Ubiquitous

Alive and Kicking

// May 9th, 2008 // 21 Comments » // Academic

I’m totally amazed by the fact that I’m sitting on my bed write now typing on a (OMG moment #1) laptop that’s (#2) Macbook with (#3) wireless Internet. My parents have been putting off getting me a laptop for university, so my aunt and uncle went ahead to get me a Macbook. I’ve been a PC person since the 1990s, so it’s taking me a while to get used to Macs and laptops in general. Needless to say, they’re a breath of fresh air!

This week I’ve learned so much about taking exams. I finished IB English HL Paper 1, History SL  P1P2, Math HL P1P2, Chemistry SL P1P2, and just got home from Paper 3. That’s eight bloody papers in one week, what a headache! Anyway, I’ve compiled a list of things one should and should not do during/before exams (from experience haha). 

Rule #1 - Do not be late for an exam (stating the obvious). I was a few minutes behind schedule for the chemistry paper today because I was OUTSIDE the gym/exam room memorizing last minute equations, along with half a dozen other people. Our IB Coordinator came out and went, “WHAT ARE YOU GUYS DOING?! GET IN HERE!” (in a posh British accent of course, being British and all that). We went inside and it was slightly unnerving having 90 pairs of eyes on us. This wasn’t so bad as a paper yesterday, where this guy showed up two minutes late. IB rule dictates that if a student is more than fifteen minutes late for an exam, he/she does not get the Diploma and has to wait till November to take the exam again. Yikes!

Rule #2 - Mutilating gummy bears is a great stress reliever in the middle of the exam. For some reason our school is being very generous by allowing us to bring “unwrapped, non-sticky, non-crunchy candy” to the exam. The Coordinator said it was in case we needed a “sugar boost” (hmm… he must’ve had experience with kids crashing from too many allnighters). I’ve gone through half a box of sour gummy bears already, they’re great!

Rule #3 - Guard your food from sneaky invigilators at all times, otherwise you’ll notice your English teacher loitering around your desk and just as you hit a panic moment about probability density functions there will be a great probability that your gummy bears are slowly disappearing. (I kid)

Rule #4 - Thou shalt always look at the backside of the last page. One of my friends walked out of the chem paper today going “OMFG I FLIPPED OVER THE LAST PAGE AT THE LAST TWO MINUTES AND THERE WAS A WHOLE PAGE OF QUESTIONS =OO” Haha we’re horrible test-takers, can’t you tell? 

Rule #5 - For God’s sakes don’t GRUNT LOUDLY, BURP REPETITIVELY, and SHAKE THE TABLE INCESSANTLY unless you want the wrath of the person on the other side of the divider. If I don’t get a 7 for chemistry I’m blaming the annoying idiot sitting beside me who kept tapping his foot and producing foreign noises from his body parts -.-

Rule #49385798 (for the entire list, buy my book when I’m wealthy and famous as the result of an enriching International Baccalaureate education) - do NOT under any circumstance knock over your open water bottle over your recently-finished, pristinely-written-with-black-ink history essay and SMUDGE half the words. Thank god I had an instinct to bring kleenex and paper towels and had them in the corner of my desk. I managed to dry my essay (on Stalin’s industrialization) before everything turned into a black blob (much like Stalin’s mustache). I don’t think my friends will ever stop laughing at me for that incident.

I will now be catching up on all the sleep I missed this week.

Popularity: 4% [?]

In Full Swing

// October 18th, 2007 // 4 Comments » // Academic, QOTW

They say once the ball starts rolling, it just keeps gathering momentum until May of next year. I’m in the midst of getting recommendation letters, filling out university forms, and obtaining transcripts. On top of that, I’m juggling contract work and a full course load. It never ends.

I got my transcript today… it’s both sad and amusing. When I was in Regular (or Enriched) in grade 9, I had an average of 94 for the whole year. Pre-IB, 90. IB Year 1 (grade 11), 88. ARGH. Those admission officers better take my hellish course load into consideration. Thank god I did summer school… I can’t believe I took 11 courses in my grade 11 year.

