yeah baby.
finally blogging abt my O's.
i'm just gonna blog abt the things i came across during this O lvl yr.
hmmm.
i shall start w/ wat comes to my mind 1st.
okay.
i rem there was this time during a Sunday service.
when it was intercession time.
i forgot who the interceder was.
but i rem he was saying this.
"Father, we want to uphold the B's into Your hands..."
for those who dunno wat the B's refer to.
it's actually an acronym for the Banjarbees.
they are ppl frm a tribe in Kalimantan, Indonesia.
(if i'm not wrong.)
so at tt time i was actually thinking to myself.
"Can we oso pray for my O's please?"
i tot God gave me a knock on my head aft i said tt.
cos i almost dozed off for the rest of the intercession.
some of u may noe tt i studied w/ my churchies on sundays.
n w/ some friends at the airport
(during O preps.)
i discovered an amazing fact.
gals tend to eat alot while studying.
they always nimble a little at a time at their food.
which means their food always turn cold.
n they always leave the place w/o finishing their food.
okay la, maybe not all gals do these.
n perhaps they don't always do these.
oh ya.
i've been bothered by these few phrases.
maybe my grammar ain't good, tt's why.
u see.
i've often heard abt "clarity of mind", "peace of heart", etc.
as in these cases.
"Lord, please grant us clarity of mind..."
but i tot it was supposed to be the other way round?
"Lord, please grant us a mind of clarity..."
don't u agree w/ me?
Amen?
oh.
probably it is correctly used.
(cos i think i heard Neale say it b4.)
haha.
it cud just mean "clarity of the mind".
"peace of the heart".
watever it is, i hope someone can enlighten me abt this.
u noe wat.
there's something kinda wrong in my O preps.
abt how i actually prepared for my O's.
i shall call it Crash Courses.
i'm supposed to be very well-prepared for the O's.
cos u see, i repeated my sec 3.
so it actually means 3 yrs of prep.
in comparison to the norm of 2 yrs.
but it seemed as if the past 2 yrs were a waste.
cos i got to read my notes, etc. (for the 1st time in 2 yrs).
just a week b4 my prelims.
n i finally understood (mostly) wat my teachers had been teaching in class.
only aft my prelims.
so u see.
i hadn't really learnt my lesson of getting retained in sec 3.
n it was no surprise i got a sucky 22 for prelims.
it was head over heels due to God's grace n mercy.
n due to my school's tremendous help.
tt my prelim grades were moderated to a 12.
so i'm going to SAJC for the 1st 3 mths of 2006.
undeservingly.
n now i'm extremely worried for my O's.
cos my sch moderated too much for my prelims.
okay.
let's chuck sad thots aside.
oh, i like this part.
maybe some of u have actually experienced these ppl b4.
u may even be one of them!
LOL.
before the O's even started...
plans for post O lvl activities were being drafted out!
i was studying in PP Mac's tt evening.
i cud overhear a grp of my friends' conversation.
at one corner of the fast-food restaurant.
they were not tt loud, but certainly audible.
"hey, where shd we go aft our last paper?"
"movie, movie!"
"wat movie?"
"erm, Lion King, Lion King! i heard it's nice."
"cannot la, it's NC16 rem?
some of us still 15; can't watch!"
"aiya then wat movie leh?"
... ... ...
obviously i can't rem wat they planned to do.
but u noe wat i mean right?
tsk tsk tsk.
ah ya.
another thing tt i came across was this.
candidates mocked and teased one another
when they enjoyed days w/o any papers
while their friends had to sit for papers on those days.
cool huh?
haha.
during this yr, some seniors wud advise this.
"you must be consistent in your preps thru'out the whole yr."
while the other seniors wud advise this.
"aiya, O lvls very easy one, don't need to study one la!"
of cos i did my best to heed the 1st advice.
but apparently in the end i think i didn't work my hardest.
there are many other interesting things tt i came across.
i'll just write them in bold.
some students felt extremely sad
when the questions they spotted didn't come out for Social Studies
while others exclaimed, "I only studied Venice n it came out!
Wa, heng ah!"
"i tot today is A Maths Paper 2?" 
