heart's playground

“在科学中，读死书是没用的，最重要的是我们可以亲手做试验，这样才可以了解老师在课堂中说些什么。”
To think I actually wrote that in Primary 5. Do people really become more and more stupid as they grow up? If not, why did I lose something so simple and logical?

On another note, haha 小作家 reunion ftw ^_^

I shall confess now: this is not my only blog. :P
I have a total of three blogs. One is my personal blog (aka this blog), for daily ranting and random musings.
The second blog is a blog I created for the sake of GP. It contains (or rather, will contain) general info about some of the most popular topics for GP essays and AQ. I will pass this link around sooner or later.
The last blog is open only to selected people. If you really want to know what it contains, just MSN me and I'll decide whether or not I shall open it to you. (:

Off to do tutorials~

Haha true true, I should stop wasting time thinking about what I've lost and spend the time doing tutorials / playing guitar at 天堂 instead. Aiyo what happened to our singing lessons? Come up to 天堂 and sing with me la :D
And, happy 18th birthday (: It took you long enough to return. Hmm, I shall not elaborate, msn me if you want to know more ((:

[Erm I'm addressing two different people in the paragraphs above lolol.]

And jiayou to everyone taking SAT today! :D
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Potential guitar piece for our CCA juniors?



For some reason this piece describes how I'm feeling now. Hmm...
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WEEKEND TO-DO LIST:
1) Differential equations supplementary
2) Start on Complex Numbers tutorial
3) Finish chem tutorial
4) Do chem video (that's like at least 5 hours...)
5) Learn the piece up there ^ on guitar
6) Start arranging ^ for guitar J1s
7) Borrow a bioeng book and start mugging
8) Update class fund
9) Read physics notes
10) Do econs tutorial

WAH SHIZZZZZ. (I must stop myself from using JC lingo in econs class ._.)

Hello everyone!

With the increasing number of juniors coming to me for advice on JC SMTP, I decided that it's time to clear whatever doubts (and misconceptions) that juniors might have about this (I don't know why but) confusing topic. I hope this post would provide juniors with an insight of what SMTP life in HCJC is really like, and at the same time bust some of the common myths about us.

1) SMTP students are muggers.
TRUE AND FALSE. I know I shouldn't be scaring you juniors while you're still having fun at orientation, but you must know that in JC, everyone will become a mugger. It's really just a matter of when. And of course, the same goes for SMTP students. While there are people who start pia-ing right from early in their J1 year, most of us start getting serious somewhere in August, when promos are around the corner. So whether or not you want to view SMTP students as muggers, it's really your own choice,

2) SMTP students have alot of extra stuff in their curriculum.
FALSE. Unlike high school/Nanyang SMTP which features alot of extra material in addition to the curriculum, JC SMTP follows the same syllabus as everyone else. Because after all, we're working towards the same goal - to get our As in A levels. We do have enrichment lectures in J1, but that's once a week after lessons, and it's really for enrichment purposes. (i.e. they won't go and set a test based on the lecture content) The same goes for the misconception that SMTP students have alot of extra lessons. Please remember that it is absolutely not true.

3) SMTP students must take on a science research project.
FALSE. Science research is open to anyone and everyone who's interested, and there's no specific obligation for SMTP students to take on research projects. Most of us, however, do take on research in J1, as a form of development to our interests. One important principle that you should abide to in JC is that when choosing CCAs, you should do what truly interests you; only then will you last long, and excel in what you're doing.

4) SMTP classes are streamed according to whether they take Bio or Physics.
FALSE. In most cases, the three SMTP classes consist of both Bio and Physics students. The mix is usually quite even as well. The '11-'12 batch is a unique case where there are more physics than bio students --> formation of 11S7B, which is the only S7 class that takes physics!
The process of streaming SMTP students into the three classes is unknown. Rumour has it that students are sorted into the classes based on their performance in the Chemistry selection test.

5) SMTP classes are segregated from the main cohort.
FALSE. Other than selected math and chem lectures (where we're pulled out from the main cohort and lectured separately), all our daily activities are conducted together with mainstream students. Also, if you compare us with HP students you would realise we're alot less segregated from the main cohort.

6) All SMTP students take Economics as their contrasting subject.
FALSE. Our batch has ppl who take CSC, CLL, Geography, KI and 3rd language. You are encouraged to take whatever contrasting subject you want - you can even take KI if you want to! ((:
[/edit] I received updates from a junior that J1 SMTP students this year are not offered CLL as a subject option...

7) SMTP students get the best resources available.
TRUE MOST OF THE TIME. We have to admit, we get the best tutors around. But of course they teach multiple classes!

8) SMTP students this year cannot take triple science.
NOT SURE. I had feedback from high school SMTP guys that they are not allowed to take triple science anymore, even back in high school. My take is, you can appeal for triple science, but your chances of getting it are really lowwwwww.

9) There are far more guys than girls in SMTP.
FALSE. Strangely enough, we have the most balanced classes in terms of guy-to-girl ratio. Every year they make sure the guy and girl intake is about the same.

10) All SMTP students will take a H3 eventually.
FALSE. Yours truly is a counter-example. XD It really depends on how much effort you put into your studies in your J1 life. So if you want it, really, work for it.

That's it! Hope this will be helpful fo our juniors-to-be! Come come to my junior class so that I can have people to bully! Jiayou ^^

Here's to a great new year ahead! :D May this be a new beginning for me!

