Perception

So the tribulations of the past week came in the form of four mid-term papers, all of which I profess I wasn’t adequately prepared for. The week prior to the last was the much fabled ‘recess week’, a mythical seven days of supposed rest. This was hardly the case, however, and I spent much of the first few days working on the CS2102 Database Systems project, and the rest studying for the mid-terms.

I realised I haven’t written anything about school this semester, which is probably because school hasn’t been the least interesting so far. It seems like the last academic year was a lot more fun than the current one, and I’m attributing my current misery to my poor module selection. A sad mix of Calculus, Biology and Singapore Studies can indeed make for a boring term, but the greater tragedy is that I would have had to take the aforementioned modules sooner or later anyway.

I can’t really say how I’ve been coping with schoolwork, but I should definitely start devoting greater time and attention to the looming mountain of projects and assignments before me. The problem is that one can only be so enthusiastic in doing something that isn’t even remotely fun, and considering there aren’t any alternatives to getting through this semester, I guess that leaves me little choice. Maybe I should take solace in the fact that the semester is sort of half over, although what it really means is that finals are getting closer, but I digress.

So back to the mid terms, and the fact that having three papers within the first two days isn’t the most encouraging form of motivation one would want to have. I had spent hours on end reading and re-reading my SSA2202 Changing Landscapes in Singapore textbook, and hopefully what I wrote for the essay question was relevant and sufficient. I made some unfortunate careless mistakes in the MCQ though, so doing well for this paper looks pretty unlikely.

Speaking of doing poorly, my next two papers were, in the wise words of the Internet Generation, ‘epic fail’. I got quite confused by the multiple-choice questions in the Database Systems paper, and had to reinvest precious time into trying to understand what the questions were asking. This left less time for the open-ended part of the paper, and having to rush though forty percent worth of marks can lead to no good end. I’m not sure how the cohort generally found the paper, although it’d be ideal if they didn’t all find it a breeze.

Slightly more than an hour after that paper was my Calculus paper, and well, I don’t really want to talk about the extent of how badly I did for it. I hate that module, and while ‘hate’ is a strong word, it perfectly expresses the absolute detestation and disdain I have for Calculus. Just like how it ruined my ‘O’ and ‘A’ Levels, the horrors of differentiation and integration have returned to haunt me a third time. I think I’ve sufficiently conveyed my point, so I’ll just stop here.

The last mid-term paper, taken just hours earlier, was for CS2105 Introduction to Computer Networks. Not everything that was supposed to be tested came out, which in a way is kind of a good thing for me considering I didn’t really get that last chapter. But what caught me off guard was the second section, where I was supposed to fill in the blanks. It’s a straightforward enough instruction, yes, but some of the statements given were quite vague, and I over-complicated things by trying to speculate whether the length of the blanks had anything to do with the length of the answers that were supposed to be in there.

This post has sort of turned into a rant probably as a result of the exasperation I’m feeling, and reading through it has highlighted to me the great amount of effort I’ll need to turn this semester around. The post-mids reality is still a depressing one, however, as I’ve two important projects to finish over the course of the next few weeks. And I’ve yet to get started on one of them.

Update: I managed to score above average for both CS2102 and CS2105, so I’m pretty relieved. I’ll need to do slightly better for both to comfortably get at least a B for both those modules, but of course I’m setting much higher goals for myself. I flunked my Calculus paper as expected, however, so the results aren’t all that good.