My SPM Progression

Yay!! 7 subjects done already! That means I'm left with... *counting* ... 13-7=6! Almost forgot how to count because maths and add maths were DONE! So far everything are okay. The add maths questions which I thought will be hard were surprisingly EASY but I made one careless mistake... I hoped the questions will be harder because I wasted my sleeping time for it! It caused me to have no mood in the tuition at Mr. Chong that night. It was my last tuition with him but it was nothing special. The night went on like usual: write, write, write... At least I have no exam until next Monday~ Next week will be another tormenting week, all about memorizing!! SIENZZ... Have to study now ler. I will update blog when I have time again!!

Biology and Chinese Literature here I come~~ JYJY!

4 Down, 9 More To Go

3 days had passed since the first day of SPM!! 4 subjects done and 9 more to go... I don't know how I did in the exam. I just keep writing and writing as long as there is something for the examiner to mark... especially for my history. I read ALL the text books but still my mind was BLANK when I received the paper!! Why this happened to me?? I felt so sad and disappointed with myself. I really did FINISH reading... haiz if only I knew this would happen to me then I would not read any history text book at all and I could concentrate more on my bm... I'm quite satisfied with my english and est... hopefully my essay will not be out of topic!! As for my bm, I can only pray... Anyways, there is a saying "let bygone be bygone". Forget all the bad things and concentrate on the remaining subjects!! Maths, moral and add maths papers are in next week. JYJY do my best in SPM!!
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Story Writing

“Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!” As much as James wanted to ignore the chants of the teenagers surrounding him, he could not. He was certain, however, that the shouts were not the worst part of his present situation. His nose was bleeding and his head was throbbing loudly from the blows he had already received. How was it that he got into this mess again?

Brad Peterson, the tall, bulky, red head jock in front of him, aimed another blow. Luckily, James managed to duck this time. He knew Brad weighed and measured in height more than he did. Brad was probably ten times stronger than he, too. Why didn’t he care then? Why had he recklessly punched the guy for no apparent reason? Had he had a reason? The encounter had only started minutes ago but James could not recall the events before it.

“Kill him Peterson!” One of the jock’s accomplices called.

The encouraging shout for his opponent roused James’ the fury even more. He rushed towards Brad as fast as he could, launching with his left. The jock held the first punch with his hand but didn’t notice James’ other fist coming from the right. Brad was thrown aback. James took the opportunity to hit his challenger straight in the nose, making him bleed and fall down to the floor.

“What the hell’s going on here?!” The outraged demand stood in the air for less than a second. Then everyone began to flee. Only three people stood in the parking lot now: Brad Peterson, James Rolland and Principal Andrew Collins.

“Mr. Rolland! In my office! Now!” shouted Collins.

“I wasn’t the only one in the fight!” protested James.

“I will see Mr. Peterson later.”

“But-“

“I said now!”

James frowned and pursed his lips defiantly but made no other complaints to accompany the Principal. The office was a small room with a wide window at the back facing the inner grounds of the school. On the left wall stood a wooden book shelf alongside a file cabinet and from the right wall hung several certificates. James sat on one of the two chairs across the desk, which was set in front of the window. Mr. Collins stood a few moments staring down at the student but finally settled down behind the desk.

Through all his thirty-five years working with the public educational system he had seen several cases like James’ but, for some reason, this seventeen year old senior struck him harder than others. Why he felt so attached to the boy he did not know. Perhaps the reason stood behind his actually knowing how this boy came to be where he now was. Of course he had seen angry, trouble making adolescents before, but never had he met the person before the anger. James was different. The boy had been his neighbor since the age of ten. He had always been a straight A student. He was also a great athlete, even use to be the soccer team captain. Yet, three weeks ago James had dropped off the soccer team and lately his grades had been going down.

“This is your third fight of the week, James.” said the principal. The boy shrugged. “Well, it’s Friday so you won’t have to deal with me for at least two days.”

“You live next door, remember?” the old man reminded him. “So? Stay away from my house then.” The old man was quiet for a few moments, reflexive. How two months can change a person…, he thought. James raised his gaze for a moment, intrigued by the silence, but once his eyes met the Principal’s he looked back down.

