Imagine

After I completed my STPM, I realised with horrible sense that I have completely lost the ability to write in English, and at the same time I have failed to improve my English with the same burning passion I was had.

Perhaps there's no motivation for me to do so. Back when I was form 4, I had SPM, specifically GCE-O grade, to aim for. After SPM completion, I have MUET, one exam I swear I must achieve at least a Band 4, and with great struggle due to a simultaneous STPM exam, I managed to scrape through Band 5 by achieving a mere 220.

Now, I have a lost of aim. A sense of emptiness that drives me further. I know one day I'll regain my passion, but right now I have lost it, and sadly I couldn't retrace it.

Perchance it's good. It allows me to have a break from everything. Right now, all I am concerned about is indulging in reading, and I did.

Reading is one of the greatest passion I have, and one that'll never fade for a foreseeable future. You know why? Well, I think I'm going to flatter myself for once - I have good visualisation.

Whenever I read a book, I attempt to let myself be absorbed into the book, to make myself a part of the fictitious world and as a passerby witnessing the ongoing events that are transpiring in the novel. The change of setting allows me to assume the identity of a jumper, where I could be one place at a time, and when a event terminates for once, I'll jump to another setting, viewing a story that is simultaneously happening at a different place.

I like this ability of mine. It perhaps ain't a unique one, but it certainly is one I have. That's also why I am better at narrative essay. When I allowed myself to be absorbed, I'll remember every events that transpired, and they'll etch in my memory as a gum that stuck at the sole of your shoes. It allows me to write with the same elaboration but perhapsess interesting and beautiful as I have not possessed the ability to write as wonderful as the talented writers out there who always publish books to feed the hungry souls like me.

Every time a writer narrates something, my imagination will start to go wild. If a writer begins to describe a countryside, I'll begin to recall what I saw in kampung, but with imports of Western elements. I imagine a streets with bungalows, all without fence and with beautiful porches. I imagine a boy cycling on the street, wearing an attire and helmet he probably bought with every money he has. I imagine a few ladies watering their plants in the garden, or men with green fingers doing some planting. Perhaps I'll see a few people bringing their pets for a stroll, a few cars driving on the road. A wonderful weather with nice sky and weak sunlight. Refreshing air that brings everything alive in the place, and a temperature so comfortable it makes living there such an amazing one.

Imagination. You need to utilise well because it is one that everyone has but lays dormant until something triggers it to be wildly active. I have triggered mine, and I attempt to trigger it further so that it gives me more pleasure while reading. It is one with unknown potential, but one that appears to never stop expanding.

Disappointed

Disappointment.

Disappointed.

Ever since I first started doing this, it never succeeded. Everything I planned would never be carried out smoothly, and most got cancelled at the end.

Disappointment is what possesses me ever since I was small.

When I got happily waiting for something, looking for something, they'll be something that'll make me despondent, make me sad and cause a change of plan.

Whatever I do, things will never go smoothly as I want them to be.

Perhaps, this is life, and people grow mature from accepting a faith they know they couldn't change.

And mine, would be full of disappointment.

Perhaps I should stop expecting or hoping too much. Perhaps it'll be easier that way.

Recommended Books for STPM Third Term

As the same, I'll be only recommending books I find good and for subjects I studied. However, each person might have different opinion on the quality of the book, so please make the choice yourself. Compare them before you buy.

(Updated 12/12/14) It is also worth mentioning that it appears that Sasbadi has bought over Pearson Longman, or the publication right has been transferred to Sasbadi. But anyway, the content remains the same. Since the books have ceased being published under Longman, any book below I mentioned as "Longman" is now "Sasbadi". Take note. 

PENGAJIAN AM

The good thing about this semester is that there is no subjective questions. The bad news would be: you have three essays to be completed, together with 15 objective questions, in 2 hours. So time's really precious, use it wisely.

For this term, you'll be studying isu-isu antarabangsa yang melibatkan Malaysia. Malaysia's international involvement will be your main concern, together with threats to Malaysia and problems Malaysia face at international level. You'll need good notes on this as there are quite a lot of organisations out there you will encounter.

Data synthesis will be something new for you. There's no certain format for the synthesis, no strict rules on how they should be written, and no word limits. You'll be taught on understanding the questions' requirement by searching for the key words such as bandingkan pola, bandingkan kebezaan and so on. Jadual will be the easiest to synthesise among all. Carta might be a little confusing but is actually a long essay with points given, provided that you're able to link the points together to deliver an essay that fits the data. Graf has not been asked for years.

Essay questions will test you on Malaysia's international participation or threats to Malaysia, which will be quite tough.

