Dirges in the Dark
Well, it's the second week of exams--in fact I had Chem yesterday--and the Corn thoughtfully reminded me this morning that I've been awfully neglectful of the blog these few days. Well, I suppose I can claim busyness since I have had to study recently and there's been quite a bit of stress...
Last week was Econs, I believe? ...yes, it was. It's always extremely annoying when one's memory starts to go on the blink--in fact I can't even remember the last time I bathed, although I'm sure the clothes I'm wearing are clean. Well, at least they were clean on... Tuesday. Yeah. Wait, that's bad, right? If the clothes I'm wearing were clean on Tuesday and are still on my back on Thursday and I didn't do laundry on Wednesday?
...I'll just bathe later.
Anyway, the Econs was horrible. The first question alone was killer--in fact I spent more than an hour trying to get the appropriate graphs drawn, and to this day I've no idea whether I drew those things right--or even whether I labeled the axes and lines rightly. The first question was worth 30%, and I should say it's safe to assume I won't be getting a single mark of those. And as for the other 70%, well, it was a lot of subjective questions where I could at least put down a huge load of gobbledegook and hope that somewhere in there would be a few marks, enough to maybe get me through with a B- or B.
I hope so, anyway; because I put a huge amount of effort into the thing--you know, pulling all-nighters, waking at ungodly hours of the night, sleeping for only 4 hours a day, practically living off coffee and my peanut butter cookies, that sort of thing. And then I flipped over the question paper and *poof!* went it all, because the first question came with five or six subparts, of which the first gave a scenario and asked for the results.
And then the next bunch went along the theme of "If ____ happens, calculate the results". You know what? Those particular calculations knocked the stuffing out of me completely. Because I thought I had the formula down, but when I totted up the numbers, it just didn't seem possible to sell x number of items for y dollars each and become a millionaire off those.
So I checked the formulae, corrected what I thought was a mistake, and lo and behold the company instantly went bankrupt. Several hundred into the red, which would probably have been closer to the mark than the several million; but still. And so it went for the next hour, when I tried out every single formula I knew, pursued each of them through the long and winding paths of calculations, and came out with a number that was either impossible or implausible.
Well, that was that for the Econs, and I spent the next several days mugging some more (mostly Math and Biomol, with a little Chem thrown in); the Corn got me to mug with her in the nearest air-conditioned McDonald's a couple of times, where it turns out the change of scenery greatly boosts productivity somehow--although for some reason we always got surrounded by bawling little tykes who insisted that McDonald's food would never touch their lips even though their parents thought it was their favourite.
Yesterday was the Chem, and again I spent a sleepless night and then a very briefly-slept-in one before the exam; the lecturer sent out emails detailing the format--identical to the past-years'--and lulled us into a false sense of security with the easy level of the past-year papers. "They will be all you need," she said! "Nothing too hard," she said! The thing was killer--well, maybe not the organic bits, since I spent hours memorising the reactions and so could more or less guess how to get things done--but the inorganic! I hate, hate, hate equilibria. And acid-base reactions. And electrochemistry. And what do you know, the 25 multiple-choice questions contained at least 12 questions of the above sort--all of which, naturally, I took an absurd time over to try to get the answers.
Multiple-choice questions that involve long calculations are seeds of evil, I declare. It's not a nice thing to spend 15 minutes calculating an answer just to figure out whether you should circle A or B or C or D or E--not when you've got another 24 to go that will all potentially need 15 minutes too, and you've only got another hour or so on the clock. Very annoying, in fact; and when we came out, I spent a good deal of time talking with a coursemate who's thinking of dropping out from the stress, since he's got a diploma that'll allow him to work... (That choice is, obviously, not open to me.)
On a happier note, the Bleach forums I'm in (one old one and one new one) are making a comeback, and I got asked to be a moderator on the new one. I'm not too sure why, but I'm not complaining--although, of course, I did tell them I'd be terribly busy with real life, what with exams and all. And then in December, when I'm heading back to KL, the availability of the Internet is sure to be somewhat limited. Still, they said it's OK, so *shrug*
Next week is Math, Biomol, and Physics, not necessarily in that order. I'm so dead. I've got so much of all to study...!
