I screwed up my Chemistry SPA today.

Firstly, I accidentally overturned the whole bottle of Chemical A onto the bench, and that time Ms Yeo was just beside me, but I think she turned away just before I upsetted the chemical, because when I asked her for some more Chemical A, she was quite surprised and asked me, "So fast used finished ah?" That one bottle could actually last through at least 4 titrations, but I asked when I was doing my second one.

Secondly, because the mouth of the bottle containing Chemical B is very big, so when I pour it into the burette (via a funnel), some of them leaked outside the funnel, down the outside of the burette and onto the table. And as the chemical is of a very dark and distinct colour, it made a mess on my table, unlike Chemical A because it was colourless, even though almost the whole bottle of Chemical A was spilled out. Plus when Chemical B evaporates when left to stand, it turns to brown and stained the place. So I have a blue cloth with many ugly brown spots and table with many brown dots.

Thirdly, I forgot to put the measuring cylinder onto the table when pouring Chemical A into it. I held it in mid-air for my own convienence, and I think Ms Yeo saw that and deducted my marks because we are supposed to put it on the table to prevent parallax error.

Lastly, I wasted too much time cleaning up my apparatus, such that I didn't really check my answers. And when we still have 5 to 10 minutes left, I realised that an equation is supposed to be:

x/y * k = answer

and I put it as:

y/x * k = answer

So my answer was wrong at the second step. And so thing is I have to cancel almost ALL my workings and redo them, leaving a big mess out of my paper when I thought it was quite neat at first. And I am not really sure if my workings are correct because I didn't have time to check. But as far as I know, my titration values are similar to some friends' and the ultimate answer is correct (they asked which one out of 2 is a better choice).

And this is an actual SPA counted for 'O' levels. Really! That's why I am not naming the chemicals because there are other classes which have yet to take the test. And SPA is 20% of 'O' levels and there are 5 SPAs, so each one is around 4%. So I guess I lose around 25% of the marks for this SPA so I think it will be around 1 mark? Haha, that's something comforting to hear though. Dun worry Sherman, work harder next time. Anyway I am quite confident of scoring A1 for Chemistry, it's only Biology I am worried about.

Oh Biology SPA is going to be about Enzymes, and I am having it on Wednesday. And Physics SPA is on Thursday just before school ends, so I dunno if I may make it on time for choir practice. Oh because Mrs Setho (Physics teacher) did not tell us our SPA topic, we were all complaining about it, and she announced in class today that one of the teachers called MOE and asked if they were allowed to reveal the topics to the students. MOE replied that they can give a general topic of the paper. So Mrs Setho told us that it is something to do with Waves that was taught last year. And only topic that was taught last year regarding waves was Light Waves, and the only experiment about Light Waves was... determining focal length of a converging lens! *hint hint*

Anyway, I just read about this quote yesterday:

The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

If you dun get it, the first bird will get the worm but the first mouse will not get the cheese because it will get trapped by the mousetrap. It may sound dumb at first but come to think of it, it actually applies a lot to life. Think of it as: The first person may get all the benefits, but it is always not the best as it involves risks. It is always best to think first before acting or doing something.

Now speaking about life, Mrs Setho was teaching us about live, neutral and earth wires today, and she mentioned that the neutral wire carry near zero voltage, while the live wire carries a large amount of voltage. So she said something along this line:

It's called live because it carries a high voltage, so if you touch it, your 'live' (life) will be dead.

After morning assembly our class was the first class to reach the 7th floor as usual, because we are the first sec 4 class to be dismissed. The HCL 4-3 Chinese teacher made his way up very quickly, together with us. Haha. He is one old man who looks actually like some ordinary uncle, and he does not have any facial expressions at all. Well, I thought he was quite enthu about his class, but didn't care much about him.

Then because first lesson was Chinese, so I went to get my bag from my class to go to my Chinese class. Then that teacher, Paul, was walking back and forth. As in walking forward then walking backwards without changing the direction he's facing. He looked damn spastic lol.

And that wasn't all. He came into our class! He entered through the back door because the front door was locked and walked backwards towards the whiteboard. Then he opened his mouth and said...

倒走比向前走的功效好16倍!

