Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Having had inside information from the foundation office people, I didn't plan any programmes for Tuesday due to the release of the examination results. Official release date was 24th December but having spent close to 3 years in this university, we all know that it usually comes out a few days earlier - so Tuesday it was. It does sound extreme to waste a day waiting at home for the release of the results and to plan the day's itinerary around it, I certainly don't mind. To put it simply, it's like knowing there's a mob on a saturday late morning and yet one chooses to go watch a movie. The end result is simple because you can never have a piece of mind and constantly watching that handphone. I needed to avoid that scenario.
The moment they say 'stop writing and pens down', I already knew how I would roughly fare for the respective papers and/or modules. The results that appeared right in front of my eyes were still pretty shocking because I never expected something this good. With the exception of amx (some multicultural studies module), the rest were beyond what I've expected. 4 As and 1 B+ did make the hard work I've put in over the past 6 months very worth it. Sacrificing my sleep (what's new) and social life so that I can complete more readings and books (especially for sociology) was the lifestyle I've adopted and imposed on myself. Sometimes I ask myself why do I subject myself through such this - I guess my queries had already been answered.
Educational Psychology -
B+ was exactly what I expected so anything more was really a bonus. I've yet to break the duck and get that elusive A for general modules since Year 1 and the wait continues. A very interesting module that was taught by a very nice tutor so it made the going alot easier. Compared to the first psychology module back in Year 1, this was indeed miles apart. I dreaded that module back then because the theories and concepts didn't sound interesting to me. It didn't help that I hated the tutor who insisted we call her Professor. Can you believe she actually chided me in class for not saying hi to her when I saw her on bus 199? If she was a lot nicer, I wouldn't mind waking up from my sleepy mode and saying hi.
I believe I speak for my friends in school too as the current psychology module actually gave us very insightful knowledge with regards to the different disabilities that students actually have in Singapore. While we are not well-equipped to sufficiently deal with them, at least I can safely say we won't dismiss such students as pure lazy ones. There could be hidden reasons behind their behaviour. I also had the rare opportunity to head down to the Dyslexia Association of Singapore (DAS) after contacting one of their senior lecturers for an interview so as to find out more about the condition. I left the centre feeling very humbled. Being a humanities teacher, I wanted to present on this topic because it's the likeliest learning disability that I would face. Credit to my group members for giving me free rein in terms of contact DAS, arranging the interview and input for the presentation slides etc.
Among all the general modules, this was actually the second one (other than critical perspective on eduction which I consider my tutor a friend - Dr. Vicente Reyes) where I left the last class for the semester with a heavy heart. Hope to see my tutor, Mr. Raj, around in campus for the remaining semesters I have in school. He certainly left a very good impression on me and teaches in the same style like me by sharing his life worth of experiences with the class whenever possible.
Geography -
I got off on a good note with my tutor because she's just like me - fos. One of the rare tutors in school who have a very good sense of humour. In fact, I only have a 3 hour class with her on Thursday and if I didn't have her as a tutor, I might not even be present on certain days. Having taken Geography from secondary to junior college to now, this A grade was perhaps the least I should expect. Of course, credit must be given to my project group members as well because I couldn't have achieved it without their help. It's often hard to find like-minded project mates, especially for my case where I expect to start on the very same day I get the assignment/project question. 99% of my friends definitely do not adopt such a mentality but there's a certain few who believe in my philosophy.
The usual 'suspects' like Ivan and K are the good friends I always work with in Geography. Many of the geo people always ask me ' Why you never work with the pe people taking geo?' Those who don't know us well would probably thought that I've fallen out with them but the truth is always far from that. I wouldn't work with myself if I were in their shoes so it's a mutual agreement that sees me working with others. In fact, when it comes to geo and other general modules, I try to work with people from other subjects simply because one can make more friends in the midst of doing so. I was pretty grateful to Ivan and K for one of the concept maps that we were working on for submission. How often can you find people willing to spend almost the whole day in the library just to complete one assignment? Not often but I did. Even when I had to leave halfway for my swimming lesson, they continued to toil away and eventually completed it. Seeing the wonderful work they did, I decided to ask them to permanently take a rest while I complete the Unit Plan myself. It was only fair and at the same time, my bullshitting skills played a part in securing that A- for the 30%. I hope to get these guys again for my geo class next semester.
Swimming -
This is definitely one of the least confident modules because the tutor in charge kept on comparing us with the postgraduate students. It doesn't sound like success-in-the-making does it? Well, that's why this A- has got to be one of the best surprises. In terms of the practical skills test, I was only worried about my butterfly as the other strokes and endurance test were stuff that I've been doing since primary school. Butterfly was relatively new to me as I only knew the basics prior to the start of this module. Having completed all my assignments for the semester, I had more than enough time to study for the theory test so that was one of the crucial factors. Project-wise, I had a good group which allowed me to dictate how it should be carried out. Very simple if you ask me, making use of our strengths and carry out the project with minimal fuss. Xiao ming was the IT and video man, while I was in charge of the whole write-up and LCM taking care of the editing and quality control.
I'm actually pretty relieved that this module is over but it was definitely fun while it lasted. Volleyball and waterpolo in the pool plus the numerous circuits we did over the semester. It was tiring! Swimming doesn't end with this module because I still continue to swim as and when I am free. In fact, I swim to recover from a tiring week of soccer and runs. Many European soccer players do that and it's something positive that one can follow. Perhaps one of the funnier things was to see another side of my 'ever-strict' tutor who I always thought that he doesn't joke. This module had proven me wrong.
