KMB Glory Days Part II

...Second semester unbelievably went in almost an instant. Five months felt more like five weeks (or was it five days?)

Newcomer

Perhaps our new belongings - particularly laptops - accelerated the pace of Sem 2. That was the time when we joined the seniors in DotA (Defense of the Ancients), CS (Counter Strike), some TV series (which I don't really bother to know), anime, etc. It was also the beginning of the Internet mini-frenzy at the concourse (people would practically rush to get the Wi-Fi/whatever signal the router gave out). And many blame P2P and other means of downloading as the main bandwidth-eater which slowed down everyone else's Internet speed. The laptops extended quite a dimension to our KMB life.

Academia

The main reason the laptops are there was actually to assist in all our IB assignments (but a few people did survive without a personal laptop. Impressive). In short, our Sem 2 assignments were:

• Math Portfolio (Estimation of Pi-the first major all-nighter)
  
• Malay IOP (for a few classes that couldn't do it in Sem 1)
• G4 Experiments (made us seriously think about our EE's)
• WorldLit (proposal, including draft of main points)
  
• IA: ITGS Project (the first few steps)
  
• ToK Essay (10 title choices...but maybe nobody penned down anything yet)
• (PREPARE, LOUD DRUMROLL): EE (title proposal @ criticism)
  

I usually personally refer to the bottom four assignments as "The Big 4", as they ate the biggest chunk of time, lasting into early Sem 4.

In retrospect, I can say that most of the assignments involve the formulation of a kind of "research question" or "investigative question", making us mini-investigators/researchers in virtually all fields: Literature, Social Science, Experimental Science, and Mathematics for a handful few. I'm not in university yet, but I anticipate more investigative work (of a much higher complexity) when I'm eventually there.

The Ball is Round

Many camps were organized during Sem 2, including the Homestay Programme, Banseke Camp, and ToK Camp. Gave us some relief from full-time KMB scenery. Phew.

CAS hours are still counting in, too, both via sports and clubs (and via sleep for some). And External CAS actually pressurized us when the folio was due. Extra 10 hours there (perhaps some would call them plagiarism hours).

Mondays afternoons were the time for Mentor-Mentee meets. Thursday afternoons for Chit-Chat for the Medics. For me, it somewhat helped in cementing my response to the dreaded 'Why do you want to become a doctor?' tagline in medical interviews.

'Ju' vs 'Se'

It's nothing; just a transitional state some of us have when pondering the fact that our seniors would sit for the final IB exam, then be free. Free for good. And free to fly soon, too. Actually it began when their sigh of relief started to show just as their assignment submission deadlines passed. Inspiring to some, but straining to others.

But that also means that we'd have a new batch of innocents, ready for us to pass on whatever rubbish talk and painful words and scary stories and..."11 months left" that we had.



Wanna see more?

KMB Glory Days Part I
KMB Glory Days Part III