Exams Fly By...

Well, I finished my exams on Monday. I must say that the exams were all packed together. We finished all 4 of our papers in exactly 1 week! I always promise myself that I will blog once I have nothing better to do but it always turns out that I occupy my time with other things except blogging. That's why I never keep a diary I guess. It's too troublesome to write every day and eventually the gap between one post and another is so long it defeats the purpose of keeping a diary in the first place.

Exams are always a trying period. I always have to cram stuff into my head but always get distracted and have never been able to study for more than 2 hours straight. Even after 1 hour I get so fidgety I can't continue. My routine is usually study an hour, stop and go online/play a game, study another hour, repeat. I also have certain "rituals" I have to conduct before an exam. First is that I usually have to cut my hair the week prior to exams. This goes back to my school days when it used to be very hot back home so I needed short hair to concentrate more. This time however, I decided not to cut my hair because it didn't seem long enough. The night before a paper, I have to set aside a period of time to relax, sip some Chamomile tea and listen to soft Christian music. Then there's the slew of prayers that come at various periods. It's difficult to do something different especially since my results have been pretty acceptable. Why change a winning formula huh? I'm not the superstitious kind of person. In fact, I don't believe in that rubbish. However, it's difficult for me to move away from these habits for fear that something may go wrong. Looks like there is that touch of superstition within me after all... Either that or I have a mild case of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).

It always amuses me how people try to just memorise as much as they can to be successful in their exams. Only the very good students attempt to understand the topic. This is why people exclaim in horror about the difficulty of a paper if it is full of thinking questions which require a good grasp of the topic. Sadly (or fortunately), some still manage to get through if they have a superb memory with little understanding of how it actually works. I guess that's one of the failures of the education system. Exams nowadays tend to examine knowledge content rather than knowledge application. I must admit that I myself at times fall to the simplicity of just memorising something I can't get myself to understand. However, it shows my weakness when the answer that I put is wrong and after reviewing the reasons, realising how little I know about the topic in the first place. There must be a way of making people actually understanding something. Oh well, you can't have everything perfect!

I'm not a fan of exams. At the same time, I do acknowledge that it is one of the best ways of testing how much you learnt throughout the semester. A lack of tests would just leave students complacent since assignments serve no purpose other than to force student to look up references they don't even read to just regurgitate something someone figured out a long time ago. There's a lot to do in the education system to actually promote "quality" education. You tend to wonder what the Education Minister is doing when he is not trying to crush student unions...

Anyways, the end of exams marks a time of partying and parting. Almost everyone goes back home for the holidays right after the exams. I sometimes wonder what the point is of coming to Australia to study if all a person wants to do is run home at the first available opportunity. They might as well have studied in their home country. Yes, I have to admit universities overseas probably have a better reputation. Despite that, coming overseas is a priviledge. Not many people get this opportunity. We should be staying back at least once to really take in the culture and travel around seeing things not available in one's own country. I remember when I stayed back at the end of last year and the beginning of this year. Christmas here was quite interesting. Skyshow was also a very worthwile experience. Not to mention the various trips we made around to see sights. There's not much I have to go home to aside from my family. After all, life goes on and eventually you have to learn to live by yourself. I do miss some things from home. Yet, I don't see an absolute necessity to go home aside from the family. I do get a chance to go home though in the middle of December. It will be almost two years since I've been home. It's hard to leave here as well what with my job and all. I can't help but feel anxious about leaving the Students Association in one of my Vice-President's hands with VSU on the horizon. I just hope nothing happens until I get back (or not at all if possible). At least I get to make one more trip to Melbourne before I head home for the NUS Conference where I can enjoy my Max Brenner's!

I'll be home soon. But before that I'll just spend my last few days here sorting out the thing that has been driving my life recently. Politics. Once all this is done, I can go home and take a long break before heading back head first into the realm of "busy"ness...