The Week in 11th So Far

My new academic year started this week. I am in 11th now. I got the science stream, which means my core subjects are English, Physics and Chemistry with the two optionals as Maths and Computer Science. The options work like this: the first option is a choice between Maths and Bilogy and the second option needs to be chosen from Language, Computer Science, Physical Education and Bilogy (i.e., if its not already choesn in the first option. The other streams are Commerce and Humanities. My optionals are Maths and Computer Science. There are about 90 students in the Science Stream divided into two classrooms, around 45 each in the Commerce and Humanities with their own classes. I am in the section XI-B-1. The other science section is B-2, B-3 for commerce and B-4 for Humanities.  I am sitting on the first seat, just in front of the teacher, because my friend, Fahd is sitting there. One of my friends, Haroon is now in the commerce stream, one, Saif is going to India for good, and my other two good friends, those were the only 100% non-crazy friends of mine, Arbaz and Ayaz are too in other classes. This time I got all good teachers. This wasn't so since the last two years.

Now about the syllabus. I have two thick enough texbooks for both Physics and Chemistry, three small ones for English, one fat (like always) for Maths and a pretty fat one for Computer Science. Most of everything seems tough so far (far here stands for just a week). English, Maths and Computer Science seem easy. English always has been. The Complex Numbers stuff seems funny to me, because our teacher told us that these numbers don't actually exist but are imaginary. And I don't understand why we have to study something that isn't even Real. Computer Science have been updated a lot. I can say so because

1. No more exclamation marks after writing that a CD had hold upto 650 MB of data. But they haven't changed it to 700 yet.

2. No more articles on Zip Drives or Trackballs.

3. They know what a Blu-Ray Disc is.

We also start with C++ programming this year which seems interesting. But the only Operating Sytem (OS) they have is Windows.  I was expecting atleast LINUX or maybe UNIX. And the Linux part isn't much too. I ave been donloading some Live-CDs of some Linux based OSes. I now have Ubuntu 8.10, 8.04, BackTrack 3 and CrunchBang 8.10.02. I haven't tried any of them but maybe I will today.

I had school today too but as usual I didn't go. I am anti-more-than-five-days-school and pro-two-day-weekend. My sister went but found out that it sucks. 

The End of 10th Standard

Its been more than a week since my exams were over. Since then I have unsuccess fully wasted a lot of my time, which means I didnt waste it properly. The Arabic and English exams were extremely easy. Alhamdulillah English has never been much of a difficult for me. I expected Arabic to be tougher than it was. But Alhamdulillah I didn't meet my expectations. It was an extremely easy paper. I must have got an average of two marks for every line I wrote. It was a hundred marks paper. I pity those who took the other languages. They had to write a few lines to get a mark. The science paper was a bit difficult but it went well too, so did the Science Practical Skills Paper, which basically is a Multiple Choice Questions' paper with questions relating to the practicals we did during the year.

After that I haven't been doing much except watching JUST one movie a day. I wanted to watch at least three. I also had to get my registration for next year, 11th standard done. Alhamdulillah it was easily done. I went to school yesterday with my father for completing the formalities, which included paying some money for it at the Fee Couunter. This is the task that took the longest. I was given the token number 145 when 100 was going on. After an hour it was at 120. Some friend/relative of my father works in the school's computer department. He went into the fee room and had the task done quickly. After that I had to submit the registration papers to a teacher who was at the upper floor. That took about 3 minutes at the most. While I was doing all this my father went in to buy our new textbooks. This was a slow procedure too. But it was done. After that I went to my aunt's home in Jeddah. I had fun there too. So much for this week, my school will be starting on Saturday.

