, MUET and PA1- before I start selling off my form six textbooks!) . You are welcome to browse previous posts anytime - use the labels! 

By the way - All the best to all SPM and STPM-ers, strive for your best :)

- Deb