So the reference book I'll be recommending would be Oxford Fajar. The book contains sufficient and well-organised notes on isu-isu antarabangsa Malaysia, and there's a section isu dan cabaran which will be very helpful for the essay part. Longman's incomplete. There's only a little about D8, OIC, ZEE and some organisations that are actually important. Pelangi's good too but not better than Oxford.

I'll say just go for Oxford.

PHYSICS

This term's physics is kinda horrible, perhaps only a little better than the first term (to me). Anything that cannot be categorised under dynamics, thermodynamics and electricity will be thrown into the third term. As a result the students suffer. You'll be studying waves, geometrical optics, wave optics, quantum physics and nuclear physics, which are in no way linked to each other, unlike the previous terms.

You'll need good notes on wave optics particularly as this chapter is considered the hardest for this term.

Pelangi and Oxford are written by the same author, so choose either one if you insist on buying them. To me, Pelangi is the better option. Oxford contains mostly past year questions that you should be able to get from your teacher. Pelangi has more exercise than Oxford, and the questions are much tougher. This is probably because the questions are taken from 1990s STPM which were much tougher. 

Longman's good. For the first three chapters, the notes are written by Lam Chok Sang and Lim Seang Kee. The notes were poor comparatively to Pelangi and Oxford in the sense that the note prepares you for answering but not knowledge gaining. The notes are relatively short, but the essays are good. The remaining four chapters are written by Ng Ow Ving, and like the second term book, the notes are too long and the exercise are too easy for STPM level. 

To me, I'll advise you to go for Longman for first exposure and building basic, and then move on to Pelangi for further solidification. But if you can afford only one book, go for Pelangi. Pelangi's good enough.

*Both Oxford and Pelangi are quite different in their explanations about lensmaker's equation and thin lens formula. The formulae he uses is different from the one required by MPM, although both are correct. 

CHEMISTRY

You'll be studying only organic chemistry for this term. Organic chemistry is rather independent and involves only a little calculation, and you'll not touch the data booklet often as well. And the best thing about organic chemistry: you do not need to balance the equation if the equation is complicated like carbonyl compounds reaction with Fehling's solution. The downside: you'll need to have good memory.

I didn't use Pelangi, so I can't comment on it. Oxford is good and the notes are short and concise. The exercise are mostly past year questions. Longman's very good. The notes are very detailed and the exercise are really good. But longman's a bit poor at polymer. The explanation is a bit vague.

If I were to recommend one, I'll say go for Longman. 

MATHEMATICS (T)

There are three chapters that are not covered in the terminal system, that are sampling and estimation, hypothesis testing and chi-squared tests. Don't be floored by them, hypothesis testing and chi-squared tests are rather easy, you should be concerned about sampling and estimation and probability distribution.

Statistics is very boring, but it does not mean it's easy. It can be quite tough, but however tough it is it won't be as painful as the first term. 

Because the three chapters are new, all three books were published in a haste, and the notes for the last two chapters particularly were very short and vague. Hence, none of the three books are good enough for the two chapters.

Oxford Fajar Maths is the worst reference books you'll encounter in your life. The notes are very vague. No guides on drawing box and whisker plot, very little explanations on probability distributions, focus are given to questions that are too tough and ended up got simple questions like simple integration wrong, answers given are wrong and the amount of wrong answers are way too plenty to be forgiven, contains some topics that are not in the syllabus, and shows examples of tough questions like probability distribution involving method of difference and ignoring simple methods of solving the questions. I don't know what has happened to the book. The previous two terms were of highest quality but this term the book has degraded to a horrible level. I hope it's better for the next publications. It's better if they rewrite the whole book. The notes for Probability is the worst (including the exercise), while the examples for Probability Distribution is worse than nightmare. Don't blame me for being too acerbic. I have the right to be angry for spending RM29.90 for a book that gave me nothing but a life time regret.

Longman's good, but the last two chapters are way too vague and contain insufficient exercise. The notes really are well-organised and written in a way to engage the readers, and you'll really understand what everything is about if you read the notes. The exercise in the books are a bit too easy though. However, the last two chapters spoilt everything.

Pelangi's note a bit long, and the exercise is a bit easy too. 

For the reasons given above, I'll suggest Pelangi. While it is not the best (notes not better than Longman for first four chapters), it contains the least flaw. And so I'll recommend Pelangi. Avoid Oxford Fajar, you'll regret it.

*All reviews above are solely my opinion. 

Recommended Books for STPM First Term
Recommended Books For STPM Second Term 

STPM Term 3: Day 3

After a week break from the previous paper, I went back for the last paper for this term: Chemistry.

