Exams are Over!

Exams are over!

Joy to the world,
It is over.
Let us be glad and smile!
Its going to last a few weeks,
Until our prelims come...
Oh have fun when you can,
Oh have fun when you can,
Oh have fun, oh have fun, when you now can!

(to be sung to the tune of original Joy to the World)

What else is there to say? I'm happy. Jubilant. Joyous. It was a holiday of misery. Maybe misery would be just a tinge too harsh, but yes, it was indubitably an unpleasant one for me and some others. The "holidays" were merely a deceitful camouflage for the words most unforgettably etched in any student in Singapore from the age of 8 (primary two)- "Mug, Mug, Mug". Indeed, the education system in SG seems to be going way overboard. Little kids who would once been enjoying their blissful childhood are now being dragged to the chain gang of studies. Primary 6 stuff have now advanced to Primary 3, and secondary school curriculum is being incoporated into Primary 6 work. How is this justified? Well, studies is important and does have its merit, but to this extent? It seems most untolerable and unsettling. I say, give the kids time to mature. Books and books and more books is not going to work. There's more to life then just burying one's head in a book which will, according to popular belief, lead to a good job and a happy family in the future. There are other things that will lead to a person "making or breaking" in the society, thinks like emotional intelligence, learning how to socialise, and the like. These are crucial aspects too that are often neglected in the pursuit of pure book knowledge. Sure does explain why some companies would rather accept foreign students- because even if they have a lesser degree, they are able to cooperate better and work as a team!

I've deviated, i realise. Often do get carried away when thinking about issues close to heart. Well, back to the holidays. It was a study break that earned itself the title of "being worse than school term" (Lim Min, 2007). According to the genius forementioned, going back for lessons everyday at weird hours is much more agonising then having a routine school life. This I agree with wholeheartedly. Though one is given the liberty of waking up at 8am or at 12pm, it is such a weight to know that the exams are imminent. Years ago, I had several sleepless nights worrying about how much I had left to cover for my exams. This time, i rested more peacefully (a most welcomed variance), though now I do not know if it was a good thing.

The exams were, to say the least, horrible. I went in rather prepared and confident for Economics, having mastered to some level the skills of case study. Nevertheless, I fell prey to my largest enemy yet again- Time trouble. Somehow it always crosses my path, perhaps it is pre-destined. I planned before my paper how much time to spend on each question- 1min 40 for every mark. Nonetheless, I overspent on the first two questions, being engrossed in spilling my knowledge on oligopolies. And as the story usually goes, I'm left with a few minutes for the last important question in the case study. It was really a disaster. I answered it without reference to the passage, assuming it to be a knowledged based question, which after the paper, was found to be completely mistaken. Chemistry followed, with even worse results. I got hit hard by the Organic Chem question, and all my confidence soon left me. It was as if my balloon-like ego had been deflated. Blanking out, I forgot that HCOOH was an acid too, and this grave mistake coupled with my incompetent knowledge of "brick red precipitate formed by HCOOH with Fehling's Solution" lost me the huge chunk. Not a bit better was Periodicity, where I blundered like a patzer. Then came Maths. The first few questions seemed hard, and I was much relieved when i flipped to the third page of probability questions. "I'm going to pass!", I thought. But, fate was just bent on having the last laugh. I omitted the last question due to pure carelessness, never even seeing it. To think I was pondering why there seemed so much time left! Sigh, ain't I to be pitied?

Well at least it is over. I have put my worries on one side for the time being. Once school resumes on tuesday, I will be a changed person. I will be as serious as can be. The A Levels Examination is not to be trifled with. I will study hard and overcome all barriers. My plans of acheiving 4 As together with Xh must not fail. This said, I can still rest now! for 2 more days! =)

About Chess, it does seem quite weird not to be planning activities for Chess Club like I have gotten used to doing. Indeed, I seem to be playing much less than before after taking up the role of Chairman in RI Chess Club, and consequently RJ. Most of my time I devoted to new initiatives, even having planned some lessons outlines for the club (sadly most of the time when i gave out homework I never saw it returned)! As such, I really feel a sense of reminiscence now that I'm distanced from the club. Its as though one meaning of life seems to have dwindled. Guess this feelings comes with attachment.