Billy Lang actually handed in his entry proof together w/ his unused writing paper.
LOL!
"may E Maths be Easy Maths n SS be Super Simple for all of us tmr..."
Prophet Poon told a grp of us this.
"i dreamt abt Physics Prac u noe..."
woh. 
during this yr of the O's, recving encouraging SMSes was essential.
essential to keep me going.
these are only some of the many SMSes tt spurred me on.
"'but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries.
Surely your God is the God of gods,
the Lord of kings & a revealer of mysteries.
for you were able to reveal this mystery.'
- daniel 2:28,47
May God reveal the 'mysteries' in your papers."
[Rach]
"All the best for ur chem prac.
May you have a chem-filled head :>
i asked God to grant me that and it did wonders.
peace!"
[Rach]
"'no discipline seems pleasant all the time, but painful.
Later on, however it produces a harvest of righteousness
n peace for those who hv been trained by it'
heb 12:11"
[Sis]
(this is my favourite)
"Hey.
Good luck tomorrow ya?
Rest well tonight and kick butt tomorrow.
Take care."
[Nigel]
(this is a classic.)
"Hey.
Good luck for ur papers tomorrow!
Pray for calamity before the paper.
tc.
will be praying for u.."
[Marian]
okay lastly.
need to confess something.
i cheated in the O's.
argh!
u noe wat.
i'd never cheated since the yr i got retained (2004).
i rem the last time i cheated was in 2003 (my 1st sec 3 yr).
u see, Cat High has a tradition just like The Chinese High's.
we have to wear shorts all our sec sch life.
so i made use of it during some of the class tests.
i wrote the necessary notes on my thighs.
when the teacher is far far away, i pulled my shorts up a little.
n ta-dah!
tt was how i cheated, successfully.
(okay i'm not supposed to be proud of my cheating mtd, sorry. 
)
tt was in the past already okay.
as i grew spiritually, i learnt tt cheating is wrong.
so i stopped cheating frm 2004 right up O lvl Chem Prac 2005.
i had lots of integrities okay.
i told myself i'd never cheat, even if i failed tt test badly.
thus, the reason i did badly for my tests was bcos i had integrities.
hai.
i really never cheated in any sch test this yr u noe.
i never expected to panick so much during Chem Prac.
tt i resorted to cheating in utter desperation.
(maybe desperation was an excuse.)
i mean Chem was always my poorest subject.
n i shdn't have felt anxious tt i cudn't do the question.
i cudn't do the 'Plan an experiment' question.
so i turned to my classmate beside me.
argh!
it was Foo Feng Yao.
"he's no Chem pro; he's a Chem noob!"
tt was wat i tot at tt moment.
i had no choice but to ask him.
(the invigilator was a woman in her late 40s; quite blur.
so thk God she cudn't notice wat i was doing.)
he gave me a solution which i knew wasn't the answer.
man, wat bad luck!
i risked my life to cheat in this major exam.
yet in the end i gained nothing out of it!
wat a joke i am.
but let's look at this at a different angle - in God's perspective.
usually during school Prac exercises, i sat beside Guorong.
he's a true Chem pro.
if he was to sit beside me during the real thing, i'd have known the answer!
however tt's not the point.
my point is God has been behind all this cheating process.
(not tt He made me do it, but He was in control of everything.)
sounds cool.
God was helping me actually.
i'm just so glad tt i didn't succeed in cheating tt time round.
if i'd gotten the answer thru cheating, God wud be so upset w/ me.
n my Chem grade will be inaccurate.
i'm so thkful to God tt He interfered in this cheating thing.
(He put Feng Yao beside me.)
altho i needed to pass my Chem, thk God i cudn't cheat.
otherwise i won't be truly happy w/ my O lvl cert.
hmmm.
in conclusion, this has been a nice year for me.
God has indeed been merciful n gracious to me, again.
here are some of the things tt kept me going for O's.
enjoy.
alright.
i've come to the end of my GCE O level story.
if you've been reading since the start, i salute you.
n i thk God for such a wonderful friend like you.
for being so concerned w/ my life.
thks alot!
see you again.
Glen dunked at 12/28/2005 12:10:25 pm
