Prelims results are back. GP C, Maths A, Chemistry A, Physics A, Economics D. And Maths H3 51/68 for now. I'm really glad for the help i got from my friends, in terms of the support they gave me, the motivation to study and the prayers to keep me under the good hands of god. Your father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him. Matthew 7:11. During the exam period, i constantly prayed for god's help and he has indeed given the strength and endurance to sit through all the papers, especially maths h3, which was the last paper, at a time when everyone should be playing. GP was always a problem for me so i was delighted to get a C. I got an amazing 34/50 for my environmental essay, about champions of environmental efforts being hypocrites. All the knowledge i gained from my involvement in earthwatch and waterways watch society came in good use lol. Then there were maths, physics and chemistry. An A is an A, so no disputes. For economics, even though i would wish for a better grade, i gladly accept this D because this is fate and this is what god has given me, to motivate me to work even harder if i wish for something better. Today i got back maths h3 and got 30/40 for the compulsory differential equations topic and 21/28 for combinatories. For one of the combinatories question (10b), someone jokingly wrote down his answer, put a "confirm wrong" sign and hand it in. Haha. Anyways, throughout this week, i've been thinking how god has blessed me, creating me with a good mind, one that is good with numbers, my friends say. It's really a pleasure to be awarded with great results but it should serve to motivate one to work even harder and not get complacent. For those who did not perform up to their expectations, do not get discouraged. Because there will always be a way as long as there is god. As long as you work hard, god will acknowledge that. Even though things may look bleak now, you will never know what will happen in years to come. As Nick said, "One day, i'll be richer than all of you all." There is always a chance that you will suddenly find your way and be enlightened. As long as there is a will, there is a way. You will soon be rewarded if you continue to stick hard to your task of fulfilling your goals/targets and fulfilling yourself. Any Man born in this world is brilliant. It's whether they choose to make full way of it and work towards success and god's words and will.

But with great power comes great jealousy/overconfidence. All these are sins which will be harmful to us in some ways. According to god's words, we should repent on such sins and try our best not to commit them ever again. Often, people who perform well go about comparing themselves with others, hoping to be the top of the pile. As Justin said, "The flaccid top seed" and this guy is really a flaccid top seed. He sneakingly went about asking for Justin's results via his friends, hoping to beat everyone in the school! But what for? As long as I keep to your task, fulfill yourself, stick to what I aim for, which is god's will, I can never be faulted. We should never be jealous of others just because they perform better than us. Your rivals are not your enemies. Even if they are your enemies, love your enemies. I was once guilty of such jealousy but somehow when i came to JC, i managed to overcome it.

Today, i spent time to teach my friend in school, before and after my maths h3 lesson, till around 7pm. Life is not just about receiving gifts/knowledge/food/money/care from people. It's also about giving and god taught me this. If there is no one to give, do you think anyone will be able to receive? So i feel that since giving in terms of knowledge is a task which is within me, i shall give in joy to friends who seek me. I sacrificed my soccer playing time this afternoon to teach my friend chemisty: group2, group7, transition metals, organic nitrogen compounds and go through the errors for the prelims. Anyway, i taking a break till the end of the week. Have a break man. Or else the robot will break down. So i spent the whole afternoon resting, doing nothing except teaching my friend. Yup, it's actually quite fun to give. I will feel a sense of fulfilment and the glory of god because god is all about giving to mankind. Even if i have to sacrifice my time, give it up happily in the task of giving. It's the same as spending time to worship god. We have to give up our precious time in this intense studying period.

Perform well, be happy, remember to thank god and continue to work hard.
Do not be a flaccid top seed and become overly concerned about how others perform.

Do not be a hypocrite. Care for others because you have the heart to care.

