Raffles Institution Prelimary Examinations 2004
English Paper 1
Duration: 1h 30 min
Section B- Functional Writing (250 - 350 words)
The prelims exam has just ended, you are now taking a break before studying for the "O"s
again. Write, as though you were writing in a "blog", your feelings and reflections during the
prelims and your plans for the next few days. Your prose may include the following:
-How the standard of each paper was and how you did.
-Your prediction of each of the nine subject grades and your "ideal JC"
-What problems you faced and how you handled them.
-Your assessment of the rationale of the prelims and your thoughts and reflection.
Hi, I'm finally back, after a long, gruelling and ardous experience. They say its the horror
movie that is filmed in all secondary schools and it is to run for two weeks. They say its the
sec 4 prelims. Let dive straight into it.
Day 1 (Physics Practical)
Standard of paper- easy
Prediction- high A1 score
After forcing myself to look at practicals over the past 2 years the day before, they came up
with something with requires little to no theory. Focal length of converging lens and ocillations
of a pendulum+basic stuff like measuring mass and volume... A big hu-ha was made about how long
is the focal length, but it turned out rather alrite..
Day 2 (English)
standard of paper- (paper 1) moderate
(paper 2) hard:(
prediction- at most low A1...
It started off quite okay as writing was expected to be hard and topic like "Walls" came
out,leading people to think about ice-cream at a "couldn't be more unappropiate" time. The compre
killed us all, with the summary resposible for most casualties. An expository on education
system, need I say more?
Day 3 (Chinese)
Standard of paper- (paper 1) average
(paper 3) easy?
prediction- A1 seems possible but it would be fatal to make predictions now as the chinese
paper is always unpredictable.
The writing part was okae, with its topic a little bit strange, "the lack of Nobel prize
winners in Sg". Paper 2 was rather easy, easiest in 10 yrs, commented TPH, hopefully the results
show likewise.
Day 4 (Chem Practical)
Standard of paper- titration-easy
QA- moderate
prediction- borderline A1 to med-high A1 seems possible
Titration was simple as i hit both the accurate titre values both time and i wasted little
time in thinking to plot for the experiment. QA is a little shaky for me as i failed to identify
oxygen in the 1st test and failed to observe a change as i did not add enough silver nitrate. The
unknown was apparently some rubydium nitrate. Transition metal salt...yucks...
Day 5 (SS + E maths 2)
Standard of paper - SS- easy? E maths 2- even easier?
prediction- SS- borderline A1 at most
E maths 2- high A1
SS structured qns were suprisingly easy but i found a flaw in my argument only when i reached
home, so maybe i would not get the level 5. SBQ was a killer, at least for me, finished in 40
mins and spending like 15 mins on the 1st qn decided if a source was more reliable than the
other... E maths was easy that i could only find 1 mistake so far....
Day 6 (Biology)
Standard of paper- 1 - easy
2 - hard
prediction- hope for a borderline A1Paper 1 was rather easy, after comparing answer only found 2 to 3 wrong, so... thats quite good.
Paper 2 was disastrous for me, spent too much time on structured that i have to rush through the
essay questions. Some of the structured questions were quite hard too...so hope they mod...
Day 7 (A Maths 1)
Standard of paper- moderate
prediction- anything from B4 to borderline A1
It was a normal paper, finishing 15 mins before time and was staring at a qn which i found out
much later on to be so simple...o_O.. The reason for the big range is becoz i have 7 marks gone
due to a stupid assumption made and 12 marks at stake in Linear Law as I wasn't even sure if my
graph was correct...
Day 8 (Chem + Hist)
Standard of paper chem 1- easy chem 2- easy Hist - moderate
Prediction- Chem A1
Hist- at most borderline A1
Chem papers were supposed to be hard according to previous prelim papers but they do not
appear to be so this yr i think due to the killer schedule (2 mugging-intensive subs on the same
day) and to make up for chem prac QA. Morale booster. Hist was next and i didn't like the
structured qns. I think i missed out the main point in the 1st qn and i was crapping for the 2nd
qn. Source- based was alright though, the all time favourte "inference qn" came back after it
presence being sorely missed in the SS paper.
Day 9 (Physics 2 and A Maths 2)
Standard of paper Physics 2- moderate
A Maths 2- easy to a slight extent
Prediction- Physics A2?