“Are you going to tell my mom?” As soon as he pronounced the question, James regretted it. He sounded like a seven year old child trying to hide away from inevitable trouble.

“I think she has suffered enough.” The words sounded harsh, almost accusing.
James felt piercing pain stab his chest. His breathing became deep. He was trying to calm himself, trying to ignore the guilt. “You can’t keep this up Jay. Your grades are going down. During the past months, you’ve been in so many fights I have already lost count. You can’t stay angry for the rest of your life. Especially if don’t want to keep hurting your mother.”

“It’s not my fault, ok?!” He exploded, standing up while he shouted the next words. “Even if I go back to being the perfect son, the ideal student. You think that’s going to matter?! You think she’s going to stop crying at night?! You think she’s going to stop missing him?! You think I’m going to stop missing him?! He’s not coming back!”

The principal sat stiffly on his chair taking in the student’s sudden reaction. After a few seconds he said: “I know James, he’s not going to come back and you’re never going to stop missing him, neither is your mother. Still, you have to try to move on. He-H- Michael wouldn’t want his son to go down the path that you-“ But James did not allow the old man to finish. Instead he rushed out of the office, slamming the door and muttering something that sounded a lot like “I don’t need this.”

A mixture of feelings rushed through the Principal’s head. First he felt outrage. Followed by exasperation. Afterwards came frustration joined by disappointment. Finally he felt sadness. I don’t know what else to say to you Jay. I have no idea of what else to say…

James allowed the rage inside of him to continue stirring itself. So what if his grades were going down? So what if he had gotten into at least ten fights the past month? What did Collins care? He entered his home through the back door and went up the stairs. From the moment he step foot on the hallway he could hear his mother’s sobs at the last room. He wondered when she’d gotten home from work. Had she even left the house?

James took a deep breath and walked towards his own room, placed just two doors away from his mother’s. He moved his hand to turn the handle but retrieved and walked towards the room next to his, the bathroom. After locking the door, he looked at his face in the mirror. A smear of dried blood ran down his nose. The skin around his right eye was red; it would turn purple in the morning. He took a towel and rinsed off the blood. Once he had cleansed his face, he took a final good look at himself. Who was this person in front of him? Never so much rage had invaded him.

He recalled Old Collins’ words. “…you’re never going to stop missing him... Still, you have to try to move on.” He had heard the same advice over and over again from different people. First from his friends, then from his family, then his from teachers and now from the Principal. But why was it that only now the idea seemed to cast itself inside his mind. Had he had enough? Was he tired of all the fighting? Surely he was tired of it, but his weariness wasn’t the reason behind his sudden realization. He had finally admitted the truth: he misses his father and there’s nothing he can do about it.

He went out and made his way towards his mother’s room. There, she sat on her bed, holding a picture and crying. Only when he sat next to her did she look up.
She noticed the marks on his face. “Don’t tell me you were fighting again.”

“I’m sorry, mom.” James apologized. It took a moment for her to understand the meaning behind his words. Finally she let her face sink into his shoulder, threw her arms around him and continued to weep. James wrapped his arms around his mother’s body and placed his chin over her head. A moment later he found himself doing something he had not done since his father’s death: he was crying. -THE END-

This is just something that I wanted to share with you all. Hopefully you all will enjoy my last update in this blog for the time being. SPM is just 24 hours away!! I wish all the spm candidates all the best and my friends, good luck to you all!! JYJY all!! May God bless us~~

Prefect's Farewell Dinner

Tonight, my school held the prefect farewell party to celebrate the Form 5s, including me that will be graduating soon. The party was held at our school's hall, which was a disappointment. Despite that, I still went to the dinner because I paid RM20 for the prefect's fees and a total of RM100 for all 5 years and yet I did not get any post in the prefect's board... ~.~ I went to the party with Ho accompanying me and reached there early. The party started with a short slide show and of course speeches from teachers and also our dear head boy, Teck Li. Teck Li was surprised when the MC called his name and asked him to give a prompt speech but he did a good one! Then, the party started. I ate and ate and ate... 3 plates of food and one plate of cakes ( the cake SUCKS!!!) The fried rice was hot, very hot... Nevertheless, I think the food here is much more better than the one I ate in the Dewan Tun Abdul Razak. After eating, we had lucky draw and thanks giving ceremony before ending the party.
Vikhna-the-mighty-one and Thivyah~
Still preparing~Our beloved principal giving his speech~The lucky draw event...

