Subject Review

OK... few weeks ago i did a school review, and i dint get much response when i requested that readers make a similar type pf post. So i shall not expect anything this time. This post could be of some educational value to those who are gonna choose their subjects soon, as well as general sharing.


ENGLISH LANGUAGE
my favt subject and will always be. not cos its very fun, but cos its the only subject that i can do well in without studying at all. And that, is a real good advantage. I am safe from the worries that many of my classmates have about having 'no future' if they fail english. Apparently im better at comprehension than summary, but summary is actually easier to score. As for compo, marks for grammar make up a significant amount. content wise, not so good. Of course theres a price to pay for bein good at english -- my chinese suffers. somehow there must always be a trade between chinese and english. theres only 3 ppl in my school i noe who r good at both.

(SCIENCE) BIOLOGY
the best subject for mindless zombies. all this subject needs is simply memorising. Super square. must always give textbook ansers if not lose marks. Sadly im not good at textbook ans.. i prefer to give my own version based on my understanding. So this is not a good subject for me. Anyways, i still passed. not a high pass, tho. Pure bio would be a much better choice. they dont learn much more. it think the science bio syllabus make up abt 3/4 of the pure bio's, but it counts as half a subject. same goes for science chem, geog and SS. so i keep reminding myself i take 1 extra subject cos of the 1/4 extra from each.

(SCIENCE) CHEMISTRY
this used to be one of my worst subjects. everything just confused me. now i realise the problem root: the teacher. she never gives hw. gives halfhearted ansers to student's qns. anyhow teach in class. gives notes that are not much use to me. I tot the problem lied in my lack of talent in the subject. The tide turned when the chemistry teacher was changed for 5 weeks. the new teacher was opposite: he piled us with tons of chem hw and forced us to copy chunks of the textbook. During those 5 weeks, chem made up abt 70% of my hw. big contrast from the previous 0%. luckily i took the opportunity, driven under pressure to pump on the subject. within 5 weeks i have improved a great deal. Now the teacher is changed back to that old one, but what i earned from those 5 weeks still remain. So rmb -- hw is good for u. be thankful if u got lots.

(ELECTIVE) SOCIAL STUDIES
a new subject to me. nothign like this was studied in lower sec. so im still tryin to get the hang of how to anser the diffrent type of qns. hopefully the model ans book i got recently can help me. source based is the bigger problem. consist of fully answering and inferential skills. as for essay qns, just gotta regurgit8 from the textbook. zzz... boring. too bad cant drop the subject; i already have only 6.

(ELECTIVE) GEOGRAPHY
My current worst subject. The most stingy subject too. Gotta write so much just for 1 mark. if not supported or textbook enuf, u lose the whole mark. for essay qn also gotta memories alot, plus dis time gotta add answering skill also. very easy to write out of point 1. wide syllabus for an elective subject, too. Stuggling to just pass, only by God's grace can i do well in this.

PRINCIPLE OF ACCOUNTS
A totally new and different subject, POA proves to be a big problem to many in my class. But heres the pattern: ppl either do well or fail badly. this is cos u gotta really noe ur stuff b4 u can do the qns. some qns can go up to 20 marks, where we have to do up like 4 accounts and each are linked to each other somehow. a small mistake could cause big problem further down. Tho 1 mistake could cause the whole account statistics to go wrong, they only penalise for that specific mistake. (if not no1 can pass!) We gotta really scutinise every bit of info that is given and carefully adjust it in. but once u get the hang of it, it all goes rather fine. best value-for-marks subject.

FOOD AND NUTRITION
An in-depth follow up of home economics. Gotta study a whole textbook for theory, and the theory make up for only 40% of the total marks for O lvl. Coursework part A is 40% and part B gives 20%. Coursework is no childs play... it takes up alot of time and its super boring. Still, it beats theory, which consist of stuff from all 3 sciences, home econs, and some new stuff. 3 essay qns make up 45% of the theory, 15 marks each. gotta realy noe every single detail in the textbook, if not you lose out on stuff 2 write. Only 2 ppl passed the midyears F&N theory in my class. proud 2 say, im one of them. but that just shows how hard the subject is, even just for theory. dunno if this is good or bad: but art is no better option.

MATHEMATICS (ELEMENTARY)
failing maths for O lvl had been one of my biggest worries in education. fortunately i no longer have that worry, after a sudden big improvement after spending more time on the subject with the help of detailed model ans. at least now i can fully understand the plight of the math-failers in my class without being one of them. now my problem is more of the speed. the alloted time is usually not enuf for me and i end up leaving behind qns which may be easy. well, its not too late to buck up on it.

CHINESE (B)
a useless subject cos it contribute nothing to my o lvl score. only useful for admission to JC. very easy subject, tho. its primary school chinese. just gotta tolerate the boredom of CLB classes. I was in chinese class until march this year. tho i always been failing chinese, i din wanna take CLB cos it straight away gives me a D7. but i realised that if i take normal chinese, i may get E8 or below, and that denies me of JC admission. I also couldnt stand my biased chinese teacher, who purposely made things difficult 4 me cos he thinks "i dont belong in his class".


K thats all the subjects i take. In a week's time comes my prelim languages P1, followed by the other papers in 2 weeks time. This are my mid year results. 27 points! cant go much places with this kind of grades. i shall compare this with my prelims and hope for improvements. Pray 4 me pls...

English 72 (2)
Accounts 71 (2)
F&N 66 (3)
Maths 51 (6)
Science 47 (7)
Humanities 46 (7)

Total (27)
Average 58.8