Reflective - Final Say

This March, we did a Chemistry presentation on the chapter " States Of Matter". It was our very first formal presentation in A-Levels and I was really excited about it. Class was seperated in a few small groups with 3 members each, each group were given a different topics to present. We were instructed to make a slide show, collect all the informations online or from reference books, clearly stated them in the slide show. Not only that, we were asked to build the model of elements too! Same that few different kinds of element were allocated to each group. We used polystyrene and wooden stick to build the models. Although the class was seperated into groups, we used to build the models of elements and prepare the slide show together in college after the class ended everyday. It was really great to share the knowledges and fun together with the classmates, and it perhaps pulled our class together more closely and united. After 2 weeks of preparation, our presentation day is finally here! The class is presenting well and also beautiful models were built! Chemistry lecturer was satisfied with our presentation as well. It was one of the most interesting activities in my college life! Presentation allowed me to improve my confidence in public speaking and also some skills that might be useful in the future. But sadly, there's not much presentation in the following semester, except for MPU presentations only. I hope I'll be given more chances to do presentations about the things we're learning, because it helps me to understand more and there's extra knowledges I can get during the preparation.

SMART GOAL

My 3 goals! Wrote it using my left hand, it was really messy like kids' writing hehe. In case you can't read, it says that :
1. Travel to Korea again next year with my bestie.
2. Get into good university with flying colors results of A-Levels.
3. I want to at least get a B on most of my class tests.

and... I chose no.1 as my SMART goal!

S M A R T

Specific / Significant : Travel to Korea again next year after graduating from A-Levels with my bestie.

Measurable / Meaningful : Bring own food to college as lunch everyday, only spend on something that is needed. So that I could save my pocket money, and pay all the travel expenses with the money I saved but not get it from parents again.

Attainable / Action oriented : Yes. I pack my lunch box every morning before going to college.

Relevant / Realistic / Rewarding : Home food is much more healthier than the food selling outside. Only spend on something that is needed can prevent having too much of unneeded things gather in the room, causes the room looking messy. Also, saving money is a good habit.

Time bound / Trackable : July of 2015 ( before entering the uni )

Reflective - CAL's activities

Description

I decided to enroll into CAL with Sciences as my major. I have a burning passion for Sciences, and this has guided me to further my study in Bio Medical. I always working in the lab is very fascinating. Dealing with reagents makes me feel like a professional Scientist. Although I didn’t have the opportunity on performing an experiment during my high school life, I’m very passionate when it comes to lab work. Throughout the year in college, I have gained a lot of valuable lab experiences and this encourages me to pursue in Sciences in the future.

             

                           

    Interpret           

I feel excited and looking forward every time before entering the lab. One of the most interesting experiments I’ve performed so far in college was during Biology class. The experiment was about investigating the cell division stages of plant cells. Cell Division was one of my favourite topics in Biology since high school, I’m really interested on the changes of the cell structures and organelles during the cell division. Finally, I’m able to investigate the “live” cell division using microscope, instead of just looking at the textbook picture only. I got really amazed how all the chromosomes of the cells arranged during different stages, and we were asked to draw out what we investigated thru the microscope. I was really excited to carry out this investigation, and this makes me realized that I have something on Biology.

                                                                                           

                                                                                                                                                                               

 Evaluation

We have paired work and individual work in the lab. During pair work, I’ve learnt the importance of team work and with this, we’re able to perform the experiment more efficient. I can learn from my peers to improve myself in all aspects. During individual work, I trained myself to become a better independent learner as this allows me to allow challenging matter with confidence. Thus, I’m able to utilize the skills that I’ve gained in college to deal with real life situation in the future.

Plan

After I completed my Pre-U studies, I’m planning to further my studies in Australia as most universities in Australia have good foundation in Sciences. This is to ensure that I’m able to cope with the heavy load of BioMed stress. Even if after I’ve completed my studies, I hope I can still in contact with Sciences in my work in the future. Thus, I could apply all the knowledge I’ve gained during the studies, to have a better achievement. 

                                                                                                                         

My Inspiration

There are a few quotes I find inspirational for me :

Career Test & Uni Action Plan

We were instructed to take a career test by our PDP lecturer. As most of us are still confused regarding our future and what we would like to do for a living, the test is useful and interesting for us.
Check out link : http://www.career-test.co.uk/

Here's my result :

Extraverted (E) 54%	Introverted (I) 46%
Sensing (S) 77%	Intuitive (N) 23%
Thinking (T) 50%	Feeling (F) 50%
Judging (J) 64%	Perceiving (P) 36%

I belong to the ESTJ category, which the website labels as Guardians and Overseers.