Prelims is finally over

Alright! My prelims finally ended yesterday. Maths H3 was the very last exam of this Prelims so i was the last dude to be able to say, "Prelims is over!" The maths H3 paper was quite ok. I didn't really spend much time revising for it, just reading through the notes and looking at the examples to familiarise myself with the methods to solve the questions. There were 4 topics to study. 1 compulsory - 4 questions (40 marks), other 3 topics - 2 questions each, choose 4 questions to do (56 marks), 4 marks for presentation of answers. I took a gamble, studied 2 out of the 3 non-compulsory topics, meaning that i will not have any choice of which questions to do for the 2nd part of the paper. Nevertheless, i thought that it will be possible to scrap a distinction for the paper, but a merit has a higher probability, according to bijection principle. Haha just joking.

After the maths H3 paper, i was liberated, freed from studying, but only temporarily. I immediately took a bus home, so that i can watch the 7pm channel 8 show, last episode haha. I was so exhausted on the way back home, maybe because of the mind-straining maths H3 exam. Around 8pm, after the show, i went to my classmate Ashley's house. Several other classmates were already there by the time i reached. Around 15 of us went. We had a Jumbo restaurant supper. Ashley's parents brought the leftover crabs back from their restaurant. They were delicious. Then some of us played mahjong, others played cards, others played Xbox. For some of my classmates, it was their first day learning how to play mahjong. They thought that it was actually very fun and got addicted. Mahjong had an element of stress, as it required them to use their mind constantly. I was the only one who played 6 straight hours of mahjong, from 11pm to 5am. The others got tired eventually and slept. Then at 5am, i stopped playing mahjong as everyone else went to sleep and i tried something new, Halo 3 on Xbox. The 5 dudes who were still awake, me, Justin, Beneb, Wee Leong and Nick. To be honest, i suck at the game Halo 3. Constantly getting killed by them from behind without even knowing. In the end, the race to 25 kills game saw the result: Ben 25, Justin 8, Nick 7, Me 0. I was never a fan of such killing game, so i wasn't really surprising. Then we went to sleep at 530am till 1030am. It was a fun time at Ashley's house, a good post-prelim celebration for me, only finishing prelims the previous day.

Throughout this entire Prelims, i was blessed by God. Usually, I will study according to my study plan. If I fails to stick to it, I will feel stressed up and will not be able to do things effectively. This time, I was at times behind my study plan, mainly because I had to spend time to worship God. Nevertheless, it was time worth spending. Despite being behind my study plan, I will pray to God for help, ask him for confidence and the power to concentrate throughout. It really helped because at the end of the day, I will be able to finish studying.

This prelims was a brand new experience for me, coming to know God in a period which requires lots of mental strength. These friends constantly reminded me that even as we faced obstacles and problems, treat these tests like pure joy. Church service 13/09/2008, James 1:2-6 Exams are just a test of perseverance from God. Request for God's wisdom and he will bring you through them with confidence. He is like a guy standing in front of you during your exam and showing you the answer sheet. He gives you the assurance of your ability, so that we can make full use of the knowledge we have learned to answer the questions in the exams.
Next, I am thankful to all my caregroup friends too, for their constant support in this Prelims, sending sms to give me the assurance that god will always be by my side throughout this mentally-exhausting period. Thanks to Li Yin, Chia Ling and Rochelle for taking time off to pray for me before my Maths H3 exam, at a time when they should be enjoying their time somewhere else. "Thanks for coming!"

