Well the weekend is finally approaching and finally found some time to rest from all the exam madness. Today marks the mid way point of my modules cleared with a line of 3 papers/day coming up in a row come Monday. For the record, I guess I can hold up with a minimum A grade for all my completed modules to date, but I guess it’s just or no where close to a distinction in the cohort I guess.

After going through the exam questions and comparing answers after the papers, I managed to pull through my Mechanics III module at 100%, but slipping at Quality Management and Thursday’s Fluid Mechanics modules at around 90 marks due to ever-so-irritating careless mistakes. Hope that that will be a learning experience for future papers.

Funny thing that I could not sleep well the night before. Could it be due to sleeping immediately after studying where my mind is not relaxed or just that my body clock is not used to sleeping early for the next morning paper during this self study period. Man felt that I could be more awake for today’s paper.

On the sidetrack, the Student Alumni Association had been sending alot of scholarship related mails lately, namely for school-paid scholarship exhibitions, preparation workshop and talks. But I guess that all came at a bad time smacked right in between papers during this exam period. A bad on the timeline side I guess. A scholarship sounds nice, but I personally do not like being tied down my bonds or strings pressuring me to always be the best, it’s simply stressful. I like the freedom, but of course no one’s gonna offer money for free right?

Lastly, cheers to Sugih my old secondary school classmate who popped by SG for a visit, didn’t manage to join the reunion dinner with the rest of the gang last monday night at Vivo due to a paper on tuesday. It’s always the same when we are out of school, either working, studying or commitments, it’s difficult for everyone to get together for reunion class outings now let be primary, secondary & JC mates, especially when you want to but can’t.

I guess my PC choose a good time to conk out few weeks prior my exam date, but given that hey I have more time to study and away from games. My exam schedule is not exactly the best there is, but I guess I had sufficient time to prepare for all of them – heading and plunging into them for the past weeks and now just some refresher and doing some past-year papers in preparation (familiarisation) to the exams style and setting for the actual paper itself.. or am I just being complacent?

• 14th Aug Tuesday – Mechanics III
• 16th Aug Thursday – Fluid Mechanics
• 20th Aug Monday – Statistics
• 21th Aug Tuesday – Engineering Thermodynamics
• 22th Aug Wednesday – Industrial Automation
• 24th Aug Friday – Organisation Managment

Noticeably, the most demanding period will be the 20th-22th stretch of August where I would see a turkey of 3 papers in a row, with only the weekend prior to prepare. You can also say I do not have much of a national day holiday this year too. Too bad for me for having to give SingFest at Fortcanning and the Nuffnang Rush Hour 3 Movie Screening Party a miss last week, and now EPL is here. It all just came at a time I least wanted them to be, haiz. But at least I won’t be studying over new year’s day like last year.

And ahh yes and running is good during the exam period, not only keeps you energetic and awake, it makes you sleep better at night. In other words for exams, you will not only need a head full of exam-related yogurt but a clean running engine without clogged oil or coolant as well.

Did a run today, amazingly, the rain held on and poured immediately when I completed my run and stepped into my home, wow thanks weather!

Saw myself in school today again during the study week. The highlight of the day was the networking session at the tulip room in the staff center where we a a mock up networking cocktail session between us and classmates from another. It’s kinda odd talking to your very own classmates where we have to “pretend” that we are “potential business clients” and have not met each other- having to introduce each other and exchange name cards, rather amusing I say.

Interestingly was the myriad of homemade name cards, from bundle jet printed to hand written pieces of A4 paper stuck together to professional glossy coated ones. We had a reception and finger foods. The party ended with a success, all went well and our teacher and the director even congratulated us for a job well done.

Before the networking session, collected my NAPFA Gold award- a spunky new thirsty AL crumpler pouch, rather niffy I say and definitely a commodity item to receive on top of your NAPFA award.

Consultation was the secondary thing I did the moment I set foot in school today. Met up with my Mechanics and Industrial Automation tutors for questions over the past year papers. Managed to clear doubts for these 2 modules for now.

