Ramblings about the past and future days
Yesterday I had my Biology Units 1, 2 and 3 A-level exams. Mercifully, they were morning papers, unlike the W2 paper I had back in May which was an afternoon paper and had dragged on till 17:30.
Biology 1 wasn't so good. I mean, I finished the paper just 10 seconds or so before I had to give it up. It was crazy. They asked really stupid questions and then gave 10 to 12 lines to write an epic for an answer. Maximum marks for each epic? Three! Four, at best. And they didn't do this just for one question.. oh no! They had such questions for all six of the subjective questions.
Biology 2 was very good, it was awesome. The questions that demanded long answers were sensible, at least. There was even a question on sperms and sperm formation... so I was happy! :) I believe I'll score more in the Unit 2 exam than in the Unit 1.
Biology 3 was, is and always will be a pain in the arse. Because it's mostly about ecology, I despise it. There were just three questions for a total of 38 marks, but the paper rambled on for 16 pages. I think it's the Edexcel board's policy to keep all theory exams of any subject at least 16 pages long so if the exam has only three questions which can be fitted comfortably into 10 pages, they deliberately put 'blank pages' between the printed pages. My friend Taaha remarked [and actually wrote a little note to the examiners on one of the blank pages] that the Unit 3 exam which is all about ecology and the environment had the most number of blank pages - five! Don't the environmentalists tell you not to waste paper?
I have Chemistry Units 1, 2 and 3 tomorrow. I'm more optimistic about those three exams because they repeat the same questions every year and plus.. it's Chemistry!
Everybody's surprised how I have such huge gaps between the days I have exams on and then how two or three exams are crammed into one day e.g. I had W2 on May 22 and then I had the three Biology papers yesterday. After tomorrow's Chemistry exams, the next date on which I have exams is June 18th! No wonder my exams are slogging along till June 25th..
Yesterday evening, I went to my cousin Maryam's first birthday party. She looked so cute in that fluffy white dress she was wearing. I went nuts at the party.. I was the leader of the boys' team in this game called 'The Queen of Sheba' where the Queen announces that she wants a particular thing e.g. 'a man's shirt' and you have to get it from someone/somewhere in the party. The team which gets it first gets a point. Ok, so the game was for four- to ten-year-olds, but I'm allowed a little fun, right? The boys' team won because of me! :)
Pictures from Masooma's birthday dinner at Hard Rock Café and Jenny's pre-18th birthday bash are up on my photo blog.
In other news, which, I admit is more exciting to hear about than my exams: I got some jockstraps for a killer deal.. five for AED 19! They're all black which makes them even sexier. Now I just need to wear my jeans really really low to show them off...
Today is the 40th anniversary of the Six-Day War between Israel and the armies of seven Arab countries, namely Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Kuwait. I won't go into any details and I won't point my fingers at any one side. With a total of 21,779 people dead, 47,563 more injured, thousands of prisoners taken and literally millions living their lives today in mutual fear of attack from "the other side", I think the Arab and Israeli thugs effectively established the fact that they have no regard for human life, and only desire more and more land, more weapons, more destruction, more poverty, more mutual hate and to terrorize the other side even more. Yes, they're thugs - maybe much worse - because they want to achieve everything through violence. Don't show me the [partial] history of the conflict to try and blame one side for it 'cause I've read it several times.
"Ve-amarnu, 'Bo, nashlim, ve-nichyeh k'mo achim'..."
"So we said, 'Come, we'll make peace, and live like brothers'..."
-- David Brozah, Israeli singer in his song Yihyeh Tov [It'll be alright].
Biology 1 wasn't so good. I mean, I finished the paper just 10 seconds or so before I had to give it up. It was crazy. They asked really stupid questions and then gave 10 to 12 lines to write an epic for an answer. Maximum marks for each epic? Three! Four, at best. And they didn't do this just for one question.. oh no! They had such questions for all six of the subjective questions.
Biology 2 was very good, it was awesome. The questions that demanded long answers were sensible, at least. There was even a question on sperms and sperm formation... so I was happy! :) I believe I'll score more in the Unit 2 exam than in the Unit 1.
Biology 3 was, is and always will be a pain in the arse. Because it's mostly about ecology, I despise it. There were just three questions for a total of 38 marks, but the paper rambled on for 16 pages. I think it's the Edexcel board's policy to keep all theory exams of any subject at least 16 pages long so if the exam has only three questions which can be fitted comfortably into 10 pages, they deliberately put 'blank pages' between the printed pages. My friend Taaha remarked [and actually wrote a little note to the examiners on one of the blank pages] that the Unit 3 exam which is all about ecology and the environment had the most number of blank pages - five! Don't the environmentalists tell you not to waste paper?
I have Chemistry Units 1, 2 and 3 tomorrow. I'm more optimistic about those three exams because they repeat the same questions every year and plus.. it's Chemistry!
Everybody's surprised how I have such huge gaps between the days I have exams on and then how two or three exams are crammed into one day e.g. I had W2 on May 22 and then I had the three Biology papers yesterday. After tomorrow's Chemistry exams, the next date on which I have exams is June 18th! No wonder my exams are slogging along till June 25th..
Yesterday evening, I went to my cousin Maryam's first birthday party. She looked so cute in that fluffy white dress she was wearing. I went nuts at the party.. I was the leader of the boys' team in this game called 'The Queen of Sheba' where the Queen announces that she wants a particular thing e.g. 'a man's shirt' and you have to get it from someone/somewhere in the party. The team which gets it first gets a point. Ok, so the game was for four- to ten-year-olds, but I'm allowed a little fun, right? The boys' team won because of me! :)
Pictures from Masooma's birthday dinner at Hard Rock Café and Jenny's pre-18th birthday bash are up on my photo blog.
In other news, which, I admit is more exciting to hear about than my exams: I got some jockstraps for a killer deal.. five for AED 19! They're all black which makes them even sexier. Now I just need to wear my jeans really really low to show them off...
Today is the 40th anniversary of the Six-Day War between Israel and the armies of seven Arab countries, namely Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Kuwait. I won't go into any details and I won't point my fingers at any one side. With a total of 21,779 people dead, 47,563 more injured, thousands of prisoners taken and literally millions living their lives today in mutual fear of attack from "the other side", I think the Arab and Israeli thugs effectively established the fact that they have no regard for human life, and only desire more and more land, more weapons, more destruction, more poverty, more mutual hate and to terrorize the other side even more. Yes, they're thugs - maybe much worse - because they want to achieve everything through violence. Don't show me the [partial] history of the conflict to try and blame one side for it 'cause I've read it several times.
"Ve-amarnu, 'Bo, nashlim, ve-nichyeh k'mo achim'..."
"So we said, 'Come, we'll make peace, and live like brothers'..."
-- David Brozah, Israeli singer in his song Yihyeh Tov [It'll be alright].