30 October 2013:
Life perestroika.
ПЕРЕСТРОЙКА, -и; ж.
1. к перестроить и перестроиться.
This is the month of October now. It's been a year since O Levels have passed, and it's a year to go till A Levels. So technically, this is a mid-point of one's two-year A Level career. And I think it's about time to do a stock take of things.
I began school in February. In the eight months since, ... it has been a whirlwind of activity. A senior once said that JC can be really hectic and really fun at the same time. That is indeed true. Unfortunately, I seemed to have focused too much on the latter.
In particular, for Twelfth Night. It's my first time in an actual drama production since primary school days, so I really put my heart and soul into it. And that become ignoring tutorials conveniently.
In retrospect, that was one of the stupider things I did. Procrastinating on those tutorials meant that I had to spend June holidays catching up, while others were already done with those and went on to revision.
Also, as I realised in term 3, those topics which I skipped or postponed on were crucial for future topics, such as chemical bonding in chemistry. Again, that meant that I had to buck up while others were already cruising smoothly.
Thankfully, I'm slowly getting the hang of it. However, it is still necessary for me to chart out my course of action and what I should do for the next 12 months. I really don't want a tragic repeat, especially not in JC2.
The main thing I need to improve would be my attention deficit. I don't know, maybe I have attention deficit disorder. Whatever it is, I need to stop getting distracted by other things. So I'm thinking of going on hibernation mode for social networks.
In 2011 (I think) I abstained from social networks, and I did write about how that is actually liberating in some ways. I think it's time for me to re-create that experience, just so that I can complete tutorials and sleep earlier, instead of wasting time in between.
Another thing would be time management. Actually, this problem has been solved slightly, since I have been faithfully using iStudiez. Although it's more suited to the American style of education, most of its functions still work well for me.
As a result, I'm able to complete my homework more promptly by focusing on more important tutorials first. (Side note: I really hope they can release their iOS 7 update soon, really thrilled about an even better study app.)
But of course sometimes I still do procrastinate. So that has to go. I'll work towards it one step at a time. And it's all for the sake of my education. While Russia had five-year plans, all I have is one more year to make it or break it.
TTFN.