Day 09: Chugging Along
Keeping with the theme of locomotives, papers one and two of physics are now complete. Both of them were fairly enjoyable, to say the least. The most enjoyable thing was the presence of global warming and albedo questions. As my teacher had said, it was added to the course for the 2009 exams to appeal to current issues in the world. Funnily enough, in the mock exam paper, the equivalent was the waste and disposal of nuclear fuel and substances, which could apparently be used for nuclear warheads, threatening world peace. I prefer global warming myself.
Orange Chase
Next up is paper 3. This paper is focused on the optional chapters of the physics syllabus. The students, or teachers, must decide on two options out of a variety, ranging from the history and development of physics to relativity. We are doing astrophysics and electromagnetic waves. I hate the latter, because it’s a pain in the backside to think about. I would have much rather done the history of physics, or at least relativity or communcations. However, I really do enjoy astrophysics, so I’m keen to get this paper over and done with.
Tomorrow is going to be a good day. Both maths and physics will have been finished, and two exams which I am fairly confident about are far on the horizon; spanish and psychology.
Day 08: Full Steam Ahead
Duchess Door
I had a post lined up for tomorrow morning, set to be automatically published at 6 a.m. incase I never got the chance. It was prewritten (obviously) and, at the time of writing, I thought it creatively and accurately expressed what I was feeling about the physics exams. It just so happens that they the first two papers are tomorrow. However, I feel a lot different to what I felt a few days ago. I wrote the entry in light of the concept of DEFCON, nuclear war and nuclear winter. It was an interesting piece, since I have a niche for the tones and images associated with nuclear fallout. At the time, it really set the mood, but thankfully I have gotten past that.
I am feeling fairly optimistic about tomorrow. Not so optimistic to the point that I’ll know I will ace it – I am fully aware I won’t do absolutely amazing, maybe average at best, but I understand that. I think the fact that the exam is tomorrow is what is getting me excited. It’s very hard for people other than myself to get me optimistic; that’s something about me that I find incredibly useful because I tend to find myself seeking good things when I’m on my own, but it also has a reverse effect where there are occasions when people try to make me happy and I find it to be a nuisance. Getting back to the point, I feel a lot more happier than I was previously. I just hope that everything goes well. I’m looking forward to paper 1 (multiple choice) because I both really enjoy that I tend to do well in. I’m not looking forward to paper 2 (extended answers/written) because I just don’t like the difficulty of it towards the end. Paper 3 (option-chapters) is going to be a nice finish to the infamous subject since I can really focus on the two chapters that we have chosen to study as our options. Yes, it is last-minute revision, but it’s really helped so far.
So, with that, I hope that the next two days go well. The next entry will probably be very short, but it really depends how I feel.
Day 07: Recovery, Redemption
Still feeling sick. My stomach feels full (physically) despite not having eaten anything. I couldn’t sleep much last night, because I felt like I was going to throw up, and I hate throwing up. After 2 hours of standing over the bathroom sink, I got pretty annoyed that I wasn’t throwing up, even when my stomach and throat were making weird movements. This did, thankfully, make me a bit more confident about throwing up. Unfortunately, I never did throw up, but I managed to fall asleep on my 3rd attempt of doing so. My stomach still feels weird, but I’m less worried about throwing up. I wish I could just let it all out in one big fart.
So, I have my higher level english paper 2 tomorrow. Not too worried about it, though. I am, however, worried about the 3 papers after that; higher level physics. I cannot wait for the 13th of May, because I will be taking a break after the third paper. I’m going to drop HKD$10,000 on my new PC (mainly for the summer). I’m doing this early because I want to make sure that all the hardware works properly, and that I can get everything installed so I don’t have to sit around on the 22nd watching XP update. The other reason why I’m doing this early is because I want to have insurance that everything is working as expected; my 8800 died out on me a few months ago, so I’m nervous about nVidia cards… but I love nVidia.
Day 04: Integration
It’s annoying when, even if it’s the smallest thing, one thing goes wrong in an exam, a ton of motivation is lost for preparing for future exams. So, in context, the standard level maths paper was moderately okay. It was generally hard, but easy in some places. Problem is, the second section of the paper is worth the majority of marks of the overall paper, and the questions are longer and harder. Much harder than they should have been. Fortunately, I am not alone in thinking this. With a lot of people, the overall feeling that was the test was quite hard. Hopefully the grade boundaries will get lowered.
On a more positive note, it’s my birthday tomorrow! Not much of a birthday; having to wake up at 8 a.m. is not the nicest thing in the world, especially on one’s 18th birthday. I do plan to celebrate it properly on the 22nd of May, which should be fun. I’m not a big fan of clubbing, so I want to keep it to a minimum.
I’ll also sneak this in here: after discussing with my good friend, we have decided to call our company “Mintstorm”. More on that later.
Day 03: Preaching
Tomorrow is standard level maths. This is a day I have been looking forward to for 2 years. Mainly for personal reasons. I promise that either tomorrow or Friday (my birthday) I will update with something nice. I’ll probably do a reflection of the week every Friday.
Day 02: Nothing
Nothing much to report. Just going through the motions. Also building up the nerve to talk to someone. Oh well. Updated my main site, which was fun.
I’m actually looking forward to my birthday on friday, which is strange to think since my standard level maths paper 2 forces me to wake up at 6 a.m., and is the last exam before the second week of exams (75% of higher level physics papers).
Not going to be much of a birthday, though. Silly exams.