A Maths A1 i hope
Physics was supposed to be my pet subject, yet it is so screwed this yr. I got stuck at the
first qn only answering it in the last 5 mins. I left 1 two mark qn blank....my essay qn got 1
part totally wrong as i misunderstood the qn....With this kind of mistakes, the chance of an A1
is quite low, but I'm banking in on the other qns being well done to score. Hope my paper 1 and
prac can pull this up.
Day 10 (Maths 1 + Lit)
Standard of paper- Maths- easy
Lit - moderate
Prediction- Maths A1
Lit borderline A1
Maths paper 1, like its counterpart, was a breeze and a great morale booster. Till now, its
still at a 100% record:) Lit paper 1 was okae i guess. I jumped into poetry part (c) without
seeing the second part and in the end could only squeeze out 1 quote...hopefully that does not
affect my score... The prose was rather easy as it was different(hmm... this sounds
contradictory) The language was different and the symbolism and sacarsm was so strong that it was
hard to miss the point, still the qn made it hard for us to put the point into words. Lit paper
2, 12th Night. An unexpected theme threw me offguard as i scrambled an essay that was incoherent
...the given text was even worst, the second part did not have a thing to do with the text...
Day 11 (Bio Prac)
Standard of paper- EASY
Prediction- NOT more than a A1
Note the contrasting details, yeah, that means i screwed it up. Only figured everything at 9pm
at night. Yeah, for those interested... W1 has more starch than W2. S4 has most reducing sugar,
followed by S2, then S3 and finally S1. And note, i got the first part rite, yet the second part
wrong...
Day 12 (Physics 1)
standard of paper- expected moderate
Prediction- A1No more shall be said
With that 288 hrs of horror, the eposide "prelims" is officially closed.My L1R5 target would
be a single digit, which sounds reasonable to me. Just hoping the teachers will practice mercy
with their pens these few days.... Looking at the recent spade of events, i can't help having a
forum to post my self-opinionated views on these events in the blog. I shall try to keep it short
and snappy.
Case 1: The rhetorical "5-day week"
PM Lee said in his National Day rally that the civil service and schs and the army will lead
the nation to a "5-day week". This means 44 hrs for working ppl in 5 days as set by the MOM,
though it reminded of the "three-day week" in Animal Farm proposed by Snowball aka Trotsky in
Russia. For schs, a unique guideline was introduced stating that sch-initiated activities are not
to be carried out on Sats, only student-initiated activities are allowed and the emphasis on not
pushing all the work from Sat to Fri. Here there are two points of contention:Firstly, the workers are asked to squeeze their worktime into the 5 days yet schs are given the
priviledge of cutting down of syllabus. This could only mean 2 things. One, the workers have more
work to do at home and two, the cutting down of syllabus and homework are only in statistics.Secondly, the widely-contended student-initiated activity, define it. If a student initiate an
activity not approved by the sch, is it still a student-initiated activity. Going the other way,
if the activity is approved by the sch, what diff is it from a sch-initiated activity. The line
that sets them apart is blurred... Hopefully, no Boxer would be produced from this change.
Looking for manifestations within the sch...
Case 1: The apparent mystery of the Sec 4's misbehavior during Prelim peroid
Sec 4s within 1 and half weeks, were crowned as a "disgrace" to the school for some rowdy
behavior during morning assembly. Lets try to put things into perspective.On the side of the students, we do not see why we need to attend flag-raising as 1, most
annoucements do not concern us, 2, our exams were within 30mins and 3, walking in to a exam hall
sweaty and irritated by the irrelevance of the speaker during assembly isn't really the "
condusive" environment the sch so speak of to seek to provide.On the side of the sch authorities, it is a matter of policy, as we learnt in SS, since 1960s,
all schs in sg have been having flag-raising every morning and MOE states that it is compulsory
for every student to attend flag-raising. We all knoe the reasons behind this policy and today I
find myself sitting on the fence. The students have the right to be restless and talk during
assembly, they(we) were being excluded. Since the sch excluded us, why should we pay attention?