2 Down 3.5 To Go

Last time I posted was about a week before my first exam. Now two of them are over. First was Social Sciences on 4th March. I had completed studting it jus a day before the exam, which is not usual for me. I usually get it over a few days before. My bus came at 5:55 am that day. I reached school by 7. I didn't revise much in the bus. Just some important points. Its because if I revise in the morning I become tense, take a lot of stress remembering things I may have forgotten. We had to enter the examnination room (just a classroom, but specific seats for students and a seating plan) at 7:30. There were about 18-22 students in the room. For 15 minutes we did nothing but fillin in our deatils on the answer sheets and just sat there. At 7:45 we were given the question papers, but only to read. I ticked the questions whose answers I thought I knew with a pencil. Then at 8 am, we started answering. I tried to do it as fast as I could. I wrote for about two hours without pausing, even to check the time. Then at 10 I checked the time. Looking at the time scares me as it gives an impression that it won't be enough. And time is never enough. But Alhamdulillah most of the answers were over, only a few of the big ones were remaining. I completed the paper by 10:30. Overall it wasn't very difficult. Alhamdulillah I never had much of a problem with Social Sciences, partly becuase its like a collection of short stories, partly because most of what we are studying in it is what we have been studying for years and partly becuase if I have a basic answer I can easily expand it to a large good looking one without loss in quality. The only problem was a question in which a an image was given, we had to recognise the crop in the image and had to answer a few questions about it. I image was the worst I had ever seen. But I just wrote it as tea, for no apparent reason and it was correct. I know that becuase the same image (but recognisable) was in the geography textbook. That was the Social exam.

Next was Mathematics, the best thing about it was it was on the 14th. A 10-day gap. There were 15 chapters in total. I had completed 5 or 6 earlier. 9 or 10 were remaining. I did about 1 to 1+ chapter a day. But this time too I had to study till almost the last moment. I have a problem with geometry. I don't like it much because its.........................weird. Algebra is much more entertaining. In geometry figure look different if seen from different angles, different sides, different directions. I did the longest and toughest chapter on the 13th, Tuesday: Triangles. The name of the chapter is much easier than the chapter. There were mostly theorems or proofs in it(only those, I think). I hate the proofs. If you know something is true, why the hell prove it? Its true anyway. Well, there are 5 or 6 large exercises in the chapter. I didn't do any. I only practiced the theorems properly. Alhamdulillah that was all that was needed. Like before my bus came at the same time. This time I looked at all the formulae as well as at the theorems. It took longer than usual. I reached school at the same time. Everything was the same. I didn't take much tension. Tension makes me feel like something is banging in my head, usually on the right side and makes me hear my heartbeat. I hate both of those. I felt the maths paper to be way easier than the social. There were four types of question; 1, 2, 3 and 6 marks' questions. A few of the 3-marks' questions seemed confusing and tough. I didn't see much team work on this exam. There was a bit during the social exam, but didn't seem at this time. My paper was over by 10:45.

So these were the first two exams, which Alhamdulillah went well.  Three and a half exams are remaining. 3.5 because I have english, arabic, science and the a 20-marks science's multiple choice paper. Inshallah they will go well too.

A Week For The Boards

I have been studying a bit more than usual since the past few days. But I am also doing some other useless, tim wasting activities. For example, I watched SAW last night from 11pm-1am. Before that I watched the OSCARS on the 24 (Tuesday). I wanted to watch it live on Manday, but it was at 1 am. I still had wanted to. But as it happened, I mistook the date and time. I mean on the TV adverts were showing that the OSCARS would be live on 23rd Feb at 1 AM. I still planned to watch it. But instead of sitting at the right time, I thought it would be day next but technically, 23 starts from 12 AM, not when at the psychological time. But luckily there was a repeat telecast at 9 pm on the 24. There's anothe tomorrow at 11 pm. This was the first time I had watched it. It wasn't much fun. But I specifically liked the opening perfomance by Hugh Jackman and also the one by Steve Martin and Tina Fey. Ben Stiller's as good too, but wasn't long enough. Hugh Jackman's is below. But I unfortunately couldn't get the other two.

