SOCIAL MEDIA

Monday, January 16, 2012

Study: Where Shd I Start From?



Didn't I say that this upcoming exam is just a formative test; that is it will not be counted for my final marks?
Guess what, I received an email few days ago saying that it is actually counted!
I'm not sure who to blame, or should I even blame anyone?
I am pretty sure during the assessment briefings they said this exam is just a formative, or did I understand it wrongly?

What difference does or should it bring to my level of study effort?
If it carries mark for my final, then should I be studying harder than when I thought it is not counted?
Then that means I have been studying for exams rather than preparing myself to be a good knowledgeable doctor in the future.
However I can't help but feel that since this exam affects my final marks, I should "fear" it more.

All UoM medical students from Year 1 to Year 5 will be sitting for this SAME PAPER on the SAME DAY at the SAME TIME but with different passing marks. That will mean this paper encompasses all the systems I've studied in IMU.
It has to include the basic sciences Year 1s are studying, to emergency managements Yr 5s are expected to know.
Thus I am supposed to be able to answer at least the questions targeted for Yr 1 to Yr 3 students.
Now, I do not know where to start studying.
2.5 years of syllabus, to be revised and prepared to be tested in a week?

People say, don't study hard but study smart.
Intelligence, seek me!

Ok, going to bury myself under the piles of books again.
'till then,


-Because life is a test-



-AkMaR-
http://nur-akmar.blogspot.com
Thursday, January 12, 2012

And The Result is Out!

Assalammualaikum.



I did not sleep last night.
Not because I was too excited with the 901 revolution happening in Malaysia, but because I was afraid I won't be able to get up for sahur if I sleep.
But being awake enabled me to get real-time updates of what was happening in Malaysia.
A friend introduced me to a website where we can stream Malaysian TV channels and watch it online through our PC.
So I put on TV3 to the lowest volume, put on my iTunes volume a bit louder and study.
I can still hear what was going on on TV3 and planned to watch if there was any news.
So I heard MHI; Dr Harlina and Ally Iskandar were talking about the worrying increasing number of child abuse cases in Malaysia.

I did not realise when, some documentary program was being played.
I thought TV3 bought the documentary program and broadcasted it, like what TV1 did.
The documentary was about germs something2...I wasnt really paying attention.
But then I heard advertisements in English, like totally totally English.
And when I check the window (I had my ebook on the active window), it was really Discovery Channel. And after confirming the TV programmes on Utusan website, I realised the website was no longer streaming TV3, but Discovery Channel instead.
Arrrgghh! I don't mind watching a documentary, on GERMS but not when I desperately want to get real-time updates on Malaysia.
Anyway, my fb newsfeed then started to explode with joyous exclamation of Anwar being freed.

When I was a small girl, before I turned 8 I used to go to my neighbour's house to play.
She owned a board game called SAIDINA. It is the Malaysian version of Monopoly.
On my 8th birthday, my mother presented me a huge SAIDINA. I was so delighted and can't seem to stop playing it. I even brought the board game to the neighbour's house to play, and photocopied the money to make me richer, and I still have them at home till now.

Back then I didn't know that there were a lot of SAIDINA versions, but mine was Malaysian political states. We get to buy our own state/town and build houses/hotels in it.
Penang and Kuala Lumpur were the two most expensive states (RM1,300 each) while Kangar and Batu Pahat were the cheapest (RM400 each). And at one corner of the board, there was a jail.
If you get a "jail" card, unless u can pay the bail, u'll hv to go to the jail.

That year too, Anwar was jailed for his first sodomy case.
And Mahathir was the name most adults talked about.

So I imagined that Anwar and Mahathir were two players playing Monopoly, and Anwar got the "jail" card so he was jailed. And one day, he'll come out of it and continue the game.

True enough, he did.
But he was nearly jailed again today.

Politics


The thing about politics in Malaysia is, the politicians turned it into such a filthy field that the people do not know who to trust anymore (or at least I don't).
The normal people do not know these politicians personally, how will they know their true colours?
How will I know if these politicians are good men or good actors?

People can think, yes.
People can talk too, yes.
But people can think and talk, only based on what were presented to them.
And the things that were disclosed are not always true.
The mainstream media in Malaysia always report the good side of the government, hiding the bad ones and at the same time make the opposition looks almost like the worst coalition ever existed.
The opposition media will do exactly the same, the other way around.
The media makes u think what they want you to think.
And they'll tell you what they want you to know.

I think I sound rather pessimist here.
Let's stop talking about other people and continue studying.
Exam is just around the corner.
Ourgh! Exam is I believe one method of getting the attention of the youths away from current issues. Hahaha.. Beware, there are some truths in that.

p/s: This post was written retrospectively. I couldn't make it to post it on January 9th even though I started writing on the day itself.

-Because life is a test-

-AkMaR-
http://nur-akmar.blogspot.com
Sunday, January 8, 2012

Politics di Sana

Wow!

Such a broad topic to talk about, considering my lack of knowledge in the politics of my own land and the fact that my exam is coming in less than 2 weeks.


Politician Sacked

One of the first few news I read this morning right after waking up was the immediate sacking of Selangor's EXCO, Dr. Hasan Ali.
I'd better not start introducing Dr. Hasan Ali, for I myself has little knowledge of who he is and what he does or rather, did.
But I certainly know that his office is in Shah Alam and his duty includes (how am I supposed to translate Hal Ehwal Islam into English?) Islamic matters (this sounds weird).

PAS released a video of her president explaining the decision to the public and political blogs have started writing about the sacking and my newsfeed in Facebook is exploding with friends sharing that news (ironically, most of the news are shared by overseas Malaysian friends. Being far from Malaysia makes us students more aware of the situation maybe?).