It's being a long time since i wrote a blog. Between this period, i've been really busy studying for Prelims. I've also devoted myself to be a christian now. Going church every Saturday afternoon. 2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" Being a christian really changed me. I learned about the sins human beings commit. Disrespect to parents, theft, lying, scolding vulgarities, lust, anger, etc. These sins will send us to hell and god spared us from hell by dying on a cross. Before joining Christ, i thought that i was perfect. Now i know that i am actually guilty of some sins. Disrespect to parents is one. Sometimes i will tend to ignore my parents when they keep bugging me to study. I'm also a very unthankful person. My dad fetches me to school everyday, my mum takes care of me when i'm sick. Yet i never had the habit to say thank you, even to my friends. I'm a forgettful person too. Tend to forget the care and concern by others. Even friends around me, i may forget them if i do not stay in contact. Like my Primary 6 monitor, i forgot who is he when my friends mentioned to me in Secondary 2. Just 2 years, i will forget people, how fast! This is a bad habit that i need to correct. Having known all these sins i commit, i should not just leave it as it is. I should try to repent to god, tell him that i have done wrong, then god will help you overcome your sins and temptations. Besides that, i can pray to god to ask him for help in several things. Tell him what i want and with his power, he can slowly ease me to success one day.
GP was over on Monday. Quite ok, i wrote the essay on environment, people who support environmental causes being hypocrites. Gave an example about my WWS volunteer thing, which i went for bike and boat patrol. :) The comprehension was about gambling. Hopefully, both the comprehension and the essay will go well and i'll get a good grade.
Less than 2 weeks to the rest of the subjects, i pray that i will have all the strength and concentration needed to study and sit through Prelims. Pray that everyone will do well for Prelims! God bless..

The jumping troubles goes on. I was looking for Mr Melvin Tan at the pe dept. I was too lazy to take my shoes off so i stood by the door. As his table was way inside, i tried to tip-top and see if he was around. But i couldn't see clearly so i decided to jump and check it out. Ouch! I knocked onto the top of my head. Hard, so hard that there was a big bang. The trackers outside the pe dept all turned and looked at me. Ouch! I touched my head. It was wet. So i was scared that it was bleeding. Then i looked at my hand. Phew, just water from my bath in the morning. But the bad karma goes on and on. After i fell and damaged my chin last fri. I'm still abit dizzy at the moment. Studying just now was a bit unproductive. Not sure if i'm distracted by Olympics or because of the knock on the head. Speaking about Olympics, studying at home is not really productive now. Because there are 6 Olympics channels on tv. Swimming, archery, soccer, hockey, basketball, shooting, fencing, cycling, handball, volleyball, etc. How do you expect me to control myself? Anyway, Michael Phelps is the man! 5 events, 5 golds, 5 world records! Alright come on ah! 5 in the bag, 3 to go!

Quote of the day:
You can promise to commit to something. But there comes a day when time does not favour your course. Nevertheless, the most important thing is that your HEART remains faithful, loyal and committed.

A new lease of life

Yesterday i finally told my parents that i've converted to become a christian. It was a big decision to make because i was once a buddhist. I thought that i have finally accepted god in my heart and i am willing to commit myself to being a christian. At first, my mum asked me why didn't i ask for her permission before making this decision. She asked what made me want to be a christian all of a sudden. She also asked if i will have the time to commit to being a christian and studying at the same time. Christianity has given us a new purpose and meaning in life. It has given me pleasure from the friends i have come to meet so far. From the church service i attended so far, i found the message which they are bringing forward extremely meaningful. So i have decided to be a christian.
On the same day, it was the first anniversary of the youth association in Hope Church. Last year, they started off by setting up care groups in 5 JCs. Then they expanded and their care groups now exist in all the JCs. So i took time off studying and went to Clementi SIM to celebrate, together with my 2 other VJC friends, Chia Ling and James. We interact with people from all other JCs, played games and prizes were given out for the best of the best and the worst of the worst among JCs. I had a really fun time.
The celebration ended ay around 10pm. We left the place and were walking to the bus stop together. I was sort of playful and was jumping around, as usual. Then, i came upon a metal chain barrier. So i decided to run and jump over it. Unfortunately, i took off too close to the chain. I knew that i was in trouble. My leg got hooked by the chain and i fell flat, hurting my chest and cutting my chin. Immediately, i picked myself up because i didn't want anyone to worry too much. My friends rushed forward and ask if i was fine. At first, i really felt okay except for a damaged chin and a bruised chest. All of a sudden, my mind was spinning. I couldn't balance and felt like fainting. Soon, my eye vision was gone. My friends immediately helped me to the ground and i just laid there. I told myself not to faint. I didn't want my parents to worry about me too. I tried my best to regain my vision and it took a while before vision was regained. From dark to purple then back to normal. It was my first ever experience of nearly blanking out. I had to fight very hard to remain conscious. Thank god that i didn't faint. He gave me the strength to fight on for my family and my friends. Life is precious. We should cherish every moment of our lives and should not commit too much sins. That's the reason why i chose to serve god. Maybe this fall will awaken me, for all the sins i have done and i've been punished for them. But after this, i will commit myself to going to church and atone for my sins.