So ISYF has ended. I have tried to mentally prepare myself for this day, but now that it has really ended, I still feel this overwhelming sense of nostalgia and emptiness in me. )):
While everything is still fresh in my head, I shall just reflect on what happened over the past week. (haha, reminds me of the debrief sessions we had with our groups every night :P)

Overall - To participants, ISYF lasted for five days; to facils, however, ISYF lasted for a week. Although I did not get saboed for much saikang, my seven days had more or less been jam-packed, probably cos I was trying to strike a balance amongst leading my group, preparing for SRC activities, occasional chilling out, and catching enough sleep lolol. I have organised a decent number of events before, but ISYF was really the first of its kind in my list and it had been a unique experience for me.

Lyra - Besides the facils, you guys are among the people whom I would miss the most from ISYF (': Thankyou Lyra for being such an awesome group! Although we were not exactly outstanding (in terms of Amazing Race or level of craziness of our cheer lolol), I see that yall have generally enjoyed your time as a group and made alot of new friends. Hope you guys will always rmb the times when we  lapsed into intellectual convos, asked one another for advice, simply crapped around, and stayed up to play cards/truth or dare! The legendary coke bottle hahah :D I'll miss being your 母鸡 throughout ISYF... do keep in touch! maybe next time we might meet again in some scientific conference! XD

Student Organising Committee - Fellow facils!! :D Although we'll still be meeting one another for the next 11 months, I'll miss the times when we rushed about for ISYF-related work, saikang-ed together, freaked out together, shared insider stories, and simply chillaxed together <3 Like what someone had mentioned to me, the facils were actually the ones who went craziest during D&D on the last day. We would all understand why; after all, we were selected to be facils in August, and spent three whole months (starting from after promos) planning for this event ^_^
Widened my social circle a little over the course of ISYF, and reinforced my ties with some "older" friends (oh man 冤家路窄 ><). I'll miss you all as facils...

SRC activities, and the people behind it - Really glad that the students had enjoyed SRC activities on a whole ((: SRC Physics was quite messy cos everyone was simply throwing everything everywhere, so I had to make use of adaptation skills. My already damaged voice got even raspier cos of the shouting, and not to mention that one of the students owned me in the physics involved. Nevertheless, it had been a great learning process for me. Seeing the students enjoy the activity really put a smile on my face as well. (: Looking forward to your feedback, so that I can go set higher standards for the juniors! XDD

I would say that only the SRC activities comm members and their close friends in lab saw the planning I did for SRC physics. Many thanks to you guys, for standing by me all the way (: Special thanks to my friend's father as well, for sponsoring and preparing the materials for SRC physics. Really appreciate the help offered to me along the way ((:

ISYF requires very little planning? - I totally salute the participant who said that. Excluding the fact that he/she did not see the many months of prep work, all the facils have agreed that he/she said so because the entire ISYF was zero-hiccup in the participants' eyes. Really happy that it turned out so (: I won't say that ISYF was perfect, because I personally think I screwed up some stuff here and there (things that only facils can see, sighhhhh), but I must admit that ISYF 2012 went really smoothly. One plus-point, yupyup.

"Be an expert at something." - The wise words given by the Nobel laureates and eminent scientists were really inspiring. And also to mention, one of them had a life story scarily similar to my current state... As I observe from them, none of them had been particularly zai in their youthful days; they simply followed their passion and became experts in what they truly love. Seems like it's time for me to let go and be an expert at something as well. (:

All in all, I learnt alot over the course of ISYF, was a decent group leader I guess, and hopefully made ISYF as enjoyable for the participants as it had been for me. I will never, ever forget the times I spent pre-, peri- and post-ISYF.

Photos are all uploaded! Might do a photo post later, depends on whether I have the time for it. (my post-ISYF zam list is getting... D:)

Lololol waking up at 4am to use internet / wash clothes / sweep floor is proof that there's something wrong with my brain :/ Anyway, 2nd and 3rd days of ISYF had been busy, crazy, inspiring, tiring and enriching all at the same time. Lyra is really, really an awesome group (: I can see everyone coming together, trying not to leave anyone out, enjoying time tgt as a team.

That reminds me of LDP when we learnt the difference between a 'group' and a 'team'. Hmm... ((:

SRC activities later on, it's really our comm's show :D And of course, the Nobel Forum. It's the moment we have all been waiting for! Jiayou everyone!!


For the whole of yesterday I couldn't help but think how empty I would feel inside after the end of ISYF. That feeling got stronger today.  )):

Which equates to alot of running about, saikang-ing, zihighing, lame jokes, blue tea cafe wonders, socialising and putting my fake accent to good use X)

Lyra (as I observe of now) is an awesome group! (: I see alot of potentially high ppl so I must let them spread the high-ness around. But I would say we're quite far from being a bonded group so the students will need to work harder over the next few days.

Was thinking about how I would feel when ISYF comes to an end. Like what Jiawei said, the countdown to CNY celebrations is also countdown to the end of ISYF. Seriously donno how i'll feel. Spent months planning for it, and it's all coming to an end soon.

)):

Kk i guess I shouldn't think so much 1st. Lyra lyra banana! XDD

That's the amount of time to the arrival of our 1st batch of ISYF participants (: Really feeling the action and excitement now. All the best everyone! We spent months and months planning for this one week, let's make it a success ^_^

Hmm, seems like I've succeeded in keeping my emo-ness away from my blog. Seriously being the only one in SMTP not offered a H3 is... :/ After that I spent a great long deal of time regretting over what I hadn't done, what I could have done, etc etc. (which of course is just a waste of time)
It's impossible to forgive and forget, but for now I can only look forward and whack my way towards the best case scenario possible.
Easier said than done...

Back to current state. Lolol everything remaining on my work list is related to ISYF. Packing for ISYF would be... interesting, as I foretell. :P

Seems like I'm spending my day before school reopen in tears.
Donno how long I'll take to recover...
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[/edit] So after I'm done comforting myself (or at least pushing it aside) I go and try to put a smile on others' faces.
Since when have I become so magnanimous? Hmm.