SETTLING IN
I remember reporting to sch the next day after posting results was released. Was wearing HIHS half uniform with my dyed long hair. I was REALLY nervous and scared. Scared of making new friends all over again, scared that I don't know what's in for me and stuff! First day of orientation, a senior from HIHS was sitting in front of me with her uniform. So I was like "hmm maybe she retained" but end up it was a flashmob by them! So it's kinda nice cos it light up the atmosphere . Later days of orientation was okay, I slowly got used to the school environment, made my first few friends from my OG , played ice breakers and the usual camp games. Next I moved on to making friends from my CG. the routine of making friends was quite sian! I mean like you get used to someone already and you have to make new friends all over again!! We also had lectures during orientation I think which got me bit by bit settled to JC life. Settling in to a JC was like a wow for me! I mean like lecture theaters , cafe and stuff was new for me!!
MAKING FRIENDS
Like I mentioned, the routine of making friends was tiring as a start. It's tiring to have to introduce yourself, be extra friendly, be ready to break your inner barrier and try to warm up to people! But I'm glad by the end of JC 1. I have my fair of friends from OG, CG, CCA etc! And some of them are really nice and supportive, helping me through this one year, making it easier for me this one year :)
OG : Pegasus 8
Clique in JC.
1SR38
CLASS
I'm in 1SR38 this year! It's a class combination of H2 Econs, Chem, Geog and H1 Maths (with the exception of two classmate swapping one of their H2s for art)! It is a class which is considered hybrid with the mixture of arts and sciences. Well. I could say this combination is not easy because previous batches have performed pretty...... Bad? With quite a bit of retainees! But this year's class which is my class performed out of our expected performance!! And I think this is really due to the strong class spirit and competitiveness. Ok maybe not really the usual competitiveness, but I have classmates whose grades are good or are very hardworking, so you tend to get pressurized! But overall, as one class, we worked really well and everyone is just so nice and willing to help!!
APG
APG... Yes ,Attire and Personal Grooming. No surprise, I was called out from APG checks or problems since orientation due to my long and dyed hair! Then my skirt length!! But now........ I'm getting neater I hope. HAHAHAH at least my skirt's longer and my hair is black!! Hairstyle still..... Aye shh.
CCA
Before I entered SRJC, I already knew what CCA I wanted to join! Uh huh, CCC - community champion councils! Not to brag, but I actually like serving the community since secondary school! So CCC's definitely my first choice! Basically, CCA's two times a week. First session is on Wednesdays, we normally plan proposals, attend trainings eg basic Malay conversational language , talks eg on how to serve the community better , or play games(seldom though) . Fridays/Saturdays are our second session! We go for outreaches. Everyone has a choice on one outreach which they will commit for their JC span! I chose SDSC Boccia! I love it the first time I went for trial to see how it is like. Basically, Boccia is this game eligible for Paralympics played by disabled people. My job there is to assist them, like pick up the balls for them and tell them whether they are throwing it correctly etc etc. it's like their personal trainer! Other than these two sessions, we go for other events such as hospice visits to play games with them! A CCA that I find meaningful. :)
Here's a video on what boccia is roughly about if you are interested!
London 2012-Boccia
CARING TEACHERS
SRJC Teachers have been known as caring teachers! No doubt on that(for majority of them) Based on my experience, the teachers are ever willing to help you to catch up on studies. One example- Consultations. Consults during the teacher's free time or after school is a common sight in SR! The teachers sometimes stay until 7/8 pm just for consultations and I think it's really touching! I mean they wake up at like 6am to come to sch to teach and then stay till 7pm for some , sacrificing their personal time! There's not even all, after they knocked off, I'm sure they have assignments or papers to mark. Kudos to them!! Nearing exam period, their consultations are crazy! I have teachers who have consultations non stop, slots by slots! Like almost no breaks except for meal breaks. I'm really speechless on that! Kudos again! I also have teachers who put in a lot of efforts to plan lessons, making it easier to absorb or more interesting. I doubt that's even easy.
FOOD
Food is definitely a wider range as compared to secondary school. Yay to that! Other than our canteen, we have two more cafes aka Good News Cafe and Cross Roads Cafe! My favourite cafe is Good News! They have my favourite homemade ice lemon tea, earl grey, curry puff(the western kind) , fruit tarts, ham and cheese sandwiches!! Yum!! Now you see why I gained fats after entering JC!
Eg THIS!! ICE CREAM WAFFLES ONLY FOR $2!! YUMS.