Two, with an exam so close, it is inexorable that we would feel nervous and talking is one of the
best ways of reducing fear and reinforcing ideas. Yet, we are forgetting a pertinent point, that
we are questioning the system that gave us what we needed to ask this qn in the first place. Such
we cannot deny, much less refute. Therefore, the behavior is understandable(if there is such
word), yet it contradicts ourselves. Unless like 50% of the whole cohort decides not to turn up
for morning assembly, then maybe we'll have a case, yet drastic actions are uncalled for. Thus, i
can conclude safely that this selfish, instinctive behavior by the sec 4s would gradually
diminish after the prelims though how gradual can the last 3 weeks be...
Case 2: A Case of a errant student or the failure of the CLE policy?
On the final day of the prelims, the sec 4s grudgingly strutted into the parade square for
flag-raising and annoucement. All was going well, or i thought, except the sun was already high
up and the speakers seemed to fail to notice this fact. Well...after all of us were sweating and
swearing away at the school's policy, a person of "great weight" decided to take the podium of
inform us of an incident that took place recently in the school. A apparent mysterious boy had
used a school's lock (as in standardised for whole school) to lock an ice-cream box that
contained ice-cream to be sold to raise funds for MINDs by Red Cross i believe. Now, our first
reaction is obviously humour due to our impure, sadistic mind. Thus, laughter travelled through
the parade square at the speed of 300m/s. A "this is not funny" travelled at the same speed soon
after though its amplitude was many many time larger and its tone was of anger and upset. So,
lets not point out who's right and who's wrong, rather step back and see thw whole picture.Firstly, why did the apparent boy do this? I don't have an answer but I do question the validity
of the claim that one of us did it. No evidence was shown through the process. Two, the sec 4s
were blamed for "not stopping the ""apparent boy"" in his act". Yet, they did not realise that of
the boy was to persist and bide his time, he would have found a way to do this unnoticed.
Furthermore, if the first does not stand, the second claim is "gone with the wind".Okae, now lets assume that a student did it, we need to ask why? Is it the failure of our CLE (
character Leadership Programme)? Could a student who took CLE and philosophy do this? According
to the system, no. Therefore, it could only be the failure of this system that lead to this act.
And why did the programme fail, its manifestation clearly seen in the laughing students, is the
more pertinent question, i think, rather than who did it.
JC talks
The marking days of the prelims were set aside for JC talks from the top 5 JCs in Sg. Me, as a
enthusist in propaganda and the use of language attended these talks trying to sieve out facts
from honey-lined words. Here are my accounts.
Raffles Junior College (Open House : 22nd Oct 10am-5pm)
Yes, the all so famous top JC that is affliated to the same great man that founded Singapore
and our school. The team that came were obviously extremely sure of themselves that they needed
no advertising...What they needed was(as they felt) impact, pompousity. Jargon were littered on
their powerpoint slides. Words they used were profound and sent a signal to the layman in RI, YOU
ARE NOT SUITED TO BE HERE. WE ARE ONLY OPEN TO GENIUSES. And yes, i should observe a very
sensitive trend, that they like to let their "British-like" Singaporeans to talk to us, using
heavily slanged English that had 90% of the audience stumped. However, we should applaud them for
their open policy, throwing at us all the achievements they achieved, lists after lists, item
after item. The seniors that came did not help much, after much probing, all I could gather from
their speech was RI Is not equal to RJC. At the end of the day. they had 3 hrs, 3 times as much
time as any other JC, yet as a stereotyped layman, I can straightaway tell you that my interest
in Rj had decreased proportionally to tht time they spent talking to us. However, as a observer,
this was a guarantee, that the environment would be competitive enough for the non self-motivated
and that they had the prestige. When they spoke, there's this air of superiority that I would not
deem as negative, and I believe that it is that air of "limited arrogance" that would bring a
person to greater heights. To sum it up, if you want to make it big in life, go RJ.
Hwa Chong Junior College (Open House : 22nd Oct 10am-5pm)
oh, sorry, next yr it would be called Hwa Chong Institute. The team, by far, was the most
well-prepared and came with one solitary purpose, entertain and attract, in other words,
propaganda. Thus, we were thoughly entertained by the wit, humour and the plain "spirit". The
presentation started with their GP teachers telling us 43 reasons to go to Hwa Chong, though he
was stuttering at first, he soon found his tone to produce a rousing speech that was magical.
