While stealing a moment of break, here comes my update (after a long break in blogging)
1. Mathematics.
(a) I was done with the 3rd camp of IMO 2014 selection round. The camp was tough: only 24 students were chosen based on performances on two camps. Camp materials were no easy things either: no more FLittleT, no more power of point, but now we started to deal with binary quadratic forms. A new perspective to mathematics!
(b) I took part in Asian Pacific Mathematics Olympiad recently. The question paper is now confidential, so I will make more updates on it after the paper is made officially to the public.
2. English. I finished my IELTS exams today, and I am guaranteed that I’ve screwed up like a martyr dying for his own country for reading test. As usual, the comprehension texts required a lot of thinking and understanding in a short time of 20 minutes per passage. Still a challenge to me, even after attending courses and doing mock papers. On the other hand, the other 3 components went well smoothly (though the First Writing Task is always a challenge for students).
What I’ve not done is SAT and other English papers required. The SAT (especially critical reading) is generally harder than IELTS. Gonna prepare, oh yeah.
3. Piano. Licentiate Diploma of London College of Music (LLCM) is not a brain surgery, yet it is not an apple pie. The fastidious requirement of 30-35 minutes programme made my 3rd piece suspended until last week. A combination of Kabalevsky’s 3rd sonata, 2 Chopin’s etudes and Ginastera’s dances would suit the program well: what about practice? And that’s not all: program notes, sight reading and speaking test counts (though we only need 2 of the 3).
I remembered passing on the dot at 75 points for entry level (DipLCM) and this sapped my morale towards music. Fortunately, higher scores were attained in ALCM and Theory exam (surprisingly!)
4. Driving. I successfully passed the test on 21 January 2014 (basically, everyone who has gone through this would concur that if u hiked hill successfully, the rest of the test is no problem for you). My driving life started after obtaining ‘P’ license after Chinese New Year.
But passing test doesn’t mean that you are eligible for F1 contest: till now, my driving on the road is still under “surveillance” of my parents (Why “surveillance”? Driving without proper skills is a crime and I could be potential criminal as a new driver who still holds a PDL license). Changing lanes and turning are main enemy on the road (though I felt that I got along better for the former, but not the latter). How about the last step of driving: parking? I could hardly get it right. As my parents said, every second is important on the road. No quandary, no hestitation, and no rush. How easy it is to say! :O
5. Studies. The SPM results will be disclosed in 5 days time, and by then the directions would be clearer. Provisional plan: Studying A-Levels.
Aiming for a full bursary from the government, it is clear that I have no guarantee on that yet: I need 9A+! Though I got it in my trials, it should be noted that benchmark of our school is little lower: 80 instead of 90 (due to that our papers are more difficult and we used school papers for trial exams). Moreover, the Moral paper was unusual: different style of questions without prior notice (as in Malaysian Kini). Now there’s no clue and no point to predict my result for this freaking paper.
Is there an automatic qualification for 9A+ achievers? Yes, for the past 2 years. But now everything is unknown: it depends on budget of the government. It then becomes important for me to look out for other scholarships.
In conclusion, first four are what I’ve done in the 3 months after the conclusion of SPM. I’m now suspended with 3 results: SPM (due 20/3/14), IELTS (due 28/3/14) and APMO (due May 2014). Let’s hope for the best, just like how we hope for the survival for MH 370 passengers at the moment.
Update (30/3/14): I’ve received 2 of my results as above: 10A+ 1A for SPM (as expected I “blew off” my A+ in Chinese Language) and band 7.5 in IELTS. The first one entitled me to get an automatic offer of full tuition fee waiver for A-Level, alongside with RM 430 monthly allowance. The second one is barely enough to meet the minimum requirements for admission into Universities in English Speaking countries. Both are decent ones and gave me a new “kick” in my life afterwards. Yay! 😀
anzoteh96 