Gymnastics -
There's no grade for this module because I didn't register for the module. With very kind approval from Mrs. Leong, I was able to be a full-time student in her class. Compared to my classmates, I'm perhaps the least flexible and agile. It was good testing myself against the limits and having fun at the same time. My classmates were very helpful and encouraging, especially when I had problem clearing certain obstacles during lessons. In fact, I was made to fill very welcome and not like a typical class crasher. For the last few lessons where the whole class was performing certain group routines, I was given a role and asked to take part in the final product. All these captured on film and made for very good memories. Looks like I might do the same again for dance module if the opportunity arises.
Sociology of Sports -
I guess this A grade allowed me to redeem myself. It's not about proving myself to my classmates or tutor but rather against myself. That's me for you, the satisfaction always arises whenever I managed to upstage my previous scores or grades. Sociology this semester actually got my pretty worried in the inital few weeks because I had no idea where the class was heading. All I knew was that the focus was on baseball and nothing else. It left me wondering 'How I am going study for an examination with only basic knowledge of the game'. Well, as the semester progressed, I got to know more about cricket, the appointment of Ser Miang as the IOC VP and more on the social history of other sports. The consultations with my tutor with regards to my assignments, borrowing quite a few of his cricket, commercialization of sports and baseball books etc got me feeling more confident for the module.
Friends from outside the faculty always see me reading those Victorian era books on cricket and asked me 'PE teacher need to study all these ah?' I just smiled. The going certainly wasn't easy. To compensate for the lack of knowledge in cricket and baseball, I spent days reading books I borrowed from the library and surfed through countless online sports journals. It helped that the tutor was nice enough to give us a very good hint for the last and most difficult question of the exam paper. For readers of this blog, it goes something like 'Compare cricket and baseball with regards to the identity, commercialization and female participation etc.' With the help of the 2 books on cricket (highly recommended by my tutor) and the sports journals on baseball, I prepared a rough draft. True enough, the question came out and no prizes for guessing that I started with it first. Wrote 15 pages before I finally moved on to the next question.
My classmates are no longer amazed that I can write 10k or 15k essays. No better to end of this module than to surprise my tutor (despite being warned by my tutor) with a 27k essay on rugby. I always believe in doing essays or projects on topics that are close to one's heart. I did on squash the last semester so it was natural that rugby would follow next. With good contacts and close friends to guide me along, I was able to finish the essay with 2 months to spare. Perhaps that allowed me to score some vital points for handing it up early. I don't write 27k essays to impress my friends or classmates, I think anyone who does that is extremely stupid. I did it because I simply love to write/type. It took me 1 week of sleepless nights before the end product was concluded. Looking back, I think that's perhaps the toughest assignment I did. It was a challenge that I set out to take and I never looked back.
My love for sociology doesn't end there. Together with Skrtel, we'll be joining the Year 2s for their classes. I actually look forward to seeing films like One Day in September again. Hopefully there'll be no clash of classes.
Sports Management -
I had a month to prepare for my examination and thank goodness this module only took me 3 days to fully-memorize every single word in the notes. That gave me more time to focus on sociology. I always thought that mathematics is the only subject where one can obtain full marks but I was wrong. This module is another one. With full marks secured, I knew that I was halfway to obtaining my A grade. Looks like my presentation and write-up did the rest for me and I finally did it. Credit must go to xiao ming also for giving me the freedom t write a 35 page essay for my squash competition write-up.
When the tutor increased the percentage for this essay to 40% (the 2nd essay was cancelled due to the workload), I knew that worked in my favour. It was a risk that xiao ming and I took because the page limit was 10 pages but well, managed to convince him that we should hand it in. Luckily my tutor smiled and said it was all right. Knowing that majority of the class was doing on running events, I knew we had to make a detour and do something different. Some event/competition that had a sanction which would give us more credibility. A simple sms to SSRA allowed me to obtain the necessary information to finish up the slides and the essay. It helps to know people in the relevant sports associations.
As time was tight, I contacted netball singapore for my second presentation. The going was easy because the head was my senior (very senior I must say) back in Anglo-Chinese and he was the very first rugby captain of acs. Things always become easier when a prospective client for example knows you're from the same school. For that, I actually have to be very thankful 2because things fell easily into place and I didn't have much problems for my PE modules. 2 As for both my favourite PE subjects, I can't ask for more.
Multicultural Studies -
Usually I leave the best for the last. However, just for this entry, I don't leave the worst for the last. In fact this module was the party spoiler. As usual, I don't blame tutors for my results and I certainly don't want to start with this. However, I cannot help but feel pissed off that marks were actually deducted for wasting paper. I had that problem for one of my assignments and that's pretty ridiculous if you ask me. I usually love to add content and/or cover pages for each respective section and even if I love to waste paper, it's also my own problem. Just going to blame this on bad luck for crossing paths with such a tutor.
The day is too short to be spent complaining about her. It's been very very long since I last typed such a long entry. Well, it felt good to be able to pen down my thoughts in words. With the release of my results, I can certainly enjoy my remaining holidays a lot better. Good luck to my ntu and nus friends too. Hope they will have a good holiday like me!