I miss the times spent giving simuls or playing blitz games during training. I remember complaining last year about the meagre attendance of 6 or 7 every week? I tried to do something, something to make everyone more enthusiastic and attain the maximum capacity of 10 every week, but to no avail. You might think, surely you don't miss THOSE times? Well, you're right. Haha, bet you thought I was going to say I do. However, even with the horrible attendance, I still miss some things. For example, last year after everyone disappeared terribly fast before 5 or 6, Brandon, Xiu Huan and I would stay behind and play blitz all the way until 8 plus. No, it isn't that great having so little company but I must say I was happy of those times. Then it grew. Like the beanstalk in Jack and the beanstalk. Maybe not to that logarithamic extent, but some. The intake this year came as quite a relief, as those expected to join joined, and proved my calculations of numbers the year before correct. As usual, there were the some who came, left their names, and then missed all the subsequent trainings. But that was expected. I was glad to have just the few "fervently anticipated" enthusiastic ones left. In this expected list included Brandon, Mark, Fang Jin, Kean Yung and Christian from RI, Hanyu, Samantha, Deng Ying, Shuyi and Shu Min from RGS, and Jeslin and Suzanna, the two all- time chessers who would have given me a heart attack if they had not joined. All the above were real chess enthusiasts, especially the RI people, as even though they might not be in the upper echleons of the chess world, they seldom missed a training and enjoyed themselves thoroughly simply playing friendly games in their free time. I must say, they take after my own heart. Even in RI Chess Club, I was comforted by their presence as in my sec 4 year, there wasn't the barrage of new FMs (Dominic Lo and Daryl Wong etc). In my reign as King of the RI chess club, there was merely from sec 3 the few people named above, from sec 2 weixing and from sec 1 Jarred Neubronner, Shawn Sim and Bryan Tsui. Situation doesn't seem much different from RJ, does it? Then and again, there are a lot of people who turn up from time to time, but that doesn't often prove a consolation, as they would most likely just be sitting ducks, if I may use the term. So, I enjoyed their company. Looking back, I felt no less attached to RI Chess Club too, going back on a weekly basis in my J1 years to join them for training before turning up for RJ's own training with the same trainer- Ashot Nadanian.

Okay, back to the present. Kean Yung left us to join Bridge, which many have termed as being "poached". I believed it to be quite a pity, and never stopped messaging Kean Yung our training times and venues until I relinguished my post recently to the new, bright and cheerful new Exco. Deng Ying too pursuited her highly priority of councillor, and I sincerely wish her all the best. With this losses came some additions too. Gabriel Leow, Wai Chuan as well as Zhou Chen were some new faces which I got accustomed to seeing. It was most pleasing to get to interact with them and know them! But as the saying goes, you hurt more when you lose the things you love. Well, it's not to say that I can't go back and have fun with the gang, but its different now! Just feel this weirdness coming along. But i promise, I'll join you all for trainings still! And I wish you all the best!

Also, I realised something about myself- Its difficult for me to trust people to doing things that I take really seriously. Through the last year, even when Michelle could have done something herself, I wanted a last look. I don't fully comprehend why this sense of insecurity emerges, but it does. I wouldn't feel at ease until I had confirmed that it was all right. Same thing this year, with the CIP. I had allocated the jobs- RI to do tactics, Waichuan and Mark to do the Beginners Portion, and Jeslin and myself to do the Intermediate Portion (which turned out more like stuff our own club can use!!!). But that was not the end of it. I ended up taking dozens of hours to edit the other parts until they were relatively flawless. This isn't meant to be a lament, or a complain of shabby work, but its just a discovery about myself. On hindsight, even contacting members for training, I did personally! Guess I got to change this, and show more confidence in others. That's what group work is for, isn't it?

Well, back to the point, I felt surprisingly at ease this year when I passed on the baton to Jeslin, Hanyu and Mark, with Suz playing a big role too. At first there were some tensions, some unhapiness over why certain people were instead of others, and I got really worried. On the personal emotional side, I understood the disappointment felt, especially Shuyi who in my opinion, had been really helpful in the course of the year. (Gave her a call to explain things, and hope they did. Glad to see she's as cheerful now as before and hope that she'll be given opportunities to prove her worth too!) On the more professional side, I was worried about whether it would work, considering the discontent of the parties.

Well, as of now, 10.04pm of 30 June 2007, I must say i am most pleased with the way things are coming along! I can't help but want to congratulate the new Exco, especially Jeslin, for making Chess Club more enthusiastic than I have ever seen it! Holiday trainings I have been too have never had half of full attendance before! And meeting up of the exco in their own free time right after exams is most commendable! Keep up the good word folks! And keep me updated with your activities so I can join you all in the fun! I'm really happy to see all this progress and can finally put down this burden! Make sure you all carry on well next year! Oh and I am hereby tendering my services as Chess Coach at the meagre fee of dinner! Just joking, haha, but yes to the person who's so eager to read my blog I have something practical that can be useful in tournament play that I wouldn't mind sharing with the club! It's not directly a lecture requiring a demo board, but it definitely covers some practical aspects that can come in handy!

There goes. He who has not blogged for ages has created an anomaly. The Blog is not over. No death anniversary. Signing off.