[Walking backwards is 16 times more effective than walking forward!]

We were quite stunned. =O

And as he was writing the word "倒" on the whiteboard, we told him he went to the wrong class. So he packed his things and left the class.

We all got stunned again...

Then later Mr Chew came and gave us a test. Then Paul came back again and was finding something he dropped around the teacher's table. I could hear some people whispering, "Omg he's back again..."

I think he is suffering from Alzheimer's disease (老人痴呆症)!

(The secondary 2s are) adorable in their own way but very noisy... and silly.

~Mrs Setho, Physics teacher, commenting on her secondary 2 class.

I just realised that my Feb 10 post was about Principal caning a student, and the next post on Feb 12 was about Principal declaring half day. What a total change in mood.

My father came back to Singapore from Hong Kong last last Sunday, and my sister came back from Malaysia on Saturday for a reunion dinner. Whoa it has been quite long since my parents, my sister and I have eaten a dinner together.

And on Sunday afternoon my sister and father took a flight to Hong Kong. So it goes back to the normal me and my mother in Singapore.

I haven't been doing much these few days of holiday. I have been wasting and wasting my time. Seems like I am still not in the 'O' levels mood.

And it's 9 more weeks to SYF.


Happy lunar new year everyone.

On Wednesday, after Mr Low talked to us about the 'O' level results of class 2006, which was really very traumatizing for us, Mrs Lee Kian Soon talked to us about the Chemistry Online Quiz. She told us that some of us were actually cheating (and which Mr Low said that it is definitely impossible for a student to get full marks in 1-and-a-half minutes) and that some of us were selling answers. She told us the main objective of the Online Quiz is to help us revise our Chemistry work topic by topic.

And to add on to that, Miss Yeo told us on Thursday after her Chemistry lesson that she (claims that she) knows who were cheating and told us that the Quiz would be modified slightly to prevent cheating.

And in addition to that, Mr Pang spent his lonesome one period with us today to talk about the online thing as well. He said that one parent actually called Ms Yeo to tell her that there are actually people cheating. Well, he told us that his ex-student asked his teacher to mark his essays and sells the essays, and we should learn from him, instead of getting the answers illegally then selling them.

Well I guess the main reason for all these to happen is because it is stated that the quiz results would be 20% of SA marks, and in order to get the 20% free marks, some people would wanna cheat. But if you remove the 20% of SA thingie, many people will not care to do the tests at all. It's actually quite hard to compromise on this.

Anyway, it's still possible to get full marks for the tests. Like the 6 February post, the former ways to cheat are:

1) Hack into the school server and obtain the answer key
2) Ask your friends to help you after they are done with the test
3) Do not submit the whole test, refresh and do the test again since they provide you with answers after you submit each answer
4) Study the topic, textbook in front of you just in case, calculators, pencil, rough paper and periodic table ready, and just do the test honestly

Now because they changed the system such that answers and scores are not revealed at all, 2 and 3 are striked out. Leaving 1 and 4. 4 is of course not the cheating method, but 1 still exists. I think it may be impossible to find a 100% foolproof method to prevent 1.

Anyway if anyone wants any answers to any question you can ask me (and this is from the method 1. I won't find it cheating anyway because if answers are not provided, we cannot check our answers and during exams, we may be doing our questions wrongly because we do not know the correct answer. And for myself, I do not look at the answer key before nor during the test itself.

Mr Pang asked us whether we still have anything to say about issues which teachers do not know. Shi Wei told him that for the Geography CA, 4H was given 45 minutes and we were only given 35. The actual time given was 35 minutes, and that is confirmed by the HOD of Humanities Ms Sharma. I mean, if it was some other subjects like Biology or English, we won't mind if we are deprived 10 minutes as compared to other classes. But the thing is, Geography Elective is a subject whereby time is very important, because from the start to the end of the paper, it's scribbling and scribbling and scribbling. In our class only Shamir managed to complete the 25-mark paper. I did not have enough time to do a 5-mark question at all.

Yesterday was Total Defence Day. Recess ended at 11.20am and at around 11.30am we saw Mr Pang running to our class to give us a 30-min test (it was his lesson anyway, but we have never seen him running before). The test ended at 12 noon and he left the class.

