Witching Hour: School

The ordeal

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 18:39:35 GMT

What else could I be doing on Sat but to catch up on my sleep debt? After sleeping away almost the entire day, I woke up feeling much better already. Though that sore throat and cough had not entirely gone away, I think I'm on the mend with that dreaded presentation and another test over. 2 more tests to go next week and we'll be done until another one in August before the next term break.

We had been asked to do a rehearsal a day before the actual presentation as the tutor knew most of us being greenies, would probably flunk ...... so it was his way of helping us to improve on areas we might be lacking in. Sure enough, most of us ended up reading off the slides and that was one of the no-nos. "Look at the audience, no need to be nervous" ..... his comments to a number of us, with one rattling off at the speed of an express train and another who was almost hyperventilating.

It wasn't so difficult during the rehearsal to read off the slides, but during the presentation itself I almost forgot what I was supposed to say when I tried not to look at the slides. My heart beat had accelerated and made my voice quaver, but somehow I managed to survive that 10 mins and could finally breathe again when it was all over. Back safely in my seat, I could feel my BP coming down. It's over ...... finally over ......

Busy busy

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 20:16:01 GMT

So why am I still up at this ungodly hour? I have to get these presentation slides out latest by this weekend as we've already crossed the given dateline. We were supposed to send in a draft to the tutor by last Friday and he was kind enough to give us another couple of days extension. The antioxidant presentation has now been brought forward to this coming Thursday so we cannot afford to delay the submission any further. With another graded tutorial due on Monday, presentation on Thursday and Bioremediation write-up due Friday along with another test ..... it's going to be one crazy week.

On the work front, I need to complete those resin specimens I had been working on since the beginning of the year. The PI had been breathing down my neck because his boss is breathing down his ..... my target is to complete them by end of this month as his research paper submission is due in August. Then there's the safety activity I'm supposed to come up with for next Friday's research meeting ...... datelines, datelines ..... my BP is climbing.

Ok, now just take deep calming breaths and try to relax ...... just remember, these crazy days too shall pass ..... and after this, I shall give myself a nice long holiday.

After the break

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 08:40:07 GMT

Term break is over, has it been 3 weeks already? If only it could be longer ..... it had felt great to be able to go home before night fell. I was determined to enjoy this down-time though at the back of my mind I knew there were still a couple of tests to take, assignments to hand in and that dreaded presentation for antioxidants in mid-July.

I simply refused to touch my notes during the first week of break. The end of week 2 found me googling for related material for the presentation and noting down the relevant websites for references but I was not going to compile anything yet. At the end of week 3 with time running out, I had to sit myself down to prepare those slides. Then there's that sleep-inducing write-up on Bioremediation which would be due soon. How I wish we could just copy and paste the articles but I don't suppose we are allowed to copy wholesale as that would be plagiarism. Each time I tried to make some sense of the articles and put it in my own words, I find myself wanting to doze off already. There's only a week to go before we need to hand it in so I'll have to pry open my eye-lids and hope the caffeine helps.

Yay, I just realised that some of the modules would be ending soon in mid-July which would give us more free days. There would only be Genetics for the rest of term 2 until our long vacation break at the end of August. That's really great as we would only have 1 class per week until term 3 starts ..... aahh, happiness .....

Genetics paper

Tue, 27 May 2008 16:46:18 GMT

After living and breathing genetics over the past few days until my overloaded brain was about to burst, we've finished with the paper which comprises a multiple choice portion of 15 questions (to be completed within 30 minutes or else the system would log us out), section B of 7 short questions and the last section on Bioinformatics which came with its own set of questions.

I didn't do too badly for the MCQs and received 26 out of 30 ..... the marks were instantly displayed once we submitted it online. As for the other 2 sections, I'm not so optimistic as there were some I couldn't answer. Please let me get a minimum of at least another 24 marks from these as that would determine my fate of whether it's a pass or fail. Some of the questions I had been confident would come out, did not. But anyway, what's done is done and we'll just have to wait for the results. In the meantime, here's keeping our fingers crossed that it would be good .... hope so .....

Brain freeze

Fri, 23 May 2008 17:29:05 GMT

I'm glad it's the weekend ..... to be able to forget studies for a short while, stay up late and then repay my sleep debt over the weekend. I'm also looking forward to the coming 3 weeks term break beginning of June. No classes for 3 weeks ... yay!

Though we have been tasked with preparing a presentation for the Antioxidant & Free Radicals module in the second half of the current semester, I'm not going to think about it just yet. This is going to contribute part of our total marks. And what topic did I pick from my lucky dip? .... 'Reactive oxygen species can promote apoptosis in most cell types but can suppress it in some. Discuss.' I'll have to turn to my trusted Google for this.

During our recent test for this module a couple of evenings ago, I was ill prepared as I had the dates mixed up. I mistakenly thought I had plenty of time to revise since the test was for next week. When my course mate informed me that we were having it that evening, I went into panic mode ..... flip, flip, flip through 3 chapters and willed myself to remember as much as possible within 30 minutes. Oh blast those reactions caused by those free radicals ...... my mind couldn't process the details in such a hurry. Now what was the name of that tongue twister enzyme we need for vitamin C biosynthesis? Hey I just read that a minute ago ..... gulonolactone something .... arrgh, what was that 2nd word? In the end, I took a wild guess and christened it gulonolactone lactase as I remembered vaguely that it ended with an 'ase'. Much later when I checked my notes, it turned out to be 'oxidase'. I hope I get some marks since I got half the name right. We'll be getting back the marked paper next week so I'll find out then how I fared ..... hopefully it's not too bad.

