JOWEEEEEN

this is everything i didn't say

how to survive jc: a pure arts student's guide

Sunday, 23 April 2017 || 4:29 pm

junior college, more fondly known as jc, or what we students call hell. for two years, we still don our uniform to school, sing the national anthem every morning, and still take NAPFA tests while we see our peers turning into fashionistas, as they pursue their post-secondary education in polytechnics or other institutions. having just graduated from pioneer junior college, i totally understand how long, mentally draining and physically tiring the two years can be. in this post, i'll be sharing on how i have survived the two dreadful, gruelling years in school, and even managed to have some fun in between. i'll treat this as something i would tell myself if i could turn back time (or even as i start uni soon), or advice to younger people (if anyone reads this and needs tips on going through jc).

for context, i took H2 Literature in English, H2 Economics, H2 History and H1 Math along with the compulsory H1 subjects PW and GP. i didn't take chinese though because i, very luckily, managed to pass my higher chinese in O levels with a C6. close shave. i may or may not have made the worst decision to be in a pure arts class since i never took lit nor econs before iin secondary school, and i was only an elective history student, but all's over now, and i did decently well for A levels despite all the struggles throughout my jc life.

without further ado, here's how i, a dumb and lazy student, managed to survive jc:

1) PRIORITIES (FOCUS)

the transition from secondary school to junior college was quite huge for me, though not as big as if you're going to poly. it's the first few months of jc when you see everyone having their priorities straight, because the j1s will fill the cafeteria, the library and even the canteen, studying. i did happen to be one of them, for like, a month. but seriously, with the busy schedules you can get and high commitment levels for ccas, i really needed to prioritise my studies first, ahead of friend or social media times. when i went out with my friends, we would study together first before heading out for dinner and resting in the evening. but just be sure you actually do study with your friends and not be distracted. but i got to admit, my priorities messed up in the beginning of my A level year when i got into kpop and got so distracted by many groups and their comebacks. i deleted social media for a good 2 weeks before downloading them back again to get updated with kpop news. but hey, i still did fine for A levels! but don't be like me. prioritise your studies first it is really important in this competitive society, even though your personality and characteristics are important as well.

2) CONSISTENCY IS KEY
if there is one takeaway from my two years jc, is that consistency is key. it is really important to get your basics right from the start so that as more content gets loaded, you'll be able to catch up in class. or if you are like me, with a memory span of 3 seconds, you will find yourself lagging behind in class, not understanding what the teacher is talking about, and it will be pretty obvious by your facial expressions. i am the number one most guilty person of being inconsistent in school. well i did try, but i failed. i never really bothered to memorise history on a daily basis until 2 days before the exam. i never finished reading my 5 lit texts. i only read my econs notes right before econs tutorials or lectures because there was gonna be a test. heh. don't, don't DON'T be like me. really. or you will regret it. reading your notes regularly help as you will be able to understand what is actually going on in lecture and tutorials, especially if it's a new subject you're taking. cramming a whole stack of notes (history content) in two days will make you go literally crazy. so my advice is really, try to be consistent in your revision of notes.

like for example, the only thing i know from history was that pki was formed in 1920 and held revolts in banten and west sumatra, and this is just because it is something i learned in j1 and something i have tried to memorise for the whole two years. if you get what i mean.

3) CONSULTATIONS
i will never be able to emphasize the importance of this-- consultations. consults with your tutors are the best, and might even be more helpful than lectures or tutorials. this is the time when you have a whole hour with your tutor as he/she clarifies your doubts for a certain subject. but of course, you have to make some preparations before booking consultations as going empty handed might as well be a waste of time. for me, in j1 since i had a lot of long breaks as i did not take chinese, i used to have weekly consults for math where i do exercises/practice papers and consult my math tutor for questions which just leave me simply stumped. in j2, i also had rather consistent consults with my lit/gp tutor, econs tutor and even sea history tutor. if you feel that your tutor does not help in consults, then don't consult, there's no point. i had an experience on this one. you can consult other tutors instead because the teachers will not think of "my" students only but "our" students -- they ultimately want the whole cohort to do well, so go seek them. i personally feel that consults helped me a lot, especially since i was pretty clueless in class. you obviously have to be paying attention in class and if you don't understand, you write up something and seek consultation. consults were also a time when i got to know my teachers better. so, pay attention especially at the beginning of the year when your teachers tell you how you can find them for consults!!

4) SLEEP
"SLEEP IS FOR THE WEAK" "JC NO NEED SLEEP ONE LA" "BURN THE MIDNIGHT OIL TO STUDY" if you've heard these comments stereotyping jc students, then let me tell you, it is not true. sleep is really really important and i believe you should not sacrifice your sleep time. throughout my two years in jc, i always made it a point to sleep before 12am. as i wake up at around 5.45am on a school day, getting sufficient sleep makes a difference for me when i'm in school. you will totally feel more refreshed in the morning with your precious 7 hours of sleep, and you will actually be able to tell who had or had not slept well the previous night. i never had to sleep later than 1am before, even during pw period, where the seniors' taunting warnings of "skype till 3ams" sent actual chills down my spine, but that was not true. try to get ample amount of rest, it will keep you more alive in class and you will be able to pay more attention, as compared to classmates who will actually doze off in class. at the end of this paragraph, just know that sleep is very important and you should not sacrifice it for anything, not even studies!! because if you are tired and you still want to study, nothing goes into your brain, nothing.