But first I think I'll go take a bath.
Last week was Econs, I believe? ...yes, it was. It's always extremely annoying when one's memory starts to go on the blink--in fact I can't even remember the last time I bathed, although I'm sure the clothes I'm wearing are clean. Well, at least they were clean on... Tuesday. Yeah. Wait, that's bad, right? If the clothes I'm wearing were clean on Tuesday and are still on my back on Thursday and I didn't do laundry on Wednesday?
...I'll just bathe later.
Anyway, the Econs was horrible. The first question alone was killer--in fact I spent more than an hour trying to get the appropriate graphs drawn, and to this day I've no idea whether I drew those things right--or even whether I labeled the axes and lines rightly. The first question was worth 30%, and I should say it's safe to assume I won't be getting a single mark of those. And as for the other 70%, well, it was a lot of subjective questions where I could at least put down a huge load of gobbledegook and hope that somewhere in there would be a few marks, enough to maybe get me through with a B- or B.
I hope so, anyway; because I put a huge amount of effort into the thing--you know, pulling all-nighters, waking at ungodly hours of the night, sleeping for only 4 hours a day, practically living off coffee and my peanut butter cookies, that sort of thing. And then I flipped over the question paper and *poof!* went it all, because the first question came with five or six subparts, of which the first gave a scenario and asked for the results.
And then the next bunch went along the theme of "If ____ happens, calculate the results". You know what? Those particular calculations knocked the stuffing out of me completely. Because I thought I had the formula down, but when I totted up the numbers, it just didn't seem possible to sell x number of items for y dollars each and become a millionaire off those.
So I checked the formulae, corrected what I thought was a mistake, and lo and behold the company instantly went bankrupt. Several hundred into the red, which would probably have been closer to the mark than the several million; but still. And so it went for the next hour, when I tried out every single formula I knew, pursued each of them through the long and winding paths of calculations, and came out with a number that was either impossible or implausible.
Well, that was that for the Econs, and I spent the next several days mugging some more (mostly Math and Biomol, with a little Chem thrown in); the Corn got me to mug with her in the nearest air-conditioned McDonald's a couple of times, where it turns out the change of scenery greatly boosts productivity somehow--although for some reason we always got surrounded by bawling little tykes who insisted that McDonald's food would never touch their lips even though their parents thought it was their favourite.
Yesterday was the Chem, and again I spent a sleepless night and then a very briefly-slept-in one before the exam; the lecturer sent out emails detailing the format--identical to the past-years'--and lulled us into a false sense of security with the easy level of the past-year papers. "They will be all you need," she said! "Nothing too hard," she said! The thing was killer--well, maybe not the organic bits, since I spent hours memorising the reactions and so could more or less guess how to get things done--but the inorganic! I hate, hate, hate equilibria. And acid-base reactions. And electrochemistry. And what do you know, the 25 multiple-choice questions contained at least 12 questions of the above sort--all of which, naturally, I took an absurd time over to try to get the answers.
Multiple-choice questions that involve long calculations are seeds of evil, I declare. It's not a nice thing to spend 15 minutes calculating an answer just to figure out whether you should circle A or B or C or D or E--not when you've got another 24 to go that will all potentially need 15 minutes too, and you've only got another hour or so on the clock. Very annoying, in fact; and when we came out, I spent a good deal of time talking with a coursemate who's thinking of dropping out from the stress, since he's got a diploma that'll allow him to work... (That choice is, obviously, not open to me.)
On a happier note, the Bleach forums I'm in (one old one and one new one) are making a comeback, and I got asked to be a moderator on the new one. I'm not too sure why, but I'm not complaining--although, of course, I did tell them I'd be terribly busy with real life, what with exams and all. And then in December, when I'm heading back to KL, the availability of the Internet is sure to be somewhat limited. Still, they said it's OK, so *shrug*
Next week is Math, Biomol, and Physics, not necessarily in that order. I'm so dead. I've got so much of all to study...!
But first I think I'll go take a bath.
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