As for the boards, the first one is on the 4th of this month, its social sciences. Easy enough. I haven't started much of it yet. I have completed chemistry and biology from science, which is the last exam, and am doing Maths right now. I will InshAllah complete everything in time.

Prefinals Over, Boards Started, Almost

Its been ages since my last post. I haven't written as I couldn't get myself around to it. So let me summarise what happened since my last post. A week after my last post, we went to Madinah for the weekend. My prefinals started later went by. I thought all of them went well. But the results thought otherwise. I got just 78%. Then my practical exam, the final practical exams sarted. I had science last week. I had a bit of trouble in chemistry, but physics and biology seemed to have gone well.In chemistry I had to do an experiment of Ethanoic acid tested with litmus paper, solid sodium carbonate and calcium hydroxide. In phgysics I got the experiment of tracing the path of a light ray passing through a glass slab. And in biology, I had to prepare a temporary mount of leaf ceels to show the stomata nad to test the presesnce of starch in leave using iodine solution. I also had my math practical yesterday. It also went great. I did the linear equations one, I just had to sow the condition for consistency in linear equations geometrically/graphically. Besides that nothing much has happened. The weather is no longer cold. Although the mornings are still dark till about 7 a.m., it isn't cold.

Expectations, Studies and Internet woes

I got my half yearly exams’ results last week. I had hoped to get better results than in the quarterly exams. Bu it wasn't so. It was the worst result of my life, at least until now and hopefully it will always be. I got 80%. I had got 81% in the first term, and it was also the worst till this term. Now I am spending most of my time studying. I have been doing only maths because at present it requires the most time. I have 15 chapters in total. I think I have done about 4-5 so far. I am doing the tough ones first. 

Until now I am working more than I have ever worked. I usually started studying for exams about a week before they started and got around 90%, usually above it. But this time I started studying about a month before. The entire syllabus has been completed in advance. The only days I have to go to school now are Tuesdays and Wednesdays, as I have my practicals on those days. This week I went on Saturday too, just to check it out. I may have to go on the coming Saturday. I have geography only on Saturdays and Mondays, as its one of the two subjects in which the portion has not been completed. The other is history. Our history teacher will be back by Saturday. He was in India, I think.

Nowadays I am sitting on the PC only on weekends. During weekdays, I am watching an hour of television each day. Just a series call Kyle XY on FOX Series from 11 to 12 at night. All other time I am studying. I have never ever studied so much and it feels extremely strange doing it.

The internet connection is not too well these days. Sometimes there's no connectivity at all. It’s been happening since Friday. On Friday, I had come to the PC for the first time in a week. And the internet was down. Completely down. 0 kbps. I was feeling extremely frustrated. First of all I cleaned off the temporary internet files, all of them using CCleaner . It’s the best cleaner I have found so far. Still the connection was down. Then I turned off other unnecessary apps like Google Desktop , OpenVPN , Yahoo Messenger , HP Printer Alerts etc. Nothing worked. Finally I restarted my PC after almost about 2-3 days of uptime. Still there was no connectivity. I now checked the router for problems. But there weren’t any problems I could see. I gave up. I checked it again in the evening. I was able to connect but there wasn't much speed. Just about 3-4 kBps instead of the usual 28-30 kBps. On Sunday a newspaper report came, saying that some cables have been cut in some sea possibly due to some seismic activity in that area. I really hate it when the internet is not working. I t makes me feel............disconnected and highly irritated. Although I am browsing the net at regular speed now, it’s not always possible. Just a few hours ago the internet was completely down, then it came back. I don't know how long it will last now.

The weather is also changing a lot. Nowadays when I set out of my home at 6:30 in the morning there is bearly any sunlight.Sometimes its also cold, but not usually. Jeddah is a bit hotter tham Makkah though.

Physics, Rain, Hailstorm, Rain, Math

I had my physics practical examination yesterday. There were four practicals in total. I got one in which we had to trace the path of a ray of lights passing through a glass slab. The experiment just fine but I don't know much about the viva-voice. The examiner was expressionless, silent and didn't ask me my roll number  (could also be because my viva was taken last) or seemed to put to tick while he was hiding the marks sheet. But I know I gave the right answer. I was asked what was refraction. The remaining day went on as usual.

