Semi-Post finals for AY2014-2014 Year1Sem1!


Hello guys!

I'm back after a short hiatus from social media especially instagram and facebook and I'm sooooo proud of myself for being able to refrain from wasting time on social media and focus on my revision for finals,not that I've completed my finals like many fortunate souls out there,in fact I still have one last paper on next tuesday,but yes,I'm so glad that 4 papers were completed and I really need a short (not really short considering how lazy I have been) break before I move on and chiong all the way for my very last paper of this sem:D

I have lots of stuffs to update,many thoughts flooding my mind at one go since the start of the finals so I guess it would be good time to post my thoughts and reflections.Am thankful for you guys out there still bothered to read my humble blog,thank you!

Firstly,I think I've grown up a lot after this entire sem in NUS.It was not an easy transition for me especially because I was from a JC which was a very close-knitted community where you could practically know everyone by face and it was rather a sheltered community protecting us from the storms and winds of society outside the fences of the school.After spending more than 10 years in mainstream schools I think I've lost the ability to be independent and be responsible for my own actions and learning,I've been too used relying on teachers,friends and parents to spoon-feed me.However, in uni,it's a whole different ball game,nobody is going to care about you,mind you,the entire campus is so huge with everyone heading to all sorts of places for different modules at a time even your closest friends can't be always with you so you will be alone,fighting the storms on your own.It was pretty overwhelming in the beginning but as I've shared in my previous posts,since I've participated in 2 camps and several freshman talks and open house,I was pretty familiar with my faculty area and Utown and the shuttle bus routes before I officially started the sem so it was a huge burden off my shoulders:)

Secondly,after this sem,things that I have learnt are: 1)Be super meticulous and consistent,consistency is key to success in uni,NO POINT CRAMMING LAST MINUTE,it doesn't work that way,from life experience,I do have super smart friends who got all the distinctions in the world in A/O levels but did quite badly in uni tests and exams just because s/he wasn't consistent enough whereas some people who did worse than me in A/O level did better than most of us cause s/he was super consistent,like mugging every single day.I'm not saying we should mug every single minute of our lives,that's impossible but I guess,it boils down to your determination whether you want to make the best out of uni life or not.So for this sem,I can't really say that I've put in lots of efforts,but definitely more serious with my work as compared to JC,I'm still hoping to find my mugger self back in secondary school,somehow I've lost this motivation in JC:( But I will definitely learn from the mistakes I made in this sem and not bring it forward to next sem.Oh gosh,next sem no more free S/U options already:(

Thirdly,I'm really honestly very thankful to be in FASS because FASS really gives us lots of freedom in planing our own academic schedule and we don't even have to declare our major till sem 2 and we can even change it after sem 2:)The reason why I'm saying this is because,after the finals,I am seriously considering my future in geography,my passion for geog is still there,but everytime when my hardwork for geog doesn't translate into results it seriously kills off my passion,because having passion and doing well are two different things entirely,yes passion brings you far but in life,we ought to be practical and do things that you're more confident at,I wonder just how many people out there who constantly tell others to follow their passion (including myself) really meant it....But well,life is full of uncertainty....

Fourthly,while I'm still in the midst of preparing for my one last paper and thinking of my major, a really big lesson learnt from my freshie first sem is that you should choose modules that you're INTERESTED in!Not because your FRIENDS are taking it!It really doesn't help to take mods you don't have interest in,cause these mods serve to give you knowledge in certain areas while fulfilling your graduation requirements and contributing to your CAP.Am fortunate to have been strong in my own stand and selected modules solely BASED ON MY OWN PREFERENCES^^That's why till now,I don't have any complaints about my mods,it's just the teaching methods and assessment methods that I might have complains about,but really,follow your heart for module selections, and MOST IMPORTANTLY,plan your exam timetable well,you don't want to be screwed having a 5-9-5-9-5 kind of timetable which allows you to clear literally 5 mods almost at one go but unless you're super zai,I suggest you plan your timetable well such that they are well spaced out.I thought that one paper on consecutive days would be good for me but it didn't turn out to be quite helpful either,since I have to spend 4 hours travelling every day and each day I have to study for different mods,it's really quite pressuring and I couldn't really sleep at night since all my papers were very early and I had to finish up my revision.I guess the best exam timetable for me would be 2 papers in one day then 2 days of break then 2 papers in another day, 2 days break then 1 last paper haha,but I guess it's not easy to have nice timetables,so better plan wisely with your CAP in mind.You won't want to burn yourself out during the exams like I did for my Geog paper this wednesday for studying so much and in the end my mind was blank during the paper:(((((((((Oh well,that ALWAYS happened to me during geog exams,whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.

I can't really speculate how well or how badly I did for finals,but am just hoping for the best.Sine it's a gradeless first sem,I would take my results as lightly as I can (knowing myself,I would be very depressed if I know others who did well but I did badly) but I will try to make this a learning point,a gauge of how much more efforts I need to put in for my next sem and I want to really do well in all my mods so that all the pain and sufferings in NUS and studying would be worthy:D

Arghhhh,okay I guess I shall stop here,fingers getting numb typing on my ASUS zen book,it's really hard to type on my laptop but because this laptop is rather light,pink in colour and it's my very first lappy,I shall continue to cherish it and hopefully it stays with me throughout uni life so that I don't have to waste any more unnecessary money on study tools:)On a side and random note,hahah,I've been using this laptop since J1 in 2012 cause dad knew that I had to queue in the school library to borrow laptop every day for pw and wanted to help me save time and misery for queuing and also wanted to motivate me to study harder by making it more convenient to study with a lappy!Yay,that's why I love my laptop so much despite it having horrible keyboard to type...

Till then!Goodbye,wish me luck for my very last and favourite mod,I will try my best to ACE IT!Jia you to everyone out there who are still mugging hard for finals!:))

With Love,
Cheryl

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