The past few days, i wanted to write a blog post but i will tend to forget what i wanted to say come night time when i log in. Never mind because i have been very busy, working very hard for prelims and not let anything distract me. I followed my study plan so far and just finished till market structure for economics. I must really do my best in order to get the scholarship and the enrolment in the university i prefer. Yesterday, there was a scholarship fair in my school. Different associations set up booth in the hall and organise talks in the different venues to aid our choice of scholarship. Some of the scholarships really stirred my interest. BCA, Firefly JTC, DSTA, etc. All these scholarships give me an opportunity to seek my future in engineering, particularly civil engineering which involves buildings of stuffs. I heard from BCA that there are 2 choices of the scholarship. One of them is to work with an external industry and be bonded for a shorter period of time. This sounds thrilling because you will be able to get first-hand experience of working in a building and engineering industry while studying. The requirements of all these scholarships? 4As of course. So hard work and a dose of luck is essential.
Anyway, i found a very interesting show on National Geographic Channel, the Mad Labs. Through scientific research, it tells us a lot of crazy stuffs about different findings. Why birds prefer to shit on white cars? What is change blindness? Why people hug? Fish actually fart at night! What is the best cure for spice? The rotation of bread when it falls off the table. Human helicopter in Japan. The new pac man game. Worm can cure asthma. Females have generally thicker ass than males and thus need longer needles for injection.
I'm thinking of changing my study plan a bit. I'll try to finish the first part of my study plan, which is the reading through of my notes as soon as possible. If i finish by the end of next week, when i've time, then i can give my friends some help if needed. :) After which i will start the second part of my study plan, which is the memorising of details in week 9. All the way!

Serious studies starting soon

Yesterday was Speech Day. It was boring. So many people didn't turn up and it was a bit of a waste of time. After the event, i went dinner with my family at a seafood restaurant near Yishun stadium. It was a "farewell dinner" for my sister before she enters her university next week. We spent $139, ate a chilli crab, sambal sotong, fish in claypot and pork ribs. It was so delicious! At night, i went Yong Cheng's house to stay over, together with some of my secondary 4 classmates too. Benjamin, Han Wei, Jing Ren and Zhen Yang. We played card games and watch some movies including Jumper.

In the morning, i went for GP tuition at Orchard Plaza at 9am before returning to Yong Cheng's house. On the way, i packaged lunch for all of them. After lunch, we played a few games of mahjong. Then, Yong Cheng, Benjamin, Jing Ren and Zhen Yang went to the condominium's swimming pool to swim while Han Wei and I brought homework to do. I did some part of the Complex Numbers 4 tutorial. After their swim, we went back to the house and finally started to study. The plan was actually to play and spare some time to study. But in the end, only a small portion of time was used to study. Nevertheless, i spent some time studying Economics too. I read the essay plans which my sister gave me. Not bad but i will start serious, really serious revision tomorrow. I had promised myself. Alright come on ah!