At 12.05pm, the whole nation could hear the emergency alarm, since every 15th Feb at 12.05pm, there would be a testing of the alarm. And around 5 minutes later, the school's fire alarm went off. Our class was quite slack because we know it was an exercise so we sorta stayed up in class for a while. And not surprisingly, when we looked down the sec 1s and 2s were already in the field, and there were no upper secondary students at all. Haha. And we saw Mr Pang downstairs, with his microphone sticking out from the side of his neck. Lol. The picture was taken by Alif.

Yeah so it was a waste of time. And it has to be during Mrs Setho's lesson. Every week we would miss at least some of her lesson. That's why our Physics is always behind time. Haix.

Today is Chinese New Year eve eve, so I went back to Temasek Primary. Surprisingly Jerome was already there when I reach there, and he was with Javier. So for ex-classmates or whatsoever I only saw the both of them. Met Mrs Chong in the canteen too, but didn't see Miss Neo. And surprisingly, I was taking the bus with Wei Xiang when I saw Joshua Chia and Rifdi alighting at the same stop as us. I didn't know we have sec 1 choir members from Temasek Primary. Hmmm not bad not bad.

Quite disappointed that quite a lot of people couldn't/didn't go back to Temasek Primary today. Most of them said they would go back during Teachers' Day period.

At 2pm the staff was chasing all the alumni out of the school, probably because they were scared we would be disturbing the lessons. But anyway, the alumni (probably the new batch of sec 1s) were very noisy... I was trying to bear with the noise in the canteen.

Performance equals Potential minus Interference.

I forgot to mention that last Friday there was a Chinese dictation test, meaning we were to memorise one whole paragraph of Chinese words from a book and have to write the paragraph down. So the thing is Mr Chew gave us a copy of the paragraph with the hanyupinyin typed. Before the dictation started, we had to read out aloud the paragraph as a class. Wow, I instantly felt like a primary school kid, man. I haven't done that since primary 6, and to think we just had our memories relived. And when the dictation started, I think many people cheated. Haha. It was sort of a test of copying skills rather than memorising skills. I was like flipping the paper to see what's the next sentence because I did not memorise at all. Also, Mr Chia walked past and he asked Mr Chew whether we are doing a test, because he saw some people looking at notes. Mr Chew just said, "Oh it's a mini test, never mind they can refer to notes."

Yesterday during morning assembly I forgot to add in my post that the sec 1s were very enthusiastic. Haha. When the actors split the whole school up into "Vict" (sec 1s and 4s) and "Toria" (sec 2s and 3s), it was the sec 1s who were shouting "vict". Lol. I think the whole sec 4 cohort was quite quiet.

And to think that the sec 1s thrashed the sec 2s. They invited 2 students from each level to go up on stage to play some games. Firstly, the 2 sec 2s were slower in completing some tasks than the sec 1s by around 20 seconds. Secondly, one of the sec 2s actually answered a question wrongly. The actor asked, "If there are 6 apples and you took away 4 apples, how many apples do you have?" Quinn answered 2, which was wrong, because when you take 4 apples away you have 4 apples.

Last but not least, the sec 1s were taller than the sec 2s! Oh man. I was quite stunned actually.

Today it was quite interesting. Mdm Nabilah went through asexual reproduction in plants, and I think more than half the class was quite eager for her to finish the topic so that we can move on to the next topic. Haha.

Then after that, English...
[Mr Ee] Hands by your side, let's wish each other, 1! 2! 3! Good mor- AFTERNOON class...

Then he said he had to go down because he had a meeting with Professor Stones (does she have an "s" behind her name?). He opened this powerpoint slide and told Shi Wei to slowly flash each slide for us to copy. And when he left I took out my thumbdrive and copied the powerpoint presentation, which I just sent to 26 people in my class through e-mail. Hmm not bad huh.

English was quite interesting. The powerpoint slide was on oral skills and techniques. He was like telling us to snap our fingers every time there is a full-stop, and to silently snap when there's a comma. And Aditya was doing all the funny body and hand motions, while I was imitating Mr Ee when he is doing his body gestures (unknowingly). Haha.