At night, around 11:30 it started to rain and it got rough. Soon there was a hailstorm. There was a lot of noise due to it because it was falling on the ACs. Some even came into our home through the small spaces between the ACs and the walls they were attached.  My mother picked up some of the ice (hail) and gave it to my little brother and sister. After taking it into their hands they started laughing loudly and jumping. I turned to look at what my other sister was doing only to see that she was also jumping around and laughing but slowly. It lasted for around an hour. Then the rain slowed down for some time only to start again. There was also a lot of thunder. When I slept at around 1:30 it was still raining. I don't know what happened after that.

I woke up at 6:30 in the morning. I had to go to school as I had my math test today. It didn't seem to rain now. I got all ready for school, packed my bag and was ready to get out. Suddenly I could hear rain. A lot of it. I went back into my room and searched for a jacket. I soon found mine and put it on. I wore my spots shoes today as I didn't want to ruin my other formal ones. I got out of my home and headed to my stop. It was raining  but not as fast as a few minutes earlier. As I was heading towards my stop I saw that a tree (or two maybe) had fallen. The whole road was wet and had a lot of water especially near the pavement where there was almost difficult to walk. My bus came a bit late today but it didn't matter. It was even raining more than halfway into the highway. I saw four accidents. In two of them the cars were badly destroyed.

Near Jeddah there was not much rain just a lot of sunlight. I reached school about 15 minutes late than usual today. There was still a lot of sunlight. In some time my math test started. It wasn't the best test I have given. There wasn't even enough time. I forgot some formulae in between but did as much as I could. There were even two six-mark questions in the test.I thought it was absurd as to put two six-mark questions in a test whose total was 25. Thats like almost half the marks. I hope I get good marks in this test also. And I will have to study a lot for the fast approaching exams.

Rain In The School & My Math Practical

The weather was cool today as well. While I was in the school it started to rain around 11 o'clock and must have rained for more than an hour. But it didn't rain too harsh or too much just the right pleasant speed though there were newspaper reports that it rained much yesterday and today in other regions. We had a free period during some of the time it rained. During that many students from my class went out into the ground to get wet along with many others from other classes. The whole ground was full. Some of the students (the senior ones also) were playing in the dirty, muddy water after the rain had finished. For some reason the water was stagnant in the ground possibly because of an absence of a proper drainage system.

After the free period I had my Mathemeatics practical. It went very well Alhamdulillah. I got the first set of question papers (there were two in all). There was a chice between two questions; either solve a system of linear equations graphically or verify the Pythagoras theorem experimentally. I solved the given pair of linear equations. And Alhamdulillah I got the right answer. My viva-voice also went well. I was just asked the formulae for volumes of a cylinder, a cone and a frustum of a cone. I got'em all right.Alhamdulillah.

Tomorrow is my physics practical examination. Inshallah it will also go well. I am only scared about the viva-voice part as the teacher taking it takes it tough.

A Long Weekend

I haven't been going to school since Monday. On Monday I didn't go as I hadn't slept properly the whole night. Then Tuesday was a holiday for Diwali, I think. I didn't go yesterday as a friend had told me that it would be a Cultural Day so there won't be many classes. But I haven't been enjoying much though. I have been a bit busy studying. My exams are staring in about two to three weeks and there is a lot of portion to complete. And moreover this is the toughest academic year I have been thru. New concepts have been introduced this year as well as fully explained which are mostly pretty tough. I just hope that Allah helps me get a good score this year.

School Started At Full Speed

My school started on 11th Oct last week. I have been very busy since. In the first week I had to submit my holiday assignments which I had not completed (or even touched). My tests also started in the same week. I had English & Social Sciences on Thursday. Alhamdulillah both went well. In all the activities the last week went by unnoticed, untouched, unknown. This week too I have been busy enough. I didn't go to school today with a goal of studying for this week's tests which are on Thursday, Science and Arabic. I have completed Science and some Arabic is left. I will complete it in some time.