Here's my serious study plan
Reading notes/past-year papers:
28/07 - Economics: Central Problem, Demand/Supply, Elasticity
29/07 - Economics: Applications, Theory of Production and Cost
30/07 - Economics: Market Structure
31/07 - Economics: Market Structure
01/08 - Economics: Market Structure, EOS/Size of Firms, Cost Benefit Analysis
02/08 - Buffer
03/08 - Economics: Market Failure, Income Inequality, Government Failure
04/08 - Chemistry: Chemical Bonding, Periodic Table, Group 2 Metals, Group 7 Elements, Transition Metals
05/08 - Chemistry: Atomic Structure, Atoms/Molecules/Stoichiometry, Gaseous State, Redox Titration, Chemical Equilibrium, Thermochemistry, Chemical Energetics
06/08 - Economics: International Trade, Introduction to Macroeconomics, National Income Accounting
07/08 - Economics: Economic Growth, Recessions/Booms, Money
08/08 - Economics: Inflation/Deflation, Unemployment, BOP/Foreign Exchange
09/08 - Physics: Measurement Techniques, Physical Quantity, Kinematics, Forces, Dynamics, Work/Energy/Power, Thermal Physics, Ideal Gases, Thermodynamics, Oscillations, Wave Motion, Superposition
10/08 - Economics: Macroeconomics Policies, Exchange Rate Policy, Conflicting Goals
11/08 - Chemistry: Ionic Equilibrium 1 & 2, Electrochemistry 1 & 2, Introduction to Organic Chemistry, Alkanes, Alkenes
12/08 - Chemistry: Arenes, Halogen Deriatives, Hydroxy Compounds, Carbonyl Compounds, Carboxylic Acids and Deriatives, Organic Nitrogen Compounds
13/08 - Physics: Circular Motion, Gravitational Field, Electric Field, Electromagnetism, Electromagnetic Induction, Alternating Current
14/08 - Physics: Current Electricity, DC Circuits, Quantum Physics 1-3, Lasers/Semiconductors
15/08 - Physics: Nuclear Physics, Radioactivity, Data Analysis
16/08 - Maths
17/08 - Maths
18/08 - Buffer
19/08 - Buffer
20/08 - Buffer

Memorising details:
21/08 - Physics: Measurement Techniques, Physical Quantity, Kinematics, Forces, Dynamics, Work/Energy/Power, Thermal Physics, Ideal Gases, Thermodynamics, Oscillations, Wave Motion, Superposition
22/08 - Physics: Circular Motion, Gravitational Field, Electric Field, Electromagnetism, Electromagnetic Induction, Alternating Current
23/08 - Chemistry: Atomic Structure, Atoms/Molecules/Stoichiometry, Gaseous State, Redox Titration, Chemical Equilibrium, Thermochemistry, Chemical Energetics
24/08 - GP Revision
25/08 - Chemistry: Chemical Bonding, Periodic Table, Group 2 Metals, Group 7 Elements, Transition Metals
26/08 - Economics: Central Problem, Demand/Supply, Elasticity, Applications, Theory of Production and Cost
27/08 - Economics: Market Structure, EOS/Size of Firms
28/08 - Economics: Market Failure, Cost Benefit Analysis
29/08 - Physics: Current Electricity, DC Circuits, Quantum Physics 1-3, Lasers/Semiconductors
30/08 - Chemistry: Ionic Equilibrium 1 & 2, Electrochemistry 1 & 2, Introduction to Organic Chemistry, Alkanes, Alkenes
31/08 - Chemistry: Arenes, Halogen Deriatives, Hydroxy Compounds, Carbonyl Compounds, Carboxylic Acids and Deriatives, Organic Nitrogen Compounds
01/09 - Economics: Income Inequality, Government Failure
02/09 - Economics: International Trade, Introduction to Macroeconomics, National Income Accounting, Economic Growth
03/09 - Economics: Recessions/Booms, Money, Inflation/Deflation
04/09 - Economics: Unemployment, BOP/Foreign Exchange, Macroeconomics Policies
05/09 - Economics: Exchange Rate Policy, Conflicting Goals
06/09 - Physics: Nuclear Physics, Radioactivity, Data Analysis

Anyway, my impression of someone has changed terribly. This friend of mine won an award for a good cause. But i heard from my other friend that she actually asked her classmates to vote for her so that she will win the award and it will appear good in her testimonial. If what my friend said is true, she will definitely lose my respect. I mean, if you wish to do something nice, it should really come from your heart. Don't be driven just because of the achievement you will get, especially when it concerns a human life like adopting a kid. I'm not saying that everyone is perfect and has excellent moral values. But i strongly loathe such scheming behaviour and believe that this is a crime. I will never commit such a sin.