Principal announced that there is a half day today because of the Class of 2006's 'O' level results. This means that we (supposedly) can be dismissed during recess, so we will skip both Physics and Chemistry which is after recess. But in the end we had Chemistry mock SPA and Physics test today after recess, since both teachers want us to stay back to do those today. Aww man. Talk about what half day.

And some more after school there's Chinese New Year rehearsal for the choir. But come to think of it, I don't have to be there actually because I am not involved, and it has been shifted earlier so there is also some essence of a "half day".

After morning assembly Mr Chia was talking to us about an emergency drill, and the lower sec students were clapping and cheering after every half sentence that he said. First time it was quite funny but subsequent times it was not funny already, and yet the lower sec were still making a fool out of themselves. Immature sia.

There was this episode of "Without Warning" shown to us. I think I watched a bit of that episode last year when it was shown on TV. It features an MRT station having a chemical attack, another one an explosion, and explosion on a bus. Some sec 3s were clapping and cheering when the bus exploded, and they got reprimanded by Mr Maran for that.

I think Singaporeans are being just too kiasu ("afraid to lose") already. Why would anyone want to do this to Singapore, which is a politically stable country? Furthermore, noticed that last year there was a practice as well. I think having too much of these practices is not very good, because people will think that it's just a practice even if the real thing actually happens. Also, it causes unnecessary inconvenience to the people. Just like the fire drill. There was a false alarm last week, haha, and we were all blaming Teck Boon for it, because last year he accidentally pressed on the button. He said he pressed it very lightly but the glass still broke. In the end he had to see Mr Chia consecutively for a few days.

In class Alvin actually wanted to put the fire extinguisher at the door to act as a door stopper so that the door won't slam shut because of the wind. He didn't know that the safety pin was taken out so he pressed the trigger and the whole class was filled with mist within a few seconds. It was quite funny and dramatic because we were all acting as though there was a chemical attack and we were faking coughing and vomitting. Haha, and we found much white powder on our tables after that.

Heard the choir sing today during CNY rehearsal. Both Pock Thong and I were there listening and both of us had the same response: we don't know where to hide our faces. The singing was very off; the discipline was very bad. Maybe it is our fault for just letting the sec 3s handle this whole thing without briefing them much, but then again, I still think it goes down to the whole choir. The whole choir isn't disciplined at all. Sec 1s are having bad habits, and this shows that discipline isn't strict enough.

It's only 10 more weeks to SYF.

On Thursday, Mr Low caned Person X in front of the school for peeing into Person Y's water bottle. And the funny thing is that Person X told everyone about it. If he hadn't told anyone about it then probably he won't be caned. Haha.

But from his perspective, I think he told everyone about it so that others can have a good laugh out of it. No point just doing it without anyone knowing, since Person Y also didn't know until the next day when Person X told him.

The caning itself isn't very painful, I felt. Seriously Mr Low should use a thicker stick, and he should play more baseball or badminton. Maybe the end of the stick could inflict some pain because it moves a larger distance, lol. But what punished him was actually the embarrassment to be caned in front of the whole school.

* I know who Person X and Y are, but for privacy purposes, I won't list who they are here. Just a side-note, Person X has retained but he was suspended for 1 or 2 weeks because of this incident. Looks like he is fated not to study, haha.

I realised that my form teacher, Mr Pang, is being disliked by almost everyone across the level, other than our class, mainly because we are his form class so he treats us nicely. Yesterday was Tuesday and Tuesday is the only day whereby the canteen sells fried food and Rojak. So all of us wishes to go down early for recess, but Mr Maran made it clear that we are to stay in class until the bell rings.

We were having lesson with Mr Pang just before recess, and we told him we wanted to go down. He said no, but we greeted him anyway. Then he said 2 minutes more, but half the class was like rushing out of the class already. We were like telling him, "Sir, we're going to the toilet..." He just smiled.