I have been downloading some movies in the past few days but haven't had time to watch them and I probably won't have it until at least the end of November. Today is the first time in days that I am properly surfing the web. And probably it won't come soon.

I don't know what to write even though it is the one thing I want to do most now. If I ask this question to someone else in my home right now they will tell me that I have tests so I should be studying atleast by writing rather than waste time on the net which is something I like to do but don't want to.

Exams Over

My exams are finally over today. But I didn't feel much difficulty this time. The only exam on which I worked really hard. The other exams just came and went by. Today was Arabic. I did almost everything in it except a 10-mark composition which doesn't worry me much as everything else went well. I have started watching movies now; starting with The Incredible Hulk and Jaanue Tu....Ya Jaane Na. But I have more ready. I have a flight to India on Thursday and I will be there by Friday. The packin is almost done but some things are left.

I hope to enjoy this time too in India

Busy, busy, busy

These days have been very (and also are being) extremely busy for me. My exams ave sarted and I have been studying a lot. Thats a reason why I am updating my blog after such a long time. Another reason for it is because my parents unplugged my computer because of my brother's addiction of sitting for hours on the it playing online games for the whole time. My exams are ending on the 22nd of July and Inshallah I will be in India by 25th. The most I am doing these days is listening to songs on my 30 GB Zune which I bought a few months ago and sometimes watching something on TV if its worth wasting the time.

The First Three Sucking Weeks of Tenth

I haven't written a post since a long time (although I never write regularly) mainly because its been very busy. It's just been three weeks since I came into tenth and already they are teaching like hell. The whole day goes waste if you don't take the learning and its very difficult for me to take a day off (a practice I followed without fail till I was in ninth).

From next time onwards I am thinking of writing posts based on the softwares I use as I am not able to write properly what I feel as advised by one of my most successful blogging cousin and moreover I can't write anything long as he can.

First Day of Tenth Standard

I woke up at 8:30 today. My bus came at about 9:10 although the school was from 11:15. I thought that the bus wasn't going to pick anyone after me but I was wrong. It pick up about 5-6 boys from various parts of the city thru a very complicated route in 40 minutes. When I reached school I had to wait outside for sometime as the CBSE exams of 12^th were going on. After that we entered the auditorium from where we were directed to our respective classes. Our sections were didn't change; so I am in class 10-B-2.

 

Our class teacher teaches math. He took our attendance and unexpectedly started teaching. Unexpectedly because this is the first time we were taught on the first day. Next was physics in which also we were taught, followed by Arabic in which we did nothing; after which was recess. We had Economics and English after that. In all the classes the teachers told us about the importance of tenth as they did in ninth, eight and in every other class. The school ended as usual at 3:15 and I was at home by 4:15.

The Results

Yesterday my father woke me up before 11 and asked me to get ready. After some time we went to take pick up my mom from the university. By 12:30 we were on the way to Jeddah. Once there we had some light lunch at a south indian restaurant. Then we went to our paternal cousins home. My mom went to sleep there but I watched a movie called 'Alvin and the Chipmunks' and played on PS2 till 7 when we went to get the results. There was some traffic near the school but not much. My stomach started physical exercises as I was climbing the stairs and increased in frequency once I was in the class. There I was sitting behind a another boy who couldn't stop his nonsense chit-chat. But because of that nonsense the fear seemed to be draining out of me and made me feel less tense. In about 15 minutes my chance for the result came. I started walking towards the class teacher hearing my heart stomping loudly, sweating but feeling very cold and my stomach making push-ups. I did pretty good, not great though. It was less than I had expected. I got 86%; I was expecting at least 90. I got the second rank in the class. It was my best result this year and was not at all worth the tension. We went to the the bookshop also to get the books. It was a small shop but many people had thronged into it. Then atlast by 10 we were at home

End Of Board Exams

Yesterday was my last exam. These exams went better than all others this year although they had the whole year's portion. I am expecting above 90 in all subjects. I wanted to scan and upload the papers but ain't got time so I am doing what I can. I thought that Arabic would be very tough seeing the old question papers and the previous exams' ones but it was too easy to be said in words.

