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Hiatus

Posted by narrowband - 25/03/07 at 11:03:16 pm

I feel bad whenever I go on an unannounced hiatus. But the thing is, I used to mention that I’d take a break from blogging in my entries before but then less than three days later, I updated my blog again. So a hiatus rarely worked for me. This time though, it does seem real. I still open my feedreader once in a while but I’ve no time to read everything.

I’ve not updated in about a week, and I foresee that that will continue until at least next week. You won’t believe how much there is to be done. I’m gonna get through this, surely – it’s just a little rough, that’s all. Meanwhile, check out my blogrolls – they are Narrowband-endorsed links, so you won’t go wrong clicking them! :)

What Have A’s Got to Do With It?

Posted by narrowband - 13/03/07 at 01:03:52 pm

I read with much amazement the story in The Star today, “Nadiah gets only 18 As instead”. You know, with news reports such as this, I’m afraid we may be sending out a wrong signal to future SPM candidates: “Get as many A’s as possible”. It seems like it doesn’t matter for which subjects you ace, as long as you have enough of them. The pressure piled on these students is immense. For instance, Nadiah was expected to score 19 A’s (holy smokes that’s almost twice the number of subjects I took) even before the results were released. Luckily, her results didn’t turn out that bad. In fact, they’re mind-blowing.

But the quest for strings of A’s is understandable. How often do you hear people asking “Which subjects did you get an A for?”?. Save for future employers, very few are interested in knowing which subjects you aced. Even fewer are interested in knowing what extra curricular activities you joined. There is little doubt that great emphasis is placed on scoring A’s. So much so that some tuition centers even provide ‘tips’, and claim to be able to ‘spot’ or predict SPM questions accurately. I used to have friends who’d travel all the way to KL to attend a very popular tuition center. These days, ‘good’ tuition centers train students on how to tackle exam questions.

A lot of focus is put on answering the questions correctly, what keywords to use, familiarizing oneself with the question patterns, and how they are asked. Stacks of past-year papers, sample papers and worksheets are used in drilling these students. Is this what our education system was set out to be? Studying for the sake of getting as many A’s as possible in exams? How much of knowledge really went into a student’s head is questionable. To make matters worse, I’ve even heard of some ‘privileged’ schools giving students sample papers that are very much similar to the real paper, a few weeks earlier. I wonder if such practices are effective in educating the teenagers, although I don’t know how far this is true.

The ministry’s proposal to limit the number of SPM subjects a student can register is timely (Sorry, I just read that this won’t realize). Perhaps, more weightage should be given to developing a student’s leadership, thinking, interpersonal, analytical and problem-solving skills – practical skills that could be useful throughout his life, and not just during the examinations. A student’s excellent SPM achievement does not reflect any of these qualities. I’d like to mention one example (oh I love it when I talk about this; no prizes for guessing why), the Moral Education. Scoring an A1 for this subject does not make a student any ‘less immoral’ compared to students who scored otherwise. It only means that he can memorize things better. And yes, they will be quickly forgotten after the exam is over.

How practical is that? Yet, no one cares – as long as it’s an A and that’s all that matters. It’s time we placed less emphasis on scoring as many A’s as possible, and focused instead on producing more well-rounded individuals. We don’t want someone who can’t perform past the exam period. If a student obtained say, 14, or 15 A’s (not for every subject), does that mean he’s better than one who obtained a 10-straight (perfect) A’s? Sadly though, most scholarships offered are based on the number of A’s a student has. Sigh.

Note: An “A1″ here means “1A” formally. I prefer to suffix the “1″, just like the olden days.

A Video Slideshow

Posted by narrowband - 10/03/07 at 11:03:13 pm

I was rummaging through my old files when I stumbled upon this. I put together this video slideshow in March last year, using photos taken during Fai’s 23rd birthday celebration (those cartoons at the ending were drawn by Steph). This is the first time a video is embedded on Narrowband.org.

(Wong Kok Cafe is pretty common for birthday celebrations, don’t you think so?)

I’ve nothing much to update, except to say that next week is going to be hectic. Gone are the days when we could be so carefree, so blissful and relaxed. In less than 3 months, we’ll be leaving the university, walking separate ways and chasing our dreams. (I actually have mixed feelings because of that).

Good luck with your midterm papers, peeps.

Earthquakes Are Not Fun

Posted by narrowband - 06/03/07 at 10:03:31 pm

The moment I felt the building sway, I stopped typing, and looked around. I was sitting on my bed, writing some code for my project. I thought it was just me, so I shrugged it off – but remained alert. Few seconds later I felt it again. Hell, I jumped up and immediately put on my jeans, preparing to freakin’ leave the building. Then, I deliberated over what to take along. My laptop, yes. I can’t live without all the important files inside it. While I was about to lower the screen, I saw a friend’s Yahoo Messenger status asking if anybody felt the shakes. We had a little chat – he assured that an evacuation wouldn’t be necessary, and added that most parts of the peninsular could feel the tremors too.

I felt damn silly. I had yet to know about the earthquakes which struck Indonesia earlier. I looked out of the window of my 6th floor apartment – everything was calm; and then I observed the bottle of water on my table for ripples. Negative. Relieved, guess what I did next? Pointed my browser to PPS. Heck, yea. It’s the perfect source for latest news and info. After some surfing, I learnt that there indeed had been an earthquake, measuring about 6.3 on the Richter scale. My housemates said they felt the shakes too. This reminded us of the previous shakes caused by the massive quakes in Aceh (Dec ’04), during which hundreds of people evacuated their apartment. Today though, none of them seemed even worried.

I resumed my work shortly after. My heart goes out to the people directly affected by the quakes. As of 9:45pm (Malaysian time) today, the death toll had risen to 70. More updates here.

February Babies’ Dinner at Marche

Posted by narrowband - 03/03/07 at 12:03:02 pm

It was the beginning of a long night. We had no plans, no arrangement and we hadn’t even decided where to go for dinner. All we knew was that the occasion must be celebrated. We finally went down to Marche (strictly, it’s Marché), at The Curve.

Continue reading February Babies’ Dinner at Marche…

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