Next, they played a video to promote their sch. They made advertisements that had a sting becoz
of one, their familiarity (ie.Henniken and HP), two, the amount of effort put in. I was rather
moved by the fact that they actually prepared so much for us when most of us had already made up
our mind where to go. Yet, this was trivial compared to what happened next. The humanities
teacher, I forgot his name, who started the humanities programme I think entertained us with a
witty speech laced with humour. The physical appearance wasn't exactly pleasing to the eye yet he
had a unique charisma, an ability to attract and capture attention. He often made digs at Mr Mac
by referring to RJC as "the other institute", sprayed insults at us and yet make it sound funny.
Then came the students, by which a few commented that was the only team who brought girls to
speak to us. We were reassured numerous times that we would feel like "family" within HC, making
me wonder if this is all but a self-fufilling prophecy. Still, they spoke convincingly and their
happy-go-lucky attitude contrasted with the RJ team, allowing them to score even higher. At the
end of the presentation, I think Mr Mac, worried that RJC had lost its appeal to us, requested to
say a few words. He refered to one of the GP teachers reason that a certain teacher was the most
handsome in HC as being the exact reason why he would not go HC. Oh, then he so light-hearted
atrributed the humanities' teacher reference to "the other institution" was due to "his lack of
vocabulary". He made one final dig, at their student concil pres, a certain female by the name
Faith I believe, that RI students respond well to "Faith"(Double pun!!!) in reference to an event
where a RI student toned down and used a high pitched voice to respond to her. The unintended
victim of the circumtance stood up to protest but was duely cut off so aptly by Mr Mac. Mr Mac
then left the room with this "triumphant" look on his face and I left the LT, totally tickled by
the events and reaffirmed my "faith" that English is such a wonderful language.
Temasek Junior College (Open House : 15th Oct 10am-5pm)
This one is rather cold, if you get what I mean. If you don't, read on. When I entered the LT,
it was dark and a video was screening. I sat down, watched the video and when the lights came on,
a vivacious young lady who claimed to be a former Rafflesian came out. I thought that was rather
normal, but...I was wrong. The first ominous signs came when she took on the phrase "vibrant
culture" mentioned by one of us as an aspect o JC we would look out for, and pun it with
................................guess.......................active bacteria in a microculture(
applause) the whole Lt suddenly felt very cold and i thoght eddison was bad enough...She then
went on to tell us how the sch won a NoBell prize (no, there is no spelling error), indeed as
their sch bell often not ring due to certain defects and how this causes lesson to be BOring, (
hokkein "BO" means no) Again, the temp in the LT dropped. When I left the LT, I was effectively
thawing...
National Junior College (Open House : 16th Oct 10am-3pm)
Nothing much to say about this. They were pretty formal and therefore so were we.
Victoria Junior College (Open House : 16th Oct 10am-3pm)
hmm...This seems like a toned-down version of HC's presentation. The principal was one funky
one, a female somemore. It appears that she could relate perfectly to us teenagers although with
her not so perfect singapore accented English. The wonderful display convinced me to add VJ to my
list of considerations because of its proximity to my house...
Well. folks, in a few days the prelims results would be back and then I would really be able
to set down my choices for JC. On an ending note, I've added a tagboard due to demand from snl
and I'll leave you with a song, the one playing in the background now. X- Japan------Tears.
ps. I think I exceeded 350 words and the midi file really doesn't do X-Japan justice, so if u
like the song, go find the real version.
TEARS
doko ni yukebaii anata to hanarete
ima wa sugisatta toki ni toi kakete
nagasugita yoru ni tobidachi wo yume mita
ikoku no sora mitsumete
kodoku wo dakishimete
nagareru namida wo toki no kaze ni kasanete
owaranai anata no toiki wo kanjite
Dry your tears with love
loneliness, your silent whisper
fills a river of tears through the night
Memory, you never let me cry
and you, you never said good-bye
Sometimes oue tears blinded the love
We lost our dreams along the way
But I never thought
you'd trade your soul to the fates,
never thought you'd leave me alone
Time through the rain has set me free
Sands of time will keep your memory
Love everlasting fades away
Alive within your beatless heart
Dry your tears with love
nagareru namida wo toki no kaze ni kasanete
owaranai kanashimi wo aoi bara ni kaete
Dry your tears with love
nagareru namida wo toki no kaze ni kasanete
owaranai anata no toiki wo kanjite
Dry your tears with love
Dry your tears with love