LESSONS
Lessons are split into lectures and tutorials! it's the same for poly! Quite a different style as compared to secondary school. For lectures, we have 5 Lecture theatres available for lessons. During lectures for JC, almost everyone is copying notes and highlighting!! Copying is like crazy esp for geog and econs that we sometimes have to take photo of slides to catch up! Tutorials are for going through tutorials? Yeah duh. Hahaha. We also have like recaps class activity etc based on what the teacher decided or subject!
HOMEWORK
I think I'm safe to say that homework in JC is CRAZY! We have quite some load of tutorials to do! For me, I don't know, maybe it could be due to time management problems, but .... Most of the times when I finish my tutorials(that is if I manage to pull through to complete my hw), it's pass 11pm? And I'm already all sleepy,let alone revision. It's really quite a lot!
I have come to realize revision in JC is pretty important. Exams esp for chem are more on application. For application type of questions, you got to have strong foundation to know what to do when the Q is twisted or put in another way! Either you revise or you internalize your tutorials techniques. Plain memorizing for Maths and chem esp is of no much use! I doubt you can pass with memorizing or at least get a decent grade for that matters
BREAKING BARRIERS
Throughout this one year, I think I have break numerous barriers and I'm proud to do so. Examples includes Will Run and Nike WeRun! Who knows from a girl who walks for napfa 2.4km exam during sec sch can actually complete 10km?? I remember on the day of Will Run, I was still like "there's no way I can complete 10km! The most I ran was 4km! Hai can I pon school?!??" or like "huh I only complete 3km , OMG, that's 7km to go!" . Hahahaha but step by step, with encouragements from my peers, I finished it! Academically, I did break some barriers. There are times when my eyes are going to close when doing tutorials, but I manage to stay awake to finish it! And I'm glad I did so
Will Run 2012
Nike WeRun
DETERMINATION
Determination. Ok I will just say you need a whole damn of it! (Unless you are a genius or your memory's like powerful and require little studying to get good grades). You need it to stay awake to complete your work, do revision, stay awake during lectures, stay focused during lessons, runs etc etc. it's really important.
RESULTS
I start off the year with okay grades for my tests actually! I think I passed my tests for the first round of tests except for GP. But well... I slowly lose the focus and stuff and ya started to slack more! so MYE and PROMOs was pretty bad, < 35 rank points! but with the help of re-exam, I promoted. Results for a start was pretty embarrassing when I saw that I was failing quite a lot from a jump since O's! Next year tests and exams, I hope I can at least get an S for everything!
A LEVELS
This year A levels for me was just chinese and project work which I have both completed! Chinese I can say was a slight jump from O level with different forms of compo to write and paper 2 was diff as well. Remember we use to have bao zhang bao dao in O's that all you need is memorizing and some general knowledge to pass? Now I have to write narrative which I used to fail in Secondary schools! And paper 2 for chinese was also harder with summary etc! I really hope I can get A for my chinese!! PW was also a brand new experience. There was a lot of researching typing and submissions. There was PI, EOM and also ..... wth why can't I remember now LOL. plus the group project. Not only did we let our teachers vet through our proposals times after times with rejections and changes, we also had to learn to work with our group mates for the group project as well. My ideas for the start was just plain boring and usual with no creativity la hai. A as well please?
LAPTOPS
At the start I persuaded my parents to get one for me. But if you want to save money or have no much use for it other than PW, then dont get it! for our sch, we can loan it during our project work lessons. then at home, I usually just complete it with my desktop ! But of course, do at least have a desktop or computer at home because there's e-learning , PW, and most of the revision notes , info for lessons are all on the net!
FUN
Is JC life all studying and boredom? Well of course not! I had my fair of fun and laughters also. JC students aint all nerdy or boring students! hahahaha with friends, sports day, Thanksgiving(I LOVE THIS), it was quite fun actually! Let me tell you about Thanksgiving! Its almost like some concert! It was in the school hall, lights were off and the teachers performed for us students! There were plays, popular hits like 1D's what makes you beautiful, fun's we are young etc etc. Atmosphere was good and some of the performance was quite funny!
STRESSED
This, needless to say. It's almost like O levels or even more everyday to me haha
BULLET TRAIN
One thing about JC life is its almost like a bullet train! Everything is pretty rushed since its only a 2 year course. So we really had to cram through everything and the speed is quite fast! There's almost no time to relax if you want to do well.
INDEPENDENCE
haha. I think I became more independent this year also? Maybe just a little..... But I never used to study alone and stuff, but the need for studying this year made me study alone in libraries, macdonald's, school's study, cafe etc etc. and yup its quite good that I dare to do that now!
Yup this pretty much sum up my one year in JC! There's ups and downs, highs and lows. I hope I didn't made a wrong choice since I always wanted polytechnic life. But since I'm in, I hope I will have another one good year next year and do well for A levels. :) Good night to you and sweet dreams!
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