Then there's another graded tutorial for the Cell Division module I need to hand in next Monday followed by another test for the Genetics module. I think we can expect some questions on Bioinformatics ..... I must try to remember the web-links for the primer designs.

Here's to another weekend of mugging .....

Genetics

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 17:51:24 GMT

My brain is oversaturated already ..... chromosomes, chromatin, prokaryotes, eukaryotes, transcription, translation, A-T-G-C, DNA>mRNA>protein .........

We had Human Genetics on Tuesday and the lecturer in trying to cover all 3 parts of genomes within 3 hours was rattling off at the speed of an express train. Before I could figure out some confusing bits, she had already moved on to something else. Er ... what's the termination and initiation codon again??? I'll have to do a thorough revision and read up more on on this topic on the given websites on our free evening .... and hope my brain cells can retain the information.

I do enjoy Monday's subject on cell structure which I find really fascinating. These are such marvellous microscopic units of life and it boggles the mind how very precise is their function.

Y..a...w..n ....... brain cells recharging for the day.

First week

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 07:36:53 GMT

TGIW .... thank God it's the weekends. I really needed a break from work and class and to recharge. Though it's only been a week since the first sememster started, I'm already feeling tired ... and we've not even started on any assignments yet. There's a stack of newspaper I've not had time to read but which I'll try to skim through during the weekend. I have also made a mental note to look through and do some revision on the few lecture handouts of the past week. I suppose this will be my regular tasks for the coming weekends.

I'm settling down to the almost daily routine of making my way for evening classes. The very first evening had me getting half drenched in the sudden heavy downpour as I walked the short 15 minutes to the bus stop. I wish the heavens had not been so unkind when all I was trying to do was to get to my first class on time. My shoes and lower part of my skirt were soaking wet by the time I reached there. I couldn't possibly sit through the next 3 hours with squelching wet socks and had to take them off to squeeze out as much water as possible before putting them back on and proceeding to class. I hate getting my feet wet but had no choice except to bear with unpleasant wet socks and shoes until I get back home.

Our class was a small one with just 11 of us and my coursemates were mostly from India and Myammar. We were asked to introduce ourselves to the class and since each lecturer made the same request, we ended up repeating that 4 times over the week. For the first lectures, printed copies of our course notes were given out while the rest will be posted on SP's e-blackboard in its homepage. We will also have to check out our assignments online.

Contrary to my initial belief that I couldn't possibly make it in time to campus within 30 minutes, I found I could if the bus comes along as soon as I got to the bus stop. Since it's just a short 15 minutes ride, I had enough time to finish dinner at the campus canteen which was on the way to class. My brain cells may be a bit rusty right now and need some re-polishing but I hope they would be brimming with renewed knowledge by the end of the year.

So in spite of the hectic schedules in the coming months, I'm determined to keep at it and give my best. And thank God for weekends.

SP timetable

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 07:32:39 GMT

Classes at SP will be starting next Monday and the timetable was finally received last week via their website. I was dismayed to find that classes starts at 6.30pm which would be too rushed for me as I finish work at 6pm. I decided to get permission from the RD to shift my work hours to begin half an hour earlier at 8am. Fortunately he said yes as I couldn't possibly make it in time for class within 30 mins even if it's just a short distance away.

I'll be taking 4 modules for the 1st semester, with 1 module per day which would mean having classes for the entire work week except on Wednesdays. Last Monday after work, I decided to drop by the campus to find the location of the lecture rooms so as to avoid wasting precious minutes trying to find my way for the first lecture. Classes will be held in 2 different lecture rooms and 1 lab which are all located in different buildings but they are not very far from each other. It's a good thing that these buildings are just a short distance from the bus stops and Dover MRT station.

I'll have to get up earlier for work from now on .... and be back home late .....

Matriculation

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 18:16:05 GMT

It's enrolment day at SP. Following the direction on the campus map, I made my way to the enrolment centre located at the concourse of Blk T1A. At the first station, I submitted my acceptance letter and was issued with a printout of my online pre-enrolment summary. I was asked to take a number and to proceed to station 2 for fee payment verification.

As I sat down in the front row of what appeared to be some sort of lecture hall, I looked around at fellow applicants which was a mix of both young and the matured. Most likely this enrolment session is for those applying for part-time courses like myself. I did not have long to wait as there were 8 counters and the queue numbers moved rather quickly. I had already paid via e-payment so only needed to submit the acknowledgment printout of payment made. That done, I made my way to the matriculation station and after another short wait, it was my turn to hand in my application and have my documents verified.

The final station was for the issue of student cards .... look into the camera, smile and image captured. After another few mins of waiting, my card was ready. What a disappointment ..... do I really have such a fat face? Oh never mind, who's going to look at it anyway?

Enrolment done and to login to their website for the class and timetable a week before term commencement (April 14th).

Back to school

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 18:00:24 GMT

After mulling over this for quite a long while, I finally decided to give it a shot. I'm going back to school, rusty brain notwithstanding. I suppose my procrastination had to do with this niggling doubt that I might drop out halfway, and I do not want something that would take forever to complete. Or perhaps I wasn't being serious about it.

Somtime back around the end of last year, I was browsing online for available short term part-time courses .... something relevant to what I'm currently doing. Went into SP's website and did some snooping around. Finally found it, made an online application and waited with bated breath. The answer came last Friday in an envelope with their letter of acceptance, enrolment guide and forms to fill in. I was required to confirm the application online over these few days, given my student email account and an appointment date on March 7th to go down to complete the application procedure, as well as to have my student card processed.

The course? ..... Specialist Diploma in Biotechnology, 1 year duration, commencing 14th April. Hello SP, here I come .....