I spent the last weekend typing (5 hours on Friday and Saturday, 7 hours STRAIGHT on Sunday) a Math Portfolio for Higher Level math. The topic? Modelling logistic functions to determine sustainable fish population, with references to the chaos theory (see here). I think teachers forget that WE’RE STILL IN HIGH SCHOOL for God’s sakes.

I meant to write a few articles here, but never had the time. My blogs lack coherent structure as well, ah shucks. Upcoming deadlines include 3 scholarships on Oct 31st, Early Decision app on Nov 1st, Extended Essay on Nov 5th, more Univ Apps on Nov 31st, SAT II on Dec 6th (?), and all U.S. Univ apps on Dec 31st. Bloody hell, this better be one of my last mark/deadline/IB/Univ-oriented posts. Surprisingly I’m handling this year pretty well, so far. Less complaining, more getting down to work.

Going to see Elizabeth tomorrow, starring Cate Blanchett. See, I have a life! (The little voices in my head are saying, Nice try Crystal…)

Question of the Week: Well, more like request, for the ladies out there, what’s your favourite store to shop for Prom Dresses (and likewise suits for the gentlemen)? Any favourite designs/brands/colours? My grad photos on less than a month away and I STILL haven’t bought a dress yet!

Popularity: 2% [?]

Just One of Those Days

// October 12th, 2007 // 6 Comments » // Academic

Today was one of those days where pretty much nothing worked out. During free block, one of my classmates told me that she opted for paper-based application for Early Decision instead of Common App, because CA locks all your information after you submit it to one institution. So I thought, why not, I’ll reprint the forms for my ED choice directly from their website… but the forms were a lot more complicated than the Common App one and I was worried that there’d be more room for my teachers to emphasis… my weaker areas. So AFTER printing all the forms and filling half of them out, I decided to switch BACK to Common App x.x.

Then, someone else decided to show me their resume for the teacher recommendation letters. When I saw how much better and more organized it was compared to mine, I was utterly devasted. Why can’t I even put in enough efforts to write a good resume?! What happened to working so hard in grade 8-10?! I don’t understand why it’s so difficult for me to make it past this final stretch and I can’t believe I just broke down crying in French.

I spent the rest of the afternoon chasing down teachers to give them forms for recommendation letters. My locker currently looks like a shelf from Staples with the stack of envelopes, papers, forms, black pens, stamps, and paperclips lol. After school I had a meeting with my Extended Essay supervisor who was very unsatisfied with the first few pages of my 4000 word essay. She asked me, “how can you have such a convoluted introduction when you’re conclusion was so brilliantly and clearly done?!” I guess there are some silver linings in there, considering how rare it is for her to dish out compliments. Time to do the fourth overhaul edit of my essay >=(

The horrible day would’ve not left such a bitter after-taste had it ended there. But no… a friend told me that my TOK essay didn’t go through turnitin.com, and sure enough, when I checked the list posted, I was one of the two people out of 130 or so IBers who had a “no submission” for turnitin.com. I *swear* I uploaded the file… but I guess i just left the computer to run and didn’t bother do a double check. I was astonished to discover that I never got the electronic receipt turnitin usually sends after an upload. I mean… I’m NOT technologically-impaired! Yet this dreadful carelessness on my part will not only cost me huge deductions in participation, it will also prevent me from submitting this essay to IB (we have to submit 1 out of 4 TOK essay to an international marker). I guess I’d be amused if I got a 35/40 on this and end up having to submit my 27/40 essay because of stupidity.

So there ends my day. Incredibly frustrating and stressful. I have a Higher Level Math Portfolio due in 60 hours… AKDFJLADF!! Ta-ta. If you know anything about logistic function models do tell me. I can’t wait to be enlightened. My head is still spinning after doing that TOK presentation on the chaos theory, “non-linear dynamic systems with sensitivity to initial conditions”, dear God!

Popularity: 2% [?]