In the past i admired those people who were good at studies and sports. That was the epitome of an all-rounder. And now i'm one of them. Of course, i shouldn't count my chickens before they hatch as my results aren't even back yet, but i think i can count on two As from both my physics modules so far. Looks like my resolution of becoming an all-rounder, with studies (hard work), sports (bball, although i've also been playing a fair bit of badminton) and music (piano, although i also play the saxophone and trombone, (hate the latter though)) is no longer a dream but fast becoming reality.
So why is it the first official semester? Because there is an unofficial semester? Bingo. I started school actually 3 months before my peers, by choosing to go for special term. Midway through the special term, i realised i made two huge mistakes.
1. the people in special term, 1 word: hardcore.
In other words, if i wanted to score, i had to work harder than i ever had in my life. Which i was, to be fair
2. Taking 2 modules in half of the special sem.
Everyone else took one. Enough said. I fell sick twice during the semester. I'm really becoming something of a sicknote in university, especially since i have no time to really do sports and maintain a healthy lifestyle. I do believe that i fell sick thrice during my sem 1. But as far as i know, i'm sleeping way more than my friends. Wonder whats going on..
Special Sem 1, also known as Sem 3
1st Module: GEK1505 - projected result: A
Best choice i could have made as a first module. Firstly, it was ridiculously easy, and secondly, it allowed me to remember all the maths i learned in JC, which obviously slipped out of my mind after 2 years of mind numbing NS work.
Obtained result: A
2nd Module: GEM2505 - project result: B+
Amazingly difficult module, and it didnt help that i was the about 5 or so 1st year students who took the module. The majority were 3rd year students, and even they found it hard when i talked to them about it. I thought i messed up the final test, but apparently other people messed up even worse then me, because somehow i ended up with another A.
Obtained result: A
But in the end, the amazing thing about special sem is that i went through it without making a single friend. What you should know is that i have strict guidelines about who counts as a friend. Many people would say my guidelines are too strict. In fact, i did make "friends" with a bunch of people in special sem, but according to my rules they are more of classmates than friends. I ate alone, studied alone and studied hard. And i learnt an amazing amount. I talked to lecturers and stayed back after lectures to ask questions. In sem 1? I talked to my friends and left immediately after lectures. But my friends in sem 1 also helped me out with alot of things like deadlines and the like. So which is better? Take your pick, because i'm completely clueless. While having friends is much more enjoyable (obviously), the results show that studying alone gives better grades.
Semester 1: One of the most trying periods of my life. No more the happy-go-lucky Zhikai, I have become an extremely focused and diligent individual. And infinitely less interesting and fun to be with. Still handsome though ;)
Its not trying because the modules were tough. Take my word for it though, they WERE tough. But i definitely chose the wrong people as my friends. The surprising thing was the person least likely to "click" with me ended up as one of the best people i could ever make friends with, and he's the only one i would definitely classify as bro status now. Why least likely? Because the ones i chose at the start, lets call them A and B ended up having a personality clash with me. But C, who was introduced to me through A, ended up being a total bro and buddy. So what does this show? Yes, my decision making is a joke.
But after this, i totally believe in fate now. There's no use trying too hard. All you can do is go with the flow. I didn't try at all with my current best gang, but look where we are now. Even though one of us is in Australia 80% of the year, we still remain thick as thieves and extremely clickable when we meet up again. And how many bros have i made through doing something that i love, basketball? tz, hri, jd to name a few. And i dont classify people as bros lightly, take my word for it.
So in the end i ended up clique hopping again. Made a total potential new bro though, but i get the feeling her friends didn't really like me. But with my new mindset, what i did was to go with the flow... Just take it easy, study hard and play basketball hard. What could go wrong? (PS, in case anyone's confused why bros can be "her" also, bro is just a word i use for best buddies...)
Semester 1
1st Module: MA1505
Lets just start it off with a bang, shall we? MA1505 is without a doubt, the creme of the crop. The most difficult subject i have ever studied in my ENTIRE life. People have been known to classify me as an intelligent person, and indeed there are few things i have difficulty understanding. And this is one of them. I'm pretty sure i spent at least 35% of my sem 1 time on this module alone. And i have 5 modules. (EG1413 and PC1221 took like 5% each though. CS1010e probably 20% and PC1222 35%, not because it was difficult but because it was heinously time-consuming).
The module couldn't have started out any worse for me. In my clique (first one) of 4, it was apparent that my maths was the worst out of the entire gang. Why? Because i have forgotten every single bit of differentiation and integration i have ever done. Wait, didnt i revise all my maths in GEK1505? Nope, GEK1505 covered EVERYTHING of maths i learnt. Everything except, u guessed it: differentiation and integration. I struggled. I really did. I didn't understand anything in the first few lectures while my friends seemed to treat it as a refresher course (I suspect this was partially due to the fact that i didnt really learn it in the first place in JC). And so i knuckled down, pulled my socks up to my groin-height and studied my butt off. And so i breezed through the midterms. Should have scored full marks, but made 2 careless mistakes which both deserved a face slapping, because they were really retarded. But somehow, disaster struck again and as i studied for finals, i realised i forgot everything i ever learnt about Taylor's series. Fortunately, i learnt from my seniors that Taylor's wasn't going to be used, EVER in my electrical engineering syllabus so i focused on line and surface integration. I still dunno whether i got those two questions correct in the final papers, but i do know i bombed the taylors and some of the basic integration questions. Pretty sure i lost 30 out of 80 of the marks already, so the best mark i can hope for is B+ considering my good midterms grade.