Some teachers just like to digress from the topic they are teaching. For example, today Mr Chew was explaining about a Chinese phrase which means "to cooperate", and he can digress to his ass bleeding. Similarly, Mdm Nabilah was talking about asexual reproduction in plants (which she said was very boring), and she digressed until the topic of abortion in human beings. And she actually (jokingly) blamed us because we were like asking her questions, making her digress further and further. By the time she return to the asexual reproduction in plants it was time for laboratory lesson. And she said that she wants us to go to the lab so that she doesn't fall asleep while teaching that topic.

Last Friday Mrs Lee Kian Soon told the whole sec 4 cohort about the online Chemistry test, which apparently did not work, so she told us this morning to get it done. And she just has to mention that she knew that some people have already done it yesterday, and gave an example of 4A (our class), which 3/4 of us have done already. Well, can't help it since our class is well-known for "mugging".

Anyway, I realised that getting full marks for the test is very easy. There are so many ways to do such that it is possible to get full marks...

1) Hack into the school server and obtain the answer key
2) Ask your friends to help you after they are done with the test
3) Do not submit the whole test, refresh and do the test again since they provide you with answers after you submit each answer
4) Study the topic, textbook in front of you just in case, calculators, pencil, rough paper and periodic table ready, and just do the test honestly

Well hacking into the school server was quite easy. I won't really call it "hack", I would call it "access information which is not protected yet not visible to users". I got ready a flash decompiler just in case, but in the end I did not get to use it since I can get it through normal means.

I did those before the test and saw the questions, as well as the answers, and also which answer will increase the score by 1 mark (ie, correct answer). However, I only took a small glimpse of it, and did not remember any questions nor answers, and I just did the test normally without looking at the answer key. In the end I scored an honest 11/12.

Sigh. I really regret not treasuring the times I had when I was in lower secondary.

Thing is, now my classroom is at the 7th floor and climbing up and down the stairs is really very tiring. Especially when morning assembly is held on the 2nd floor in the hall, we have to move up and down and up. Have been trying to stay in class during recess, so that I don't have to go down all the way to eat.

One advantage of being in a classroom at the 7th floor is that it is very very very windy. There are many times when the door suddenly slams because of the wind. Even the door magnet cannot hold it in place. Haha. A few classmates near the back door had been using the fire extinguisher to use as door stopper (which obviously didn't work, and the fire extinguisher just toppled).

I just noticed last week that all bus services along the Marine Parade Road actually stops at the bus stop just outside our school. It is only a very short distance after the former bus stop (it is still being used though). We can now use the side gates to enter. However, on saturdays, since the side gates won't be opened, it would be faster to use the old bus stop. Confusing.

In my country there is problem - link
A Jewish comedian/singer insulting Jews.

No Pork! - link
Okay this is a very offensive audio whereby 2 guys ka-jiao a Halal store waiter with pork. This has been around in the Internet for quite long already and YouTube has been removing a lot of these similar videos, and currently this video is still available. Go watch it before YouTube removes it.

Watching these 2 videos remind me of a comedian I had been quite crazy about in primary 6: Stephen Lynch! Haha. This is the first video I watched from him. It's a 20-min long video featuring 6 songs.
Comedy Central Presents - Stephen Lynch


The first 2 videos were introduced by Jing Yang and Ernest respectively while we were chatting online last night. And we were like saying that the Chemistry online test didn't work. Our whole level has this online Chemistry test and every weekend has 1 different test. We have to submit every Sunday midnight. Unfortunate thing is that all the tests are counted for 20% of SA. Fortunately, SA is 0% of Prelims or "O" levels. Haha.

Yeah and so apparently it doesn't seem to be working because I have more than 10 friends asking me what to do. Panic! Ahhh. Anyway this is the conversation between Ernest, Jing Yang and I.

[Ernest]: What will happen to the tests?
[Me]: Full marks for all of them? Haha.
[Jing Yang]: If whole level gets full marks then our class is at the losing end.
[Ernest, me]: LOL!

Bus service 31 broke down yesterday when Syamil and I were returning home. It broke down just 1 stop after the bus stop after VS. So we got a complimentary ticket each and boarded the next bus, which was empty, probably because it was called by the bus captain. It was both Syamil's and my first time experiencing a bus breakdown.

This week has been quite an emotional week, or perhaps it's towards the later part of the week. There are really many things going on and it's quite hard to cope. And worst part of it is that things aren't going the way it is supposed to be.

