are cycles of inspiration. They are ouroboroses of fire and warmth. They are looping food chains with one hundred percent trophic efficiency. They are countries within which circulate infinite multipliers. They are chemical reactions endlessly endergonic. One looks at the other and says you're better but the other looks back and says what rubbish, you're better too, and they do nothing, can do nothing, but enhance.

Chua Chu Kang GRC MP Low Yen Ling felt the format of the PSLE could be tweaked. [...] She also suggested looking into how non-academic aspects could also be assessed as part of the PSLE score. For example, marks for participation could be given for activities related to national education or community service, she said.

Are you scoring well in all your subjects, but still missing that 15% to get you that overall "A"? Then this article is for you! If you're already a pretty bright student, and even if you're not, chances are you're just not conscious enough of the impression you're making on your teacher. Here are some tips to make sure you're the apple of your teacher's eye.

 1) Make sure you sit near the front of the class, but not too far in front, or the teacher won't see you. Also try and position yourself near the centre, or where the teacher usually stands/sits while carrying out the lesson. Remain in easy sight.

 2) Look at the teacher as often as possible. If you can afford to, don't take notes, or take minimal notes, so it won't look like you're just copying everything the teacher's saying. Gaze intently, perhaps widening your eyes or raising your eyebrows a little to avoid looking sleepy.

 3) Try to ask questions more than you give answers. Answers make you look like some know-it-all and doesn't give quite as much evidence of you engaging with the lesson. Ask about everything you can, even if you think you already know the answer. Make sure your questions are as relevant and probing as possible. 

 4) Try not to raise your hand too many times or the teacher's just going to get annoyed with you. About 3-5 times every lesson should be ideal.

 5) When it comes to class discussions, though, go all out. Prepare copiously. Listen really closely to what your other classmates are saying and tell them whatever you think is wrong with what they're saying. Make sure your own argument is as strong as possible so that you can answer everything they throw at you. It's okay if you end up losing, though; as long as you've shown evidence that you know how to carry on a discussion to some length, you're gold.

 6) DO NOT FALL ASLEEP IN CLASS. Drink coffee if you have to, though honestly I think you should be saving it for when you get to the major national exams like A-Levels or IB. Best to not build up a caffeine tolerance so early. Just get enough rest, and you can also keep yourself awake by asking questions!

 7) If your teacher hangs around in class for a few minutes after the bell rings and you have nothing else to say to her, go and discuss the previous lesson with your classmates. It will help you too, in terms of consolidating your learning. Try and make sure it can be heard at the front of the class, though, it'll be mighty impressive.

 8) This should go without saying, but be a diligent student in all other areas, or the tips won't work nearly as well. Do your homework on time, but if you have trouble completing your homework due to difficulty or whatever, make sure you let your teacher know that and ask him/her to help you, instead of just giving up and/or faking and/or copying from other people. Again, this will really help you in the long run, and it'll help turn a sour image of you into a sweet one. You'll come across as an earnest student instead of a dumb one. 

 9) If you can, try and see your teacher after school at least once. See if you can steer the conversation towards a discussion of your personal qualities, hunger for knowledge, or even your family if you think it would help. The whole point is to make an impression on this teacher beyond your classmates. Don't take it too far, though, or you'll either make it too obvious you're sucking up or your teacher might start thinking you need professional help.

 10) Smile.

 In short, the key is to make your teacher remember you, and remember you for good things. After all, your teacher's the one giving you the mark (:


 ---
  (This is satire, obviously. Abolishing PSLE, or even changing it? Not gonna fly, if this is what we'd turn it into.)

I know why science fiction and fantasy can enthrall a person so.

It is because the world out there, an alien world, a vampire world, a robot world, is more complex and confused that our lives could ever be.

And we'd want to be a part of it.

I know better now.

I know why science fiction and fantasy can enthrall a person so. It is not because they can be more complex and confused than our lives could ever be. It's that no matter how complex and confusing they are, they will never, ever, hurt as much as what our lives are now.