Projected Result: B+
2nd Module: CS1010E
We'll pull it back to something remotely interesting. Oh, MA1505 was interesting, take my word for it. Interesting in an evil sort of way though. CS1010E was interesting in a fun sort of way. But the problem was, the rest of the cohort thought so too. And so they raped it. Programming is infinitely fun, its like solving IQ questions, which i loved in JC.
But somehow i was better with the difficult questions than the easier questions; don't ask me why, i think my brain is wired differently. Everytime i finished a test (this module was chock full of mini tests, unlike MA1505 which had only 2 tests throughout) and discussed it with my pals, i realised i had difficulty with different questions. ALWAYS. But thats not the problem here. The problem here is that there are alot of people who have difficulty with NO questions. Yea.
And i wasted a bunch of my time on recursion questions in the final paper. According to the prof, recursion is like the zui gao jing jie (highest level) in computing and my friends wisely skipped the measly 10 marks for the question to focus on the simple final question which was 30 marks. Not me though. Stubborn as a mule, seriously. I ploughed on with the recursion question, and rushed through the final 30 marks and am pretty sure i missed out a few important points. Definitely no chance of an A- even in this module, But i don't think i did that badly to get a B. But my money's still on either a B or a B+. Lets just be optimistic here.
Projected result: B+
3rd Module: EG1413
Ahh english. All through my life, you've been like a feathery pillow to me, allowing me to rest while other modules like maths and physics pummel me to a pulp. Hideously subjective though, so i have no idea how i will do. So far in midterms and projects i would say i'm averaging A-, and i felt that i wrote my final paper rather well. But then, i always feel i write rather well, which don't always agree with the marker. After all, i included references to kobe bryant in my final paper. Perhaps i shouldn't have done that... But I'll just play it safe and guess i maintained my mark.
Projected result: A-
4th Module: PC1221
A module that was hilariously simple from start to end. Everyone else also felt so, but somehow for them it didn't translate to results. My midterms were 92%, while the mean was 78%, while my 2nd midterms were 84%, with the mean at 72%. As far as i know, i only made one mistake in the final paper, which cost me a shocking 7 marks, but if i didnt make any other mistakes in the paper i would feel that i'm pretty safe with an A.
Projected result: A
5th Module: PC1222
At risk of sounding like a total geek, i LOVED this module. Except for lenses. My lenses was a joke and the light rays visualization just didn't make sense to me. Oh i could visualize the light rays alright. Its just that my visualization was always different from my prof's. But lenses aside, this module was amazing. For once i felt like i was good, no i was brilliant at physics! Extremely surprising to me, considering i failed all my physics tests in secondary school, the last time i took physics.
We started off with what, according to my prof, was the most difficult part of the module, electric fields. Which i found to be a refreshing breeze. Which was really a relief to me, considering i had no physics background since secondary sch (and boy, was that a joke) and was worried about my choice of electrical engineering as my university major, which, lets face it, is the most physics oriented area of engineering, alongside mechanical engineering (with EE being the electricity part, PC1222 and ME being the physical part, PC1221). Yes, electric fields was wonderful, especially when MA1505 was killing me at the same time, i needed all the time i had for MA1505. That was also when CS1010E was fun, before i realised my chances at A was minute. After that it became not fun =P
Workload was immensely time-consuming though, mainly due to the countless assignments and lab reports for this module. But not difficult in the least, although i can hardly say i enjoyed churning out the tedious lab reports. But the final paper was excellent, other than my lenses ray diagram (surprise surprise) in which i drew it like. i wont mince my words here it was like shit. other than that it was great. I would be very surprised if i didn't get an A in this module.
Projected Result: A
Projected Results: B+ B+ A- A A
Projected SAP: 4.5 (sigh, to think i was aiming for 4.75. I can only blame it on my personal life, a mistake i wouldn't be making anymore, for sure)
Projected CAP: 4.64
And now its exactly 1 week to the day i will get my results. And after that i'm going overseas again. Already went phuket and JB so far, and the funny thing is i detest going overseas. I'd much rather stay in Singapore and play bball, but this is how life treats you i guess. Anyway its not like i'm not getting my fill of bball nowadays, although i have to get over the hump of holding back when i play with my JC bball friends and fulfill the potential i exhibit when i play with cc, tz and jd, ie people i'm comfortable with.
1 comment:
Hi, I am interested in your GEK1505 resources such as past year papers solutions. If you still have them, could I have a copy please? I can be contacted at justinaleong9@gmail.com
Thanks in advance! :)
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