Shan't say much. I need to do my homework and revision. And I can't find my A-Maths Textbook.

Last Monday, the Maths Department, or maybe just Mr Alvin Lim himself, posed some Maths questions and we have to send our solutions to the school. The deadline is today at 12 noon. They claimed that prizes will be given to the best solutions from each level.

It was Wei Liang who made this announcement on stage, because he is the Maths Society chairman. He was very smart to make an announcement about Chinese Orchestra concert as well, which he told me later that it was quite impromptu.

Anyway, the 2 questions are:

1) The Lost World
In a Mathematics class,
70% of the pupils have lost their pen,
75% of them have lost their books,
80% of them have lost their calculators, and
85% of them have lost their rulers.

At least what % of the pupils have lost all 4 items?
[Picture of the Jurassic Park - The Lost World]


2) Bond Concert
The Bond Girls' concert starts in 16 minutes tonight. They need to cross an old bridge and can only have 1 torch with them. Only 2 Bond Girls can cross at one time and each time, one has to return with the torch to bring another acorss.
The time taken for each girl is as follows:

Haylie - 1 minute
Eos - 2 minutes
Tania - 4 minutes
Gay-Yee - 8 minutes

The time taken for 2 girls to cross the bridge is that of the slower one. Can all of them cross in 15 minutes?

I have the solutions myself already, but I am not posting them to the school. I am posting them here instead haha.

So for 1st question,

We have a certain percentage of students losing all 4 items, and we want to keep it to the very minimum. In order to do this, we must have as many people losing only 3 out of 4 items, while the rest losing all 4 items. So something like

+--------+--------------------+
| Lose 4 |    Lose 3 items    |
+--------+--------------------+

(Note that if it is possible for all students to lose 3 items, or if it is possible for some students to lose 3 items and the rest to lose 2 or less items, then the answer to the question is 0%)

Now to find as many people as possible to lose all 3 items is no mean feat. Simply change the statements to:
30% of the pupils did not lose their pen (item A),
25% of them did not lose their books (item B),
20% of them did not lose their calculators (item C), and
15% of them did not lose their rulers (item D).

So now we have to make sure that we have as many students NOT losing only 1 item, as possible. We can represent it by a model:

+----------+-------+--------+----------+-----------+
| Lost all | DNL D | DNL C  |  DNL B   |   DNL A   |
+----------+-------+--------+----------+-----------+
              15%      20%       25%        30%
*DNL = Did not lose

From there it is obvious that those students under "DNL D, DNL C, DNL B and DNL A" lose 3 out of the 4 items. And number of students who lost all 4 items is kept to a minimum (no matter how hard you try you always get the same number of students). Hence the percentage of students who lost all 4 items is 100% - 15% - 20% - 25% - 30% = 10%.

Many people got 45% for their answer because they used only the lowest 2, ie: 70% and 75%, and by using the same method, they found the answer of 45%. However, 80% and 85% of those who lost C and D respectively can also be part of those who did not lose all items, and hence those who lost all 4 items can be minimised further.

Well as for the 2nd question, through some thinking 2 solutions can be found:

4,8 -------- 1,2
4,8,1 ------ 2
1 ---------- 2,4,8
1,2 -------- 4,8
----------- 1,2,4,8

The 2nd solution is simply swopping Haylie and Eos (1 and 2 minutes respectively), which it will end up with 15 minutes too.

The solution lies with Haylie and Eos being the "transporters" of the torch. Being the fastest 2 people, both of them are the ones to bring the torch back and forth. Of course, the first step is to bring both of them across so that there is someone at the other end to return the torch after Tania and Gay-Yee (4 and 8 minutes respectively) have crossed.

There is one more question for staff too, which Mr Lim said that there IS a pattern.

A, B, H, F, M, C, I, G, T, D, O, J, U, E, X, _?

I still have not solved this question so maybe going to figure out. Tried converting all to numbers, which did not show any pattern at all. Noticed that all the letters are being used only once, and the remaining letters are: K, L, N, P, Q, R, S, V, W, Y, Z. One lame solution brought up was that the answer is A, because the pattern repeats itself after the X.