Summary Writing

Guidelines for summary writing:

1. Read the question carefully. Ask yourself: “What am I required to summarise?”

2. Mark the first and last lines of the passage you are asked to refer to.

3. Then select information that is relevant to your answer. To do this, underline the relevant lines or ideas as you read the text. Always ask yourself: “Is this...” (For the summary below, you would ask: “Is this a reason tigers have become extinct? or Is this a measure that should be implemented?”

4. Look through the lines/ideas you have underlined. Sometimes an idea is repeated in another line by way of paraphrasing. Ask yourself, is this a repetition?

5. Summarise these ideas. You can combine ideas by combining phrases or sentences, or you may want to paraphrase ideas/sentences. However, make sure your sentences are complete sentences and not fractured bits and pieces.

6. If you cannot paraphrase ideas, see if there are words in the text that you can replace without affecting meaning. For example, you can use a pronoun to replace a noun.

7. If you are a weak student, do copy the complete sentence. This way, you will not lose marks for content or language.

8. Begin the summary with the 10 words given and remember that the three dots after the tenth word mean you have to complete the sentence with some relevant information from the text.

9. Organise the ideas/points in the manner in which they are found in the text. Do not waste time trying to rearrange ideas.

10. Adhere to the word limit. Writing more than the required number of words will not get you any marks. Anything far too short of the word limit means you lack content.

11. Pay attention to the tense (and sometimes pronoun) used in the given 10 words.

12. Write the summary in one paragraph. Some students are in the habit of drawing columns to facilitate counting of words. This is perfectly fine but do write your final draft in one paragraph.

Pitfalls to avoid

1. Do not include information not found in the text.

2. Do not include your own ideas or opinions.

3. Do not spend too much time paraphrasing as you might end up losing marks for content unless you can do so without altering/distorting meaning.

4. Do not repeat ideas. Sometimes, an idea is repeated in the text and you may not notice it as it may have been paraphrased.

5. Do not include material from other lines in the text.

Hopefully it helps a little in boosting your confidence in writing summary!

(P.S. Adapted from The Star newspaper!!)

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K3M Merit!!

Today, my school held a chemistry answering technique session and I felt lucky that I went to school as I learned a lot of useful techniques to be used even though some of them looked minor but it is necessary for me to get my targeted A+!! Also at the same day, I got news from my chemistry teacher, Pn. Zalina regarding the K3M (Kuiz Kimia Kebangsaan) and I was told that I got a MERIT for it!! I was one of the four students that get merit and distinctions. Unfortunately, my teacher told me that the certificate that the PPD sent to my school had my name typed wrongly. My name was typed as "Tan Key Ang"!! GRRRR!! Such simple mistake but it is enough to make the cert become a piece of priceless paper to me!! So, my teacher had already called the secretory-in-charge to retype a new certificate for me... Hopefully it can be done so that I can get my cert before I end my secondary school life. Anyway, I felt happy cause I did not read the last two chapter of Form 5 and still managed to score well :D

SPM is 6 days from now... JYJY!!
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Funny Day

Today, I went to school as usual even though most of my friends decided to not to go to school. At first, I thought it would be a good chance to study at school as there would not be any distractions in my class but I was wrong again!! When me, Ho and Gan reached the school, Ho told Vikhna the phone call that Gan had with the "so-called-girlfriend", Jeanette Seah from the winning team of the RHB Star Mighty Minds Challenge. Then, we laughed and that was not all. Just before the assembly start, Gan's cell phone rang. He put his cell phone in his bag while he walked towards the library. Ho and I heard the ring tone and called Gan to answer the call. As expected from our clever Ho, the call was from Jeanette. He quickly ran to the assembly and spread the news. As the day proceeded, Gan received another two or so phone calls from Jeanette which made us laughed until stomachache. Ho was jealous of Gan's early meeting with his "girlfriend" and nagged around about this impossible event. Finally, Vikhna checked his cell phone and found out the relationship was still not yet fully developed and every thing will be crystal clear after SPM ~.~

8 more days to SPM!! JYJY!!