Escape, isn't that it? It's not a very revolutionary idea. They're complex enough for us to lose ourselves in, but they will never be our lives, they will always be different. So different we don't need to look back.

[a short response to Zing's Letter to Singapore and R. Liow's response to it (private)]

Dear Singapore,

I don't know you, I have to admit that. I really don't know you as well as I should. I never grew up with you, I think, funnelled through a chain of independent schools, coursing through a peripheral blood vessel. I don't speak your language, dropped Chinese for French as soon as I could, still prefer supermarkets to wet markets, can't speak dialect, can't speak good Singlish, can't even do a Singaporean accent. I am a failure of the National Education system. I spend National Day Parades eating dinner with an extended family so loud I've never watched a whole Parade in my life (besides P5, which I don't remember), my condominium estate is a Little India and Little Japan and we don't talk, I spend most days at home or at school either studying or reading or on the Internet, all pursuits which are decidedly 'non-local' (I don't even take the S'porean exams, I do the IB). When I read letters like your other lovers send to you, Singapore, I cannot empathise - all filled with anger and passion and conviction about who you are and who they are. I float in the middle, twitching spontaneously like a neuron to words and phrases, but going nowhere beyond that because I have nothing, no experiences, no knowledge, no one, to conduct these responses towards actual thought and opinion.

I am your lonely concubine. Your lonely, forgotten concubine, swept up for the harem at a young age to live in the wings of the palace studying etiquette and English and dancing and politics, to learn everything and enough so that one day I can emerge to serve you, intelligent, bright and beautiful. I walk the halls with a veil over my eyes or with my head dipped in a book. Meanwhile I learn about the world through second-hand lenses and become slowly, steadily enamoured. I begin to imagine, to project. I study and wonder about the place I live in extrapolated through the bumps in the corridor and the glimpses of shadows but a voice in my head says in time, do your job as a student first, you will catch up on what you've missed, you will be ready, in time. Sometimes in my breaks between lessons I hide behind doors and peek out of corners, listening, catching the slightest muffled and blurred snatches of you. I watch with the anticipation that comes from being raised for one man all your life. I breathe, who are you?

I've heard many things about you, that you're cynical, you're rough, hardened and gnarled like a tree battered by a windstorm. That you're conservative but really that means you're closed off and cold. That you're broken, you don't smile, that you're possessive, you protect like it could be taken away from you at any second. I've heard much of the opposite too, but it's always the angry voices that are the loudest. But how would I know who to listen to? I've never met you. I view you, still, as the promise I was raised with, as the fate-string my heart is tied with, the groom behind the curtain of the ambling litter. I view you with hope, however naive, however ignorant, I view you with such innocent hope. I'll be going away, perhaps for my final leg of study, and maybe I'll be doing it with your own money. After that, I'll be coming back, and perhaps then I will be your lover. Perhaps it is because I am ignorant that I believe in the change I know you are going through. I will return and I will meet you for the first time, and at that time perhaps you will be the Singapore I want you to be, and if you are not, perhaps I will use all my learnings to make that happen.

Love, always. Till forever.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



(Disclaimer: The life I've lived till not is not a very good example to others, and I'm not saying I was forced to live it in any way, though I might have made it seem so for the sake of the extended metaphor D: Please get to know your country, everyone! I am nothing but disadvantaged and, indeed, lonely because I didn't.)

To classify my interests in terms of subjects, I’m mostly interested in literature and the arts. More specifically, I’m interested in the hows more than the whys. Being an admittedly right-brained person who is nonetheless intrigued more by feeling than fact, I’m fascinated how human thought is shaped: by the way words work to transfer both knowledge and emotion, the way propaganda can shape entire lives, the way economics is never reality because humans are never rational, and the way chemicals can be indistinguishable from feelings (mostly why I wish I was studying the neurotechnology option for Biology SL!), among many others.

Wow, what.

I did not expect to be able to write this. This is pretty enlightening, actually.

I guess this student self-assessment thing is pretty cool after all.

Gotta make this more coherent tomorrow but I think it's at least partway accurate...???