and now that my juniors are busy mugging for their exams...

(if you are my junior who's reading this despite the closeness to the A levels, PLEASE skip to the last paragraph of this post)

and it really makes me think back and can't help but reminiscent about the times i spent mugging in school till it was late... and well, i remember that during last year's mid autumn festival, yanyi actually bought mooncakes to school and we had that as snacks during night study on that day... i can't really say i enjoyed studying, although i have to say that studying has been made a lot more enjoyable by the presence of these wonderful friends... rosel would be with me all the way, from eating dinner all the way till the end of night study (sometimes even going out to eat)... min jia would be the one busy drawing lots of her creatures on my tutorials/lecture notes/books... and trey just entertaining the group by making fun of min jia all night long... i remember that we always aim to sit at the table in front of the cross because somehow it makes us study better... for me it's good cos they'll be facing everyone and i face only them and the cross, which kind of motivates me to study too... and also, xue cong... i think rosel and trey would best remember xue cong during night study because he's a guy who can talk and talk and talk and talk... and so, we ended up talking through night study and not study at all... so i stayed with rosel and trey during night study to avoid talking and talking and talking too much... we ended up writing on small pieces of paper all night long... and then there was weiyu and yanyi who would both be super focused on studying and really motivated me to work hard because every second i waste i would be a second behind them... occasionally i met people like alycia, alyson and shuhui (especially during the last few days/weeks leading to the A levels) and they're just great company to have... and then, surprisingly, there was the library aunties (both the chinese with the curly hair, and the malay) who would chat with me and reserve some of the notes/books that i needed...

and it's not just the night study... but the going to the library immediately after lessons to put my bag on the library shelf and to put my books and pencil case on a table to "reserve" it and then go to the canteen to eat, and then going back to the library an hour later to study... and of course, the first hour is always the toughest because i've to struggle paying attention to the books... and most of the time, i eneded up going to use the computer terminal to surf the web (or to put it even better, to study GP - because i was reading up on global issues on CNA (like 5% of the time, the other 95% i was randomly clicking links)... and after using the com, i figured out that i was too drained to study, so i would go to the newspaper section and start reading them... and finally, i would go back and study... and that would be the whole first hour of "studying"...

and of course, i'll remember the part of "studying" that took up about 80% of my time... the part called: "making notes"... i recall Jesse and I simply telling each other in class how much notes we made etc etc... but somehow i make notes alot slower than jesse (partially because he started way earlier than me, and he's alot more focused)... then there's xue cong who always cheats by getting all the Raffles JC notes and Hwa Chong Institution notes and sending them to auntie nancy for photocopying... and somehow, jesse would want a copy and somehow leading to me buying a copy too... and i don't know why, because til the day that the exams was over, i didn't touch the printed notes at all... it was a real waste of money i guess...

then there's the xue cong and jesse (again) competing to see who can do the toughest questions... and these idiots really love doing it at my desk and make me really stressed because what they have been talking about, makes totally no sense to me... it's like i'm studying chemistry and they're talking about economics, and i'm taking physics and they're talking about literature... and the more they talk and logic it out, i get blurer and blurer... many times they were like "if we add A to HCL we'll get B, and then we heat it we'll get C, and after that we'll get D, etc etc"... and at the end of their discussion i would ask Jesse, "how did you guys know that??"... then he'll be saying "oh it's in the notes.. there!!!"..

and there's xing loong and jesse (again again) debating over the widest range of topics for GP (and sometimes religion) that i have huge problem catching up with what either party said 10 minutes ago...

finally, there's the "boss", quan you... who knows everything about anything from physics to chemistry to maths... except GP... and so, the really anxious people would seek advice from the boss (people like xue cong, jesse, ian, andre, dinah, melissa, etc)... and i would be "eh, i have no questions to ask cos i did nothing"...

and now looking back, i was really really nervous back then... because jesse completed making his notes and have been revising and i was just starting to make notes... people all around me (including the good old thomas ho) were telling me to give up but i still insisted on doing because i realised that if i didn't complete doing the notes i would know nothing and will not be able to do the tutorials and end up depressing myself and not doing myself any good either way... and i still remember during promos that thomas ho actually told me "benjamin, if you should fail promos you should really reconsider your options and maybe go poly do IT or design or something like that"... and i remembered it all the way through till the end of prelims to the end of A levels... lolx... but somehow i wasn't a bit panicky... i guess i was resigned to my fate then... i wasn't made to pass...

but what motivated me to mug was the closeness to the exams... i think the time that i really started studying at about 60% speed was about a week before prelims... in comparison, i was doing 5% on average school days (if not 0%)... and immediately after prelims i took about a day or two off to slack... and then i went back to study again... i remember meeting shuhui during her final prelim papers and she was like "benji why are you still here??? thought your paper ended already???"... and when i said "oh i'm studying", it was really the expression of -.-""""... and from then onwards it was GENERALLY going upwards towards 100% on the day of the exam... of course there are the days which are really terrible when nothing goes in... and those days i really gave up and just slacked... i remember going shopping a few days before the A levels... lolx...

lolx... ok of my crap... but well, this period really reminds me of a year ago and hence i thought this post would be appropriate... and i'm sure more memories would be lost forever if i didn't blog now... lolx...

and of course, i would love to end by wishing my dearest juniors Good Luck and God Bless in their studies and of course their A levels... to the juniors whom i studied with before and are studying for their As now (rosel, min jia, tiff, emily and ado), please don't be overly stressed... in fact, i don't think most of them reads this blog... but anyway it's the heart that matters right??? lolx... anyway, do remember that health is of utmost importance because nothing much can get into a mind when the nose is all clogged up during a flu due to lack of sleep... and to min jia, don't eat too much when you're stressed cos you might get fat after A levels... but on the contrary, if you do well for A levels, a little excess fat wouldn't harm right??? lolx... ok, i never said anything... to all, just JIA YOU kaez... and take care!!!