Wonder Kids

I've been made to read the newspapers daily. and i've been conscientious..
yesterday (looking at the time now, 2 days ago would prolly be the more correct term), there was this article, actually 2 articles one in the main section and one in the home section, about this family of wonder kids who have done so many o level subjects aceing every subject, and all of them are "underage" - 12 and 14. and i thought ok these are damn smart people and they really got it in the genes man.. until i read more and felt damn cheated. dunno whether to feel i wish i made a cleverer choice and figured out all my alternatives, or to feel happy that i'm proving myself as a better student.. either way i believe most people will compare themselves with these so called wonder kids if you read the article..
so anyway. the o levels and a levels that they take are not the ones administered by SEAB-Cambridge (the ones that a large bunch of us sit for and slog our brains out for) but by British Council and London Edexcel (that I think usually the international students take..). and if i didnt get my facts wrong, SEAB-Cambridge version is more challenging?.. While the International exams administered at British Council and London Edexcel are less difficult compared to the ones set by SEAB. SEAB-Cambridge means SEAB sets papers while Cambridge marks. I dont know to what extent the 2 papers differ in difficulty though, cos I havent sat down to compare or gone to find out the nitty details about the level of difficulty. but even their parents say that most singapore students should be able to take the other exam and pass with soaring colours. may be taken as humble comment but i think it is quite true too.. so i'm sorta wondering why so many people are being put through the damn difficult SEAB test, and so many people struggle so much to get into JC and with all the through trains its even more difficult for non-train-takers to get into the top jcs, when these struggling people could have a better life taking international exams and going somewhere else for an education, maybe starting university earlier, getting out to work earlier, retiring earlier.. well i guess maybe some people don't have much choice.. especially when going overseas costs a bomb cos of all the travelling and living expenses. so stress your mind out to keep education costs low. the only consolation that i can find is that an A in Singapore 'A' Levels gives you more credits when you go to college/uni than an A in International 'A' Levels. Thats true for maths..8 credits compared to 4 i think. but the other subjects, I think the credits given are the same, most don't make a distinction between Singapore exams and International exams also.
so which is better..I have no idea. when u you have SEAB setting, maybe your students know the scope of testing better and know the marking schemes better and you are perhaps expected to do better. but Cambridge international papers are done by people all over the world so shouldnt they be more flexible in marking? (the way the A levels curriculum is structured, you can ace most subjects by purely memorising key words.., and sometimes it is super frustrating when different key words come up for the same question and at the end of the day, you aren't awarded the marks cos you don't have the key term -.-) and if Singapore sets difficult questions, does Cambridge mark more stringently too?.. maybe one day i will infiltrate the exam boards and figure all these out. I cant figure out rationally who is at the losing end, but I have a feeling students put through the singapore exams are those at the losing end.
and the article comes at a horrible time. at a time like this, with a levels and o levels just a week away, such a reminder that there are alternative easier paths can really make some feel so cheated. and you think of having to compete against these other people with straight As in intl exams that are set more easily.. at a university the disparity in the grades can really make an impression..
oh wells. press on. i'm not worried that i'm not going to make it to university or that i won't be able to do well for a levels.. these a level period is going to pass very quickly and before I know it even prom will be over. so yea keep working hard.. i just happen to be someone who likes to keep looking back to see if I had made the right choices (if i made a choice in the first place) even though I cant change what's done.. lol

Sounds of the Forest

you hear the sound of twigs branches breaking, you can almost hear the heaviness of the entire branch, you hear some tearing of the bark of the tree, and then you hear a loud rustle of leaves. soft landing

I've learnt. that when u feel u're damn lousy at doing sth, it demoralises u more when u put in so much effort, yet still do lousily. and then u haf not the faintest idea how to go about making things better.damn.

I've been weary. not from mugging i think. but a wrong book that landed in my hands at the wrong time. i totally shouldnt be reading storybooks now when i should be mugging. And i dun feel like i've gotten very far with my mugging and its bothering me cos i dun even feel panic coming yet.

this book is beyond painful. there's so much pain hurt and love in between its pages. but the writer is so good she makes me wanna read on. (and in a way i want it to end quickly) i think the emotional roller coaster i get reading it at night is making me tired. and i really don't feel like reading it le. i've gotten tired of the pain, before the narrator has come to a point where she cant take it anymore. and yet i feel that i'm not quite feeling what the narrator feels yet. i skipped to the ending. i think i like the ending - an act of so much courage and conviction.
we are always most deeply hurt by those we deeply love.

another IQ question =)

this is a question justina asked me. quite funky. do without a paper and pen, just ur brains and if u wish, ur fingers. lol
there are 10 people in a room. the first person knows 1 person, 2nd person knows 2 people, 3rd person knows 3...9th person knows 9 people. how many people does that 10th person know? to say that first person knows the second person is to say that the second person knows the first person. its like a handshaking question. if 1 shakes hand with 2 then 2 shakes hand with 1. yeps.
the 10th person knows 5 people =)

eye candy

A toast to chem! =P

iodine in hexane!

BUGSgalore!

the oh so chio butterfly and the huge bee was encountered at ubin =) the other huge bug was encountered on my curtain..someone identify that bug please?...

ubintrip!

we were sitting at the beach waiting for everyone to come. mich and i were there waiting for everyone to come.. since morning.. until lunchtime..

er dun ask me what exactly was I taking.. this picture no focus de lols. we're at the chek jawa house.

i was trying to take the periwinkles but i guess i estimated my distance badly..

from some rock near the house

heres where we walked into the sea

can you spot the school of fish?

that school of fish is swimming parallel to the shore now... sigh my cam is quite lousy..

that lone tree.. that only looks blur on my phone after zooming..

someone said these are fiddler crabs, they have one big pincer and one small one. and they make a lot of holes. the sun was so hot. i'd be underground if i were one of them

the nipah fruit. right in the middle.

the avicennia roots..

we were told to stop to look at this view haha..there were ducks in there.. but the tree right in the foreground here blocked them..

my phone really aint that good. from up here, the quarry waters were cerulean blue. it was damn chio.. which off course u cant quite see in this picture..

encouragement to do better for econs