Post-Examinations

"It's over. You can all go home. It's over. It's so over."
- Meredith Grey in Grey's Anatomy Season 3 Episode 25

Oh yes. You read it right. It's finally over. In this entry, I shall attempt to describe my first experience with taking examinations at NUS.

It began on 22 November 2008, Saturday, with PL2131 - Research and Statistics 1. I missed the BB parade organized by Squad Corinthians for the examination. The 3 questions given proved to be too long for a duration of 2 hours only. During the last 45 minutes, I had to swtich gears from "Dr.Mike-would-love-my-cute-handwriting" to "Dr.Mike-would-love-my-untidiness-anyway". In the end, I managed to double-check all my answers using the calculator too.

On 25 November 2008, Tuesday, I took the PL1101E - Introduction to Psychology examination. Out of 100 MCQs, I managed confirm 67 answers, make 28 smart guesses and left 5 blank for sheer lack of knowledge. Apart from my inability to quote examples for negative punishment and heristics, the five short-answer questions on reinforcement/punishment, heuristics, ego/superego/id, placebo and having 2 eyes were rather fine too.

On the next day, 26 November 2008, Wednesday, I sat for HY1101E - Asia and the Modern World examination. I was rather prepared for the comparison question on Japanese and European imperialism after studying about Cixi and her nonsense for nights. However, I had to put up a smoke screen for the question on historical sites and texts. I was rather panicky during the first hour, since it was my first time writing essays in an examination. But thank God I managed to finish the paper within 1 hour 45 minutes. Looking at one of my female classmates in front, I was disgusted to see that she wrote about 10 pages with the tiny font size. I only managed to churn out 3 pages each for essays with my huge and round handwriting. ><

Kim Cheong and I went to Holland Village for their Katong laksa after the paper.

Finally, yesterday, 27 November 2008, Thursday, was the last day of my examinations. It started off with GEK1045 - Introduction to World Religions. It didn't feel like an essay writing exam, but more like a regurgitation exercise. The 3 themes that I prepared for in the previous entry were spot-on! But I don't have high hopes for this module since I'm competing with other senior students who have more experience writing essays.

PS1101E - Introduction to Politics was not too bad. The 4 definition questions that I did include social contract, bandwagoning, separation of power and the electoral system. Hobbes gave me a bad scare because he decided to hide himself in some secluded corner of my head. I could only remember Locke and Rousseau at first... Thank God especially for the essay question on representative government, because I prepared for it only during lunch after the religions exam. A smoke grenade was also thrown for the other question on state and nation. Haha.

In conclusion, I guess my seniors were right when they said that the 'A' levels were the worst period of our academic lives. Our 2 years of effort and preparations in college were evaluated by some 2-hour examinations. Now at University, I can at least rest assured that my projects and tutorial participations scores are already secured when I step into the examination hall. So, to my brother and Lek Wei, hang in there! It'll be over soon.