I am sitting on the net after a long time. The usual problem I have is my four-year old brother. He watches Arabic cartoons the whole day (which obviously he does not understand) and when he sees the laptop he does the same. He googles out his and his friends names and clicks on the links not knowing where they take him. Our computer was disconnected a few weeks ago because of the same reason. The moment I turn on the laptop he came here as if he smelt it. He always does that even when he is sleeping he wakes up and comes looking innocently as if he does not what happened.And the moment I get up from the laptop he asks if he can sit. If I say yes he sits politely. But if I say no it will be an inferno of living hell in the form of a little human.

My Science Practical

I don't actually know why but I have a bad habit of delaying everything as much as I can. I don't even study till my mom has told me a not so few times. All my posts are written some time after I want to coz I don't sit when I can.

On Sunday, I had my science practicals. And I am going to write about it now. Two days later. They went pretty good. I didn't have much difficulty in any of them. First was my physics practical. Not all students have the same practicals. Half the batch has one and the other half one. It is not selected randomly but in roll numbers. So I got the experiment of plotting a temperature-time graph of water as it cools down and the boy with the next roll number got the experiment of finding the density of a material. Mine was pretty easy. Then next in biology, I had to make a stained slide of onion peel cells and identify the given slide. The slide was parenchymatous tissue. But the boy next to me got the cheek cell experiment and had to write, draw and identify the given specimen which was a fish. This time too I got the easy one. Then the last practical, chemistry I got the heating of lead nitrate, decomposition experiment whereas my friend got the double displacement experiment of mixing barium chloride and sodium sulphate. Again I got the easy one. I also got all the easy viva questions. I hope to do get full marks in the practicals.

One thing I forgot is the scene in the chemistry lab when I was writing down the experiment. All the boys near me, well almost three feet apart were asking for my help. Among them a few had different experiments. And I helped them. I don't cheat but if I don't help them I won't be able to write the next exam.

School Started

Today was the first day of the third semester. As usual I got up at six in the morning. There was very little sunlight by the time I went out to my stop (the place where my bus waits). I didn't feel sleepy in the bus. I reached the school at about 8:20. Many boys in my class were absent and the class seemed very quiet in the beginning. The only subjects taught today were english and mathematics. That too in english just one notice and about three problems in mathematics. In the last period we were taken to the auditorium. The headmaster of the classes sixth-eight had passed away and we were there just praying for him. It was announced that there will be a holiday tomorrow due to the reason. And after that I was back on my way home. This time also I didn't sleep in the bus. Actually, I rarely sleep in the bus. After coming home at about 4:30, I had my lunch, prayed Asr, waited for Maghrib and after praying it about six I went to sleep. I then woke up at around 8:30, read a e-book I had downloaded earlier and nothing much after that.

The Best English Exam

Today was the best English exam I have given in this school. I did each and every question. So I am expecting full marks. While coming today also my bus changed to the one which I like.

I installed and used RealPlayer 11 today. Its a great software. I easily downloaded many videos and also listened to live radio.

The Science Exam

Today was my science exam. I did very well in it. However as always there were flaws. Most of the marks I will lose most will be in physics. The only problem I have is with the teacher as i mentioned in earlier posts. One of the invigilators for the exam was a bit weird. He scolded and changed the place of a student just because he was asking for a scale.

My bus didn't change today. There was also an exam of class sixth and seventh. Today something other weird happened. I couldn't sign in to my Yahoo! account for sometime. But the problem resolved by itself. After that i followed my regular routine.