Now, chemistry is really a paper everyone feared.
1) Organic Chemistry is quite tough, especially for essay. Even if your memorising ability has served you well for many years, the questions could baffle you at first sight because essay questions really present themselves as an essay.
2) Whoever set the chemistry paper was really good, and overestimated Malaysian's intelligence. The questions for the second term was downright ridiculous (not too tough, but required real mind twisting we do not have time for).

This term, it's not that good as well. Objective questions were not straightforward and required some serious thinking. Subjective was okay but asking us for reaction between ethylamine and bromine was rather unexpected. Essay question was fine. I almost made a mistake that'll cost me 9 marks, but I've corrected it and hopefully it was correct.

Summary: Term 3 chemistry was much better than term 2 chemistry.

And this paper officially marks the end for STPM 2013.

STPM Term 3: Day 2

First paper for the day would be Pengajian Am. This term would be quite hectic as we have to write 3 essays in a mere 2 hours, and within the given time we are also required to complete 15 objective answers, so time's really precious

The objective questions were....odd. Questions asked were completely new and simply bizarre, but it was fine. The data synthesis was fine. The second data on inflation rate baffled everyone (science stream) who saw it, but it appears that econs students have no difficulties answering it. Perhaps Ekonomi gave them an advantage.

The essays were the tricky one. All three questions were vague-sounding, and ended with only a word bincangkan. This type of questions were what everyone dreaded and feared because you can't tell for sure what the question wants. The worst thing is Pengajian Am has one of the worst marking scheme in Malaysian education, so answering this kind of question is a huge risk. And we were forced to take the risk.

Fine, I answered two of them. Won't be expecting good result

Afternoon paper was Mathematics (T). The questions were rather straightforward and easy, so I wouldn't make a huge fuss about it. Chi-squared test on contingency table were expected, but the Pearson coefficient of skewness was way out of expectation as it was way too easy. But the bright side: everyone gets good score.

STPM Term 3, Day 1

It's the last term, and the last paper for every subject.

It starts with Physics as the first paper. Unlike previous years where it would begin with PA, this year they decided to break the trend and put Physics as the first paper. The reason I could think off is probably because now, they wanna complete all papers in four days, hence the put several papers together in one slot. This might cause some people to have two papers at the same time (paper crashing), and to minimise such problem they have put PA to the 2nd day, and Physics to the first slot on the first day, together with Bahasa Arab.

Anyway, Physics paper 3 was downright ridiculous. The objective questions were fine, structured were a bit unexpected but you could do your best to come out with plausible answers. Essay questions were the toughest one. First of all, it tested us on topics we never found important because it was too hard, and it came out with a question that required a trigonometry formulae we learnt only in the first term. After a year I believe most have forgotten it.

And, like every STPM papers, the pattern of the question is new and not previously found. Basically, for STPM, past year questions aren't really helpful because the questions don't usually repeat themselves and the lecturers present their questions differently every year. This year it definitely is something quite new, and I really got a shock when I saw the questions.

Well, what can I say? This is STPM. The third term exam began with a sense of foreboding, as it has appeared to be.

Just in case you're curious about the essay questions, I'll show you two of the three questions:

18) 
(a)        i.  What is meant by a transverse wave?
           ii.  Distinguish between a transverse wave and a longitudinal wave.

(b) The periodic motion of a particle at the left end of a stretched string is defined by

y = 6.0 sin pi t

where y is in centimetres and t in seconds. The wave disturbance travels along the string at a rate of 6.0cm per second. 

(i)    Derive an expression for the displacement of a second particle on the string at point x to the right of the first particle at a later time t.

(ii)   Determine the displacement of the second particle is x is 80cm and t is 1 minute.

(c) A transverse wave is given by

       y = 6.0 sin pi(4.0t + 0.020x)

where x and y are in centimetres and t in seconds.
(i)   Determine the speed of the wave.
(ii)  Determine the maximum transverse wave of a particle of the wave.
(iii) Sketch the shape of the wave when t is 0.125s.


20)
(a) Explain the terms "energy levels" in an atom, and state the reason for its negative signs.

(b) Explain what do you understand by
     (i)    the ionisation energy of an atom,
     (ii)   the occurrence of a line spectrum

(c) A hydrogen atom in its second excited state undergoes a transition to the ground state by emitting photons. Determine the possible wavelengths of the emitted photos.

(d) A hydrogen atom is excited with its electrons in the energy level n = 4. Determine the energy, in eV, that is require to ionise it.

(e) An electron with energy 1.80 x 10^-18 J collides with a hydrogen atom in its ground state and the electron is deflected. If the hydrogen atom is excited with its electron in the energy level n = 2, determine the energy of the deflected electron.