Career relevant traits:
• Dependable hard workers 
• Thorough, honest and loyal
• Natural leaders which like to be in charge
• Strong organisational skills
• Will follow projects through to completion 
• Driven to fulfil their duties
• Like creating structure and order

I found that the outcome of the test is quite accurate, as the results truly defined my personality.

I have good leadership skill as I mentioned in my previous post (SWOT Analysis), and I enjoy creating order and structures. Besides, I always see everything in terms of concrete needs and facts before I believe or fall in love with it. As example, I perform experiment in the lab to prove that the hypothesis is true, before I agreeing with it. It does say that ESTJ people will scan the personal environment to check that everything is running smoothly and systematically, which I find applies to me as well.  I enjoy fast pace no matter what am I doing, but I always know how things should be done and organize them well. Therefore I guess I have an ability to quickly step in and take a commanding role of the situation. 

These are the possible career paths for the ESTJ : 

• Nursing administrators 
• Military leaders 
• Business Administrators and Managers 
• Police or Detective 
• Judges 
• Insurance agents or underwriters
• Financial Officers 
• Trade and technical teachers
• Teachers 
• Sales Representatives
• Government workers 

Although the outcome of the test do apply me well, but I haven't consider any of the paths above yet. My ambition was to be a Bio Medical Scientist, as I have a strong passionate towards Biology since I entered Science stream during high school. But after taking the career test, I do start considering some of the career options above, so that I would be successful on my path and have a brighter future.

UNI ACTION PLAN

I have constructed a plan for my university applications so that I will be aware of the minimum requirements I have to meet to gain entry in my university of choice. 

University	Location	Faculty / Major	Entry Requirements	English Language Proficiency	My Mission	Present  Progress
University of Melbourne	Victoria, Australia.	English	GCE A Levels - BCC	IELTS – 6	1. Take IELTS	N/A
University of Queensland	Brisbane, Australia.	English	GCE A-Levels - 10	IELTS – 6.5	1. Take IELTS	N/A
University of Warwick	Coventry, England.	English	GCE A-Levels - ABB	-	1. Improve my performance in the class.	N/A

SWOT Analysis

SWOT - S for Strength ; W for Weaknesses ; O for Opportunities ; T for Threats. It's a way for individuals and businesses to evaluate themselves so improvement is possible.

Here's the SWOT analysis of myself!

Strength :

• I am good in communicating with people and also leadership. When it comes to group project, I'm always the one who communicates with all the team members and try to lead the members so that we could proceed our works efficiently.
• My biggest achievement so far in my entire studies life is I once received Excellent Student award in primary school. 
• I managed to achieve these things because I always set very high expectation for myself and I'm always looking for motivations to push me study harder when I'm about to give up.

Weaknesses : 

• I'm an impatient person. This causes me to get really depressed and demotivated when I failed a several times trying on something.
• Last minute person can also be used to describe me. I was used to only start to work on something last minute before the deadline. But, after enrolling A-Levels, I don't always study last minute just before the exams anymore and always revise what lecturer taught in the class on that day itself. Thus, I don't easily get stressed out during exam period because I'm well prepared , and this allows me to do well in exam.

Opportunities :

• After coming to college, chances like presentations improved my skills on presenting, and lab works improved my skills on science practical, which will I think this will help me greatly in the future. 
• Joining clubs and societies allowed me to meet new people, widens my social network and also things I've never learn in the class. 

Threats : 

• I'm not good in language so I'm not confident with the essay I wrote.
• Not having such a good understanding of what teacher first taught in the class, so I need to work harder to ensure that I'm not left behind with others' progress.
• Not a good time manager. Thus, I always mess up what I wanna do because I can't plan what I need to do with time I have, end up having not productive day.

Buddies Learning Style

Team Members :
Lee Pei Yin (ME) - Group 8
Teoh Shun Ee - Group 8
Lua Kah Heng - Group 8
Jay Murali - Group 8

All 3 of my buddies' learning style, including me, is Visual Learning.  As we find this method suits us best. I rely on colors and diagrams a lot to better understand and remember what am I reading. As colors make it easier for me to memorize, I usually use many different kinds of color pens to write my notes, and highlighters to highlight the important points. It allows me to recap what've I read before during revision. As for my buddy Shun Ee, she is a very common user of mind maps. She always revise her notes beforehand and compose mind maps. With the mind maps, she don't have to re-read textbooks or reference books to remember what she read weeks before. It is much more convenient. For Murali, except for colorful notes and annotations on his textbook to allow him to remember his topics more clearly, he also watch videos on the subject matter and making diagrams. This helps him a lot in retaining information. For Kah Heng, he finds that reading the slides shown during a presentation is critical to help him understand it better.