And since I wanted to ask my mother how to cook curry correctly, I called home.

It appears that my father is not aware of the sacking yet (understandable, he's not a politician neither a politics fan and Buletin Utama is not due until 8pm and I called at 6).

He said he wasn't even surprised with the sacking because Dr. Hasan Ali did many things detrimental to the party he represented and apparently showed that he's been "bought" by the other side.

But then....my father told me another shocking news.

Bantuan Rakyat 1 Malaysia

Another news that was so popular in Malaysia but due to my lack of awareness, I didn't know about it. It seems like the government spent quite a sum of money to aid Malaysian families financially.

And it is all under "Bantuan Rakyat 1Malaysia" or BR1M.
Under the program, households with a monthly income of less than RM3000 will receive an RM500 aid in 2012 and the application was opened late last year.

Since I do not like to talk baseless, I did some research and these websites may be of use:
  1. The National Treasury
  2. Utusan Malaysia: Kerajaan tidak memperdaya rakyat laksanakan BR1M
Not only that, ALL students in Malaysia will be given financial aid as well, regardless of their family financial backgrounds. School students will receive RM100 per person while university students get RM200.

I am not sure if university students will get cash or a book voucher worth RM200 but two of my schooling siblings received RM100 cash each before the school ends November last year.

I can't believe they didn't tell me they were richer by RM100 before the school ends!

My brother who is now studying in MMU however, has not informed us if he received the promised RM200.
IMU friends, you received RM200 in any form?
I am not sure if the RM200 for university students include students in private universities.

Utusan Malaysia: Bantuan RM100, BR1M berkesan (27/12/2012)

U know sometimes people say from the first look, it all looked so innocent but when you really think about it, it isn't actually?

Well, this is not the case here.

Fishy, or Fishy?

Here, I sensed something fishy even from the first look (or hear).
With the general election coming soon, I bet the ruling government is working their (I can't think of a more polite way of saying this) tails off to ensure the country does not fall into the hands of the opposition.

And so, paying aiding the people might just work for them (unless Malaysians realise that this scheme is a way of "buying" us).

And tomorrow is 09/01/12.

What's with the date?

For those who are like me, who has just recently gained interest in the politics of Malaysia but has not much time to really read about them (my mum will be so glad that I don't have the time) and is at the same time a student sponsored by the government, let me tell you.

Tomorrow is the day when Malaysians will witness whether Anwar Ibrahim will be prosecuted or not.

Remember that sodomy case? No, not the one that caused him to be jailed in 1998.
But this is the one where he was accused of sodomising his 20+ y.o assistant a few years ago.
The final decision is tomorrow.
And if he is to be prosecuted, KL will witness a demonstration called "Bebaskan Anwar 901".

I've been hearing about this demonstration but I am not really clear about the message they wanted to send.
Will they only demonstrate if Anwar is prosecuted? Or will they demonstrate regardless of the decision?
Will they demonstrate before the hearing, during or after the hearing?

I don't know, I don't know, I don't know.

But to all Malaysians who will be trapped in the massive traffic jam in KL tomorrow, my heart goes out for you :)

And oh!

Like I mentioned earlier, I am a government-sponsored student thus, I am not supposed to be expressing any anti-government or pro-opposition opinion publicly, which I didn't (Ma and Pa, don't worry).

My father expressed his concern over the phone this morning, reminding me not to be involved with any of this political rally/demo. His argument was since Malaysia is such a small country, they can actually monitor their people (or students).

I am not sure if that AUKU law that restrains university students from getting involved with politics applies to me, a student in an overseas university. But certainly, there is another unspoken law that I and friends are bounded to, heh... :)

I've been particularly interested in the latest political turmoil in Egypt and the probability of the Muslim Brotherhood winning the election will be so much fun to read.

But sadly, I found myself doing other stuff than reading about that news.

Know why?

Because the language used in the news covering these issues is just too politically scientific for me to understand. To understand the articles, one needs to have basic knowledge about what is happening and I didn't have the opportunity yet to spend time getting my basic in that.

Argh, so much to do with so little time.

Ok, stop whining.

And start studying!


-Because life is a test-







-AkMaR-
http://nur-akmar.blogspot.com
Thursday, January 5, 2012

Tick Tock Tick Tock!

Assalammualaikum!


Notice the newly put ticker up there?

This one!


What did it say?
Yes! 15 days until exam!
(I've been putting this SAME ticker up on every exam)

God! I felt like I've just reached England last month when in fact I've been here for 4 months.

Before this, whenever an exam is nearing, I've always talked about it in my posts; whining of having to mug up my books and all. But why didn't I breathe a word about this exam before and only mention it for the first time here, 15 days before it?
I'm not really sure why but I think it is highly contributed by the fact that this exam is an MCQ paper consisting of 125 questions and the best part is, whatever marks I score for this exam will not affect my overall marks during finals.
In other words, this is a formative test just for me to test myself.
So I wasn't really worried (avoiding the word stress here) of my score.
But, as I have correctly put it, this paper is for me to test myself.
And that is really the reason why am I studying now.
I want to know how much did I actually study from IMU, and if I'll be able to re-use that knowledge here and if I am at par (knowledge-wise) with the locals.

And this exam will cover EVERYTHING.
That means I can consider myself sitting for another IMU Semester 5 final (EOS5).
Honestly, this is the first time I can't wait for an exam!
I really want to know how will I fare in it.
An exam, without the stress of your marks affecting ur future, is a fun one, it took me this far to realise that.

Anyway, let's get back to study now! :D

p/s: If you take things easy, things will come easy. InsyaAllah :)


-Because life is a test-


-AkMaR-
http://nur-akmar.blogspot.com