End Year Trip Debate... STOP IT!!

Today, my friends and I had a discussion on our end year trip. We talked about the trip to Penang which the girls planned earlier. They talked and talked in front of me while I was memorizing my Biology. The discussions became heated when they debated whether they wanted to go or not. I felt irritated and pissed off as they were shouting at each other and disturbed my emotions and mood for reading. So, I blurted out and asked them to stop talking. At last, most of my male friends agreed to not to go to the trip the girls planned. I, on the other hand, have not make up my mind on whether I want to go to the trip or not as almost all of my best friends are not going. I will not think of this now as it is 8 days away from SPM!! Everyone, please put these things aside and start studying as SPM is just around the corner!! Trip or no trip is no more important to us in this moment and we have plenty time after SPM even though some of us will go NS while others will go working.

PLEASE STOP TALKING AND START STUDYING AND DON'T DISTURB MY DELAYED STUDYING SCHEDULE!! SPM comes first!!
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An Unexpected Day

Today, I have an unexpected day, the one I had never imagined before this. Me and Gan went to Ho's house to study account. I went there just to help them do account questions and also revise my biology. At noon, Ho's house became very hot, extremely hot. So, Ho and Gan went to my house after they had their lunch. As we stepped out of Ho's house, the sky became dark, indicating it was going to rain heavily. Luckily, they managed to come to my house before it rained like cat and dog. At my house, our revision continued smoothly. Also at that time, Ho suggested to stay at my house until it was time to go to our invited dinner at Dewan Abdul Razak. Ho also suggested an unexpected suggestion which is a secret and I will not tell it here. His suggestion came true when I agreed with him to do as he wished. Things got a little awkward and everything turned into what I never thought would happen. XD~

At the Dewan Abdul Razak, I had a wierdest dinner ever: all the food had all sort of taste, including sweet, sour, salty, bitter and also spicy. Even the teh tarik was very SPICY!! It was mixed with a lot of GINGER!!! @.@ Despite all that, there were also delicious food, expecially the grilled chicken. Yummy :D At first, I thought the dinner was going to be long, but it turned out wrong. After a short speech from the person-in-charge, we had a fast dinner, as fast as lightning! Almost all people disappeared after 30 minutes... Soon, we were the only one at there still eating even though the food was not really nice... (Sorry Guna, we lied to you... don't tell him ar!!) Then, we walked back to our respective house. I was still trying to catch up with what happened today. It all happened too fast and too surprising that I can't even catch my breath now and my stomach are still burning hot now... ~.~

It's all for now... I will update my blog when I am free again.
(P.S. don't ask me what is the unexpected thing that happened cuz it will be my life-long secret unless me and Ho decided to tell it out ;p)

Irresistable Attraction!

SPM is just around the corner!! 2 more weeks in not enough for me: still got half of Biology, two Sejarah text books...(list continued)... Still if I can stay away from the attraction of my computer, I can manage to finish it. If only I could T.T... Every time I go online, I will forget the time. One hour... two hours... three hours... four hours... "OH!! I online for four hours already!?" That's what happen if I think "Aiya, just on for 15 minutes to check mail, facebook and blog only. It won't take me that long..." Grrr... so angry with myself. From now on, have to stay away from my computer. Befriend books!! :)

Not much interesting event happened in school lately. The only thing that was very obvious was the number of students going to school is decreasing... Today, I learned a few english idioms in school when I joined with my friends to chat about idioms :D Thats all for now, I won't be updating my blog very often but will continue to be active after my SPM.

Good luck for all 2009 SPM candidates. Let us burn the midnight oil together!!
(P.S. no fire please!! XP)