Time seems to be on drugs, speeding by ever so fast. The one week study break is over and in two days time I will be taking a major exam for the first time in 2.5 years. It’s almost as if I had forgotten what it was like to be a student. What I have on hand now makes A levels seem like a walk in the park, which itself made O levels a big delicious piece of chocolate cake with extra cherry toppings.
The challenge is just the much higher difficulty level, but also the volume of content. Basically it’s like taking a year’s worth of knowledge and compressing it into half a years time. Combine that with vague phrasing and trickier questions to provide a double blow. The finishing move would be that there is no actual answers to the past year papers. The best strategy for me was always to practice and learn along the way. The past year papers and solutions are quite limited, about 3 years worth. But that’s not a problem. The real problem is that the suggested answers are sometimes so ridiculously deviated from common sense that it makes their credibility appear next to zero.
Nevertheless, this will all be over in 2 weeks time. Before the cycle repeats itself again for the next foreseeable future.
In the face of obstacles, food will always be there for you. Pain is temporary, gpa and food is forever.
EDIT 29 Nov
Done with 4 out of 5 papers! First paper was somewhat manageble, second was a complete disaster, third hit rock bottom and broke through on the difficulty scale. Today’s paper was much easier than I expected. On to some analysis.
First paper, Astronomy. This module consists of 2 quizzes and the final paper. First quiz was not too bad, but the second was terrible. The final exam was heavy on the content, but I had ample time to prepare. Current estimation puts the error rate at ~15% for the finals. I would gauge with 80% confidence the final grade would at least be a B+.
Dynamics. The second most nerve wrecking module this semester. I remember a time where physics was comprehensible, where taking 2 away from here means putting the 2 back somewhere into the system. Now with dynamics, I can barely visualize what is going on with the system. On the plus side, I scored reasonably well for the 3 mcq quizzes. With half the paper beyond my meager capabilities, I place a 60% score on the remaining 50% of the paper. My final grade would really depend on how the bell curve works out.
As for computing, I clearly overestimated the paper. Judging from past year paper standards, the questions were not tough, but tedious. Where most people throw away marks is not that they do not possess the relevant knowledge, but that they made a minor mistake somewhere with the calculations. Given that the input twists and turns multiple times and gets sent through functions after functions, it can get pretty messy after a while. However, this year, the code was less complicated in the sense that not as many runs were required before the output was generated.
While revising, I memorized the benefits of modular programming as well as the characteristics of a system software. However, when the question came out in the finals, I could not fully get it out of memory. Funny thing is, my O level computing paper asked the same question on the system application. And so, I gambled and threw in the answer I wrote for O levels. Don’t ask me how I remember the answer after so long, but somehow I do. I finished the 2.5 hour paper after the 1 hour mark and contemplated submitting my script. That was when my common sense kicked in and I decided not to. Thanks to that decision, I probably added about 4 marks to the final score after spotting 2 careless mistakes. To conclude, this is the paper for which I have the highest confidence of scoring, hence I place a 80% chance of scoring at least an A, sans the chances that I really screwed up the class test.
Lastly, today’s math paper. I was told at the start of the semester, the most difficult modules for first year was dynamics and math ii, therefore one should not take both simultaneously. Too late, I already registered for both modules. For half a year, I struggled along, always lagging behind by a week. Thankfully, the scoring system works such that 40% of the final grade comes from assignments and class tests. At a time where I was still unclear on the concepts, my teammates helped greatly by getting full marks for the combined assignments. And by a stroke of luck, I scored full marks as well for the class tests. And so, I went into the exam hall armed with 40% of the marks, ready to gun for the remaining 60%. This paper was simpler than I had expected, with about 3 curveballs thrown.
After donating the 10 marks for the curveball on calculating the angle between the plane and axis, deducting another 10 for careless mistakes here and there, I estimate there is a 75% chance of scoring a A. I upped the odds from 50% after miraculously spotting a minuscule mistake that prevented me from getting the final solution for 30 minutes.
I have 24 hours to cram all the knowledge I need for this final paper. To be honest, this would be the 3rd module which could come crashing down. The quiz was another disaster, as was the research project. And that already contributes to 40% of the final score. It is still possible to salvage the situation, turn the mess into a B+. That is, with some effort and luck on my side. The countdown timer reads 38 hours.
Till then…