Come to think of it. it’s tough balancing work and free time, sometimes I just wonder if I push myself too hard can I actually make it pass the 6 gruesome papers the semester exams will throw at me, especially with so many people falling sick these days. I guess I have the regular jogging runs and vitamin C from juices to keep me sane during this hard period all with a pinch of cooling cheng tung of course.

And for the record, this semester exam next week would also be my last semester exam in SP, love it or hate it I will definitely want it over first but then it would be my last too, haha.

The Ngee Ann Kongsi scholarship presentation was on today at the Teochew building along Tank Road. The ceremony saw almost close to 3/4 million dollars worth of scholarship and bursary awards given unconditionally in line with the Ngee Ann’s long-time stand towards rewarding and helping deserving Teochew students for academic performance and excellence. Concurrently, there was a Clay art exhibition at the ground floor of the building, which kept my parents (who were there to support the event as well) amazed.

No doubt you will definitely marvel that the Ngee Ann Kongsi is a rather wealthy organisation. Owning not only various properties all round Overseas and Singapore, including the whole plot at Orchard spanning from Wisma Atria, Ngee Ann City, Meritus Mandarin to Cineleisure Orchard. Commendably, being a non-profit organisation, 80% of their earnings are donated in benefit of charitable and educational means.

Coincidentally met up with some of my army troopers who were award recipients as well. Kumwah was there and so was David, who is currently on a bursary in NUS. Caught up on times and unit stuffs during the Hi-tea reception, those were the old days.

It’s not everyday where you receive an award like this, looking at the laminated Scholarship certificate hand-signed by the Ngee Ann Kongsi President and Education Chairman himself, this scholarship, beside being a valued item in my portfolio, will definately be the driving force for further excellence.

There was like 3 written tests this week for me, namely Communication skills for entrepreneurs (CSE) final test which I personally won’t be able to hit good 90+ marks for misreading the last question of the test. Mechanics III test was screwy too with some mistake(s) easily setting me to 70% total score, which contributes to 4% in the overal module score. Then to make matters worst, my Quality Control Module test is easily capped at 91/100 for a calculation error and more question mis-reads! (lesson learnt *shakes head*)

Dang so much for trying for Distinctions. This semester is exceptionally short, I seriously cannot emphasise that further with 6 semester exam papers to come in less than 2 weeks time. Last few semesters easily see a 2 week break after the last academic week for revisions, but this time it’s after the last week- BOOM exams!

So much for cutting the semesters shorter to cater for the intake in like wit the GCE “O” level exams. I personally think Though it’s still possible to get an A for these modules which is the barest minimum I should get, it’s these little bits and pieces of marks lost which makes the difference of a distinction.

Nevertheless the week ended with a bang with my project group being the first in the class to submit topping it over the rest and possiblity securing good project grades in the process.

My NAPFA test was today as well, cleared my weakest station – Standing board jump with a reasonabel 231cm, not only painting the fact that you can actually train for SBJ (especially techniques) but setting the rest of my Napfa up in the tempo and boost my morale.

Overall here are my results for today’s NAPFA at the Singapore Polytechnic stadium:

Cheers to the track team (who were training there concurrently) for cheering me on for the 2.4km segment. The run was rather messy with at least 30 over runners running each time on the 400m track, making overtaking a chore and delaying timings significantly. The 1st lap start with me as 3rd behind 2 more guys leading the pack. I saw myself moving up to 2nd on the 2nd round and leading the race from the 3rd lap onwards, this made pacing rather tricky as all I have to do is to chase the next runner I lapped.

Nevertheless, finished the 2.4km pole position with 10:14 which is a 5 point A for my standard. SGrunners Tiwaz and ex-track Alec was there too for their “west side evening run-cum cheng-tung desserts later” run. “you sure you run like that? you can easily run 2mins faster right?” Tiwazz said, haha. Classmate Qiwen was taking the test there today as well, cheers on him attaining silver despite running up 4 blisters on his feet for running his 2.4km barefoot.

Lastly, congrats for Zixuan who managed to hit 10 pullups (from zero) in the period of hardly 2 months, remarkable!

Woot! crossed the 600km mark for recorded running mileage this year!