5) ESSAYS
consistent, timed essays, under exam condition, that's what i'm talking about. being a pure arts student, essays are inevitable. i have a total of almost 20 essays to write for all my subjects during the full papers. and the best way to practice them are through writing essays. it helps you to memorise a bit of content as well. but let's be honest here; most of my econs practice essays were untimed and referred-to. my history essays were all referred-to. only my lit and gp essays were done under timed conditions (because our tutor would only allow us to consult here if we did timed essays). for history, if i got a 16 for my first essay, i would refer to my notes and rewrite the entire essay with amendments until i got an 18 before trying to memorise the content. it was a strategy suggested by my teacher which i thought really helped me a lot as it got me motivated to rush out all the possible essays before "spotting" some themes and memorising them. but econs was really my downfall-- i lacked basic content and evaluation so i did quite poorly throughout the whole two years, though some repeated essays like market failure and the circular flow of income did get stuck in my memory for quite some time even after A's ended. so when you have the time, practice writing essays and go consult your tutors. for history, you can clarify the content and for lit and gp, you will be able to leave the consult full of new ideas. trust me, been there done that.

6) FRIENDS
they are so so important in the whole two years i would not have been able to survive without them. friends who wake you up when you're dozing off in lectures and tutorials, friends who go to consults with you, friends who share their food in class for you, friends who actually study, friends who motivate you to study. you're not the only one going through this tiring curriculum, your friends are too! you study together and have fun together. you be there for one another when time gets tough and relax together at the end of exams. though 2 years is a short period of time, you will be amazed at how far these friendship will go.

7) SNACKS - LOTS OF THEM
when i mean lots, i mean lots. sometimes you wake up knowing it's not a good day and you will feel like sleeping in class, munching on something helps. if your teachers are strict on the "no eating in classroom" rule, you could sneak a chocolate bar or two when they're writing on the whiteboard. if not, you can eat legit snacks like pocky or hello panda and even offer them to your tutors. it helps to keep you more awake and i would say it is essential for daily mundane routines like //cough// fixed timetables.

tip: bring more to share with your friends - they will appreciate it lots

so there you go, 7 ways i managed to survive the two years and i can now proudly say i've completed 12 years of formal education-- 12 years of singing the national anthem, 12 years of wearing school uniform, 12 years of fixed school timings. that's more than half of my life. as i move on to uni education in the next few months, i hope these tips will help you in surviving the ever-so-challenging education system and hopefully help me to stay focused in uni as well.

till next time x

april

Saturday, 15 April 2017 || 9:55 pm

andddddddd we're halfway into april already!! what??? time is flying past so quickly, yet so slowly at the same time. hello long weekend, because it's the good friday holiday!

anyway, nothing much happened this past month it's literally been work and work and work every weekday but brittney and amanda left they ditched me for the next 3 months i cannot believe it and now i'm just hoping that the new people will come asap!!!!!! i'm still keeping in contact with those two though, and we still have yet to go to brittney's house and "swim with the fishes". can't believe i'm actually saying it, but i miss them both especially amanda's stories and brittney's jokes. brittney's humour level is my style man, my kind of thing.

i've also applied to universities one month ago and God bless, i've received offers! i literally only applied to two schools and i got an offer from both the schools giving me my first choice of course/faculty i couldn't actually believe it. last saturday, i received a text message from nus telling me that my application status have been updated, and i was offered a place in nus fass. and on monday evening, i suddenly had the feel to switch on my laptop and check my email where i received a mail from ntu informing me that my application status have been updated. i really wasn't expecting anything much.. except that my second choice, linguistics, required an interview but i didn't get called for an interview so i might possible have been rejected by ntu but to my surprise (!!) i got an offer from ntu to study communications. it was indeed a pleasant surprise. even on tuesday when i thought about the offer, i still teared up. THANK YOU GOD!! there's a high chance i'll be accepting ntu's offer, but i'm applying for financial assistance now and it's so confusing but!! all will be over soon i hope LOL. still so many undecided decisions i am so scared the future seems so bleak now. school will actually start on the first week of august and i am hella scared and nervous if you ask me.

yesterday was good friday so there was no work, thank God, it felt so good waking up at a time when work is supposed to start, bless. we painted the base colour of another side of our room wall, so our room kinda feels like heaven now (no not really). and there was the church musical last night and it was great! loved the songs and acting and there were so many unfamiliar faces. the cast and crew have worked long and hard on this so all the best for tomorrow's stage ya'll!!!!! even though like, no one sees this.

also, my mother found out about my 6 piercings so i no longer have to live in hiding hahaha luckily she didn't rage or anything so all's well now. i'm so tempted to get a fourth and fifth/auricle piercing on my left year but i'm super scared because being the budget cheapo person that i am it will be using the gun instead of a needle and it's not recommended so i'll think about it for a very long time i guess HAHA. i'm also super tempted to get a conch piercing because it's so pretty but it's like super ex (ha, for me) too and i have to save up for uni so.

2 more months (and maybe and a half) and i haven't even got a reasonable amount of money in my bank yet okay.

till next time x

sorry for this v messy and rushed post i just