Archive for the 'Exams' Category

SO much has happened in the past 2-3 months since I wrote a post, I don’t even know where to begin. Firstly, I’m neglecting my blog, but never mind that, I’m used to it by now.

When I last posted back in May, I was beginning my A2 exams and suffering the effects severe sleep deprivation as a result of, well, not sleeping. I have since been on holiday to Spain, then moved into my new house in Cambridge with Chris, started my new job as a software developer, got my A2 results, gone on another holiday to Spain (this time with the Amsterdam krü + 2), come back without a tan and got my first pay packet.

With regards to my A2 results, I think I did quite well. Overall I got an A in Mathematics, an A in Computing (full UMS in the A2 half also), a B in Physics, and a surprising B in Further Maths which I never thought I’d be able to achieve. Despite the latter not being an A, the nice people at Imperial College London decided that they’d let me in to their fine establishment anyway, beginning about this time next year. Until then, I shall continue to work at the almighty Business Web Software where I have been made to feel very welcome, and I’ve done quite a lot so far.

With regards to my holidays, the pics are on Facebook, although I didn’t take many as I generally couldn’t be bothered, and the shutter button on my camera (phone) is what I like to describe as ‘a bit shagged’. And, that’s not the only thing that’s broken - I seem to have re-acquired my Midas touch of sorts, whereby everything electrical or mechanical that I touch seems to break. My main reasoning for saying this is that my power supply (not a bad one either) in my PC has started whining its swan song, and refuses adamantly to start up. So, to the tune of £60 I’m replacing it with something less powerful, but seemingly better designed in terms of cable management.

As to moving into my new place, it’s been an interesting experience. While I and Chris aren’t exactly the tidiest of student households, we haven’t (yet) descended to a level of squalor worthy of the Young Ones themselves. The house itself is pretty nice - it’s a new built end terrace, on a road called William Smith Close no less (which makes me chuckle), and the furnishings within are comfortable. However, I cannot understand why people make leather sofas. They’re just hideously uncomfortable, no matter how soft and squidgy they may be - I mean, you stick to them no matter what the temperature is or what you’re wearing.

At present the living room is a big mess of cabling, as I’ve managed to position my TV, amplifier, PS2 and Chris’s laptop on a small coffee table I stole from my parents, with a speaker either side on a floor stand. It makes for good TV/movie/anime/game viewing, but I long for the day that everything has seamless wireless connectivity. Behind that is our dining table, which is yet to be used for the purpose of dining. In actual fact, it more readily deserves the name ‘crap pile’, or even ‘crap mountain’. I think ‘mountain’ is far more fitting, as we have experienced quite a few avalanches. On one end of the crap mountain is my PC, currently with the side missing waiting for a new power supply; the other end is home to my old TV, and a box full of cabling. Aside from that, the rest of the room is filled with the most general of crap.

As I write this, I’m sitting on my sticky leather sofa using my laptop, next to Chris as he plays FFXII on my PS2, through my TV, amplifier and speakers. It’s rather cool.

It seems that increasingly so, I’m beginning my blogs with the shameful words, “It’s been a while since my last update”. And, as it has been for the past few months, I’m going to have to do the same here, except without actually writing said words. A lot has happened in the past month or so, most of it determining my future to some extent, and I’m proud to say that life is sweet.

At the beginning of December I went to Churchill college in Cambridge for two interviews, one logic/mathematical oriented, and another simply maths oriented. Unfortunately, when I say ’simply’, I actually mean ‘excrutiatingly’. Both for me and the interviewers. As it was, in fact, just past 9 o’clock in the morning, and I’d been up since 4.45am, I was not at my brightest, and plotting graphs of parametric equations involving trigonometric functions kept returning a 404 from my left brain. Take for example the following question:

sin²(2⁴ × 3⁵) + cos²(2⁴ × 3⁵) = ?

Now, I straight away fell into the trap of trying to work out the value of 2⁴ × 3⁵, when anybody who had done the maths modules I had done would have remembered the trigonometric identity which means that the answer to that question is 1, so long as the parameters of the functions are the same. It was at this point that my downward spiral began. After failing miserably to answer questions, or just after a very long time, often prompting the exclamation, “Finally!” from the interviewers’ mouths, I left feeling pretty sorry for myself. And, about a month later, the reply came saying that Churchill college didn’t see me as the right material for the place. However, I was put into the intercollegiate pool, and plucked out of said pool by Jesus college, who as we speak are planning to give me an offer.

This is the point where my rant begins. The reason that I don’t have a definite offer from Jesus college. The small niggly downfall of Cambridge administration that I’ve spotted a few times now. Upon being phoned by the adminissions tutor at Jesus, she informed me that the white form — that which I painstakingly wrote out in the neatest of handwriting, carefully listing every single module I’d taken at AS, with UMS, with grade, with exam board — had gone missing from my file. It all clicked into place when I remembered back to the first interview I had at Churchill, where they asked me what scores I’d received in my Maths modules, and even at that early hour of 8.30am, my brain had chugged away wondering why they didn’t already know. This has really, really annoyed me. What is the point of bureaucracy if it can’t be done right? Why do we have to go through a ridiculous amount of paperwork, which should by rights be done by a computer system anyway, when it just ‘disappears’ from my file?

This is where my rant ends. I (and Chris) have since been offered jobs with a web development company based in Cambridge as part of the Year in Industry program, and have both accepted. So, at the end of this academic year, I’ll be shipping off from this place to live in a flat with Chris and ultimately geek out. I’ve also decided that entering for Grade 8 piano isn’t going to be something I’ll do this year, as playing the piano is only a hobby of mine, not a career, and the pressure it was putting on me was stopping me from enjoying it.

In terms of other exams, I have 3 maths module exams coming up shortly, and one physics exam, and I’m completely unprepared for all of them. I also have my driving theory test coming up, for which I am prepared, but utterly complacent as a result. With any luck, I’ll pass that and then be well on my way to driving by the end of March. February will see both Valentine’s day and my birthday, and a lot of fun will be had. I’m going to be spending both Valentine’s day and the weekend before my birthday with Caley, and then the weekend following my birthday I’m gonna have a LAN party at mine - with any luck I can persuade my parents that it’s in their best interests not to be there.

So, until the next time, thankyou for reading, and good night.

I’ve noticed a bit of a pattern going on here. I seem to spend a long time not bothering to write anything on my blog, either because nothing’s happened, or too much has happened and I feel overwhelmed by it and can’t be arsed with it. The latter is true in this situation, and I feel like I’m neglecting my site by not writing anything, so here I am. As a short summary of what’s happened lately: I went on holiday to Amsterdam, where I drank far too much; bummed about my house a lot not doing much; went to kt’s for the day so we could kill some time; went to Lydia’s with Lloyd, Alice and Jas, which was fun; got my AS results.

Talking of AS results, I’m pleased with how I’ve done, and there haven’t been any surprises, unpleasant or otherwise.

For Maths I have to point out that because I’m doing Further Maths, my grade isn’t final - I have one more module to take in January (C4), which will hopefully pull me up to an A, along with the retakes that I will most certainly be doing.

So right now I’m bored out of my mind thanks to Caley being on holiday in Menorca without her phone - at least Charley’s party tonight will be a good laugh (hopefully) with beer and meat and so forth. Somebody please entertain me!