STPM

Just got your SPM result? Is now spoilt with choices and can't decide which route to take?

Well, there are many options out there: A-Levels, Diploma, Foundation, Matriculation, Maktab (IPG) and STPM.

I cannot tell you much on these courses, and I have actually only one advice: Unless you are a genius, are extremely confident of getting all As, or have absolutely no other options, then go for form 6. Make form 6 your last choice.

Trust me, because it's an advice based on personal experience. The modular system of STPM is in no way easier than the terminal system. Why? Let's see

Why people say terminal system is tough 
1. Too much to study for one sitting.

2. Marking scheme ridiculously strict.

Why I say modular system is tough
1. Too little time to study so many things in 5 months (not half a year as it sounds so nice)

2. Too little preparation time for one paper that assumes you have mastered all knowledge

3. Too short time to answer the exam paper (only one and a half hours for 15 obj, 2 struc, 2 essays for science; 7 ques for maths; 15 obj, 4 struc, 2 essays for PA, and for economics papers it ain't any easier either). You may have enough time to complete the paper, provided that you truly have mastered all topics and are confident of your answer as you do not have sufficient time to recheck your answers.

4. Too short time for wide syllabus. In that half a year, your teacher will only be busy in teaching, there's not much and almost none tutorial time.

5. Assignments and projects that are much more taxing. It would be quite easy to do if there weren't so many stringent rules on how you should do them. Nevertheless, introduction of PBS is very burdening, plus it involves presentations and viva, reducing your teacher's already meagre teaching time.

6. Marking scheme ridiculously strict.

7. Full marks for one paper is either 60 or 80 depending on what papers you take, sciences are 60 and economics may be 80, and they'll scale it to 100 and from then a grade is given. So basically if you lost 12 marks out of 60, you don't have your A. Whereas for the terminal system, two papers contain a total of 180 marks, and it'll be scaled to 100. See the difference? For the terminal system, a slight mistake is not that damaging to your total grades. For the modular system, a lost in one mark is extremely painful and there's not a single tiny space for errors.

You may have less things to study for one paper under the modular system, but believe me with the time given you hardly could finish the syllabus in that one semester.

Unless you really like challenges and are confident of scoring the exam, I'll say go for other options. If you love challenges, then go for form 6. There really are so many for you to face.

The "legend" is true, and it still holds even after the change in system - form 6 is only for the bravest.

Maths T Assignment

Mathematics T assignment for this semester requires us to use differential equation to investigate the population growth of aedes mosquitoes. The equation is given, and it's called the logistic growth equation.

It is a very simple assignment, until my school genius teacher, who is the head of the assignment in my state, complicates everything with his appallingly poor understanding of questions.

If you've done the whole assignments, you would understand the requirements of the questions and therefore you know exactly what the questions want you to find. Sadly to this teacher, his understanding is so poor, he thinks the question is vague and requires us to do all possible answers. So for question 5, it initially requires only 3 lines in a graph paper, but thanks to his terrible analytical skills, we have to draw 24 lines in a total of 4 graphs.

Why I say it's wrong?
1) The question, though not written crystal clear, clearly requires the students to submit only a piece of graph paper. He wants 4.
2) It you study physics, you would know that it is simply impossible for the positive constant of any equation to be varying. This Maths teacher thinks it would. By that logic, at different countries you'll need different gravitational constant, and nearly all physics law need to be remodelled.
3) It is very well understood from the assignment that the carrying capacity of the population is not changing.

For question 6 he wants us to draw an additional graph that is actually a transformation of the table given. Basically he asks us to draw a graph of P against t, which is not required by the question at all, and asks us to draw at least ten tangents for reasons nobody understands why.

I got very angry, nearly went berserk, and didn't do that graph. I submitted my assignment based on my understanding of the assignment, not based on the teacher's.

Seriously, why do such teachers exist?

STPM 2013 First Sem Result

We weren't supposed to be able to check our result by tomorrow, but I guess it somehow leaked.

Anyway, my result is as stated above. It isn't great but it really is better than I expected. I'll probably resit Physics but for others I am really satisfied.

Thank God!

Asthma

I have asthma, and though it isn't serious it still makes me gasp for air like hell.

I've never told anyone about this because I see no reason to. It'll never get serious till I roll on the floor sucking hard for oxygen so really I see no reason to.

But when I play, I can feel my asthma in me. A few minutes of playing would have caused me to gasp for air hard, and before I actually play (while doing warm-up) I already got tired and breathe hard.

And hence I can't play well. Many of my friends are great in that game and I wish I could improve to meet their standard so that I wouldn't be the odd one out, but still my asthma hinders me in every way it could.

Maybe I'm just not built to play for a reason, and maybe I should stop trying but to play only for health purpose.

I'll still try to improve, but health problems like this is not going to go away and hard to suppress.

I tried very hard to be a decent athlete, but I guess I should stop dreaming for that.

If I'm not built for that purpose, I should just accept it. Be happy, and find alternatives.

I'll try to keep to that thought, while at the same time never give up on my aim.

Jiayou!

STPM Baharu Penggal 1 Result Released on March 21, 2013

STPM Baharu Penggal 1 Result Released On March 21

Bernama has announced that the first term result will be released on March 21st, 2013 (Thursday). I expect there'll be result slips but there's only mentioning of checking results online and via SMS.

Anyway, good luck to all who sat for STPM First Term last year!

STPM results out on March 18

STPM results out on March 18 - Nation | The Star Online

It's for the terminal system and for all upper 6 students last year.

It's released rather late this year, anyway wish you guys all the best!

Recommended Books for STPM First Term

I'm sure many of you are curious about which of the books out there is the best for revision?

Well, I have gone through the first semester and used several books, so I have recommendations for you if you are spoilt by choices. (No, I don't buy all books, I borrow some from the libraries)

I'm using more books for second semester, so by the end of this semester I'll recommend some books for the second term.

But sadly I can only recommend science subjects..anyway, here goes (Updated 24/11/2014 - refer to texts in italics)

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

If you want the best notes ---> Longman (by Goay TC, Wong YH and Suraini Basir). Pelangi is good as well but not as good as Longman.

If you want many exercise --->; Pelangi (by Wang HK, Goh XH and Mohammed bin Hashim). There are plenty of objective questions and subjective questions in it. Longman and Oxford contain plenty of exercise too but not as many as Pelangi.

Personally I would prefer Pelangi over Oxford and Longman, because the notes are not too lengthy and there are enough exercise for you to complete for the examination.

So I would recommend Pelangi.

*It is widely believed that the one published by Ilmu Bakti is the best because one of the authors work in MPM, or so they say. I personally do not think that makes the book better. Anyway, Pelangi is already good enough.

Do note that Pengajian Am is about contemporary issues, so when you go for bookstores please look for the newest edition. An old edition, even if it's one year old, is quite 'old' for PA. A lot of things and changes could happen in a year, so go for the newest one possible.

PHYSICS

Before you select your choice, you should realise that both Oxford and Pelangi Physics are published by the same author - Poh LY. Therefore, it would be unnecessary to buy both especially since the notes do not vary much and the exercises are mostly similar.

Well, I didn't use Longman for reference, but I did the exercise in it. If you're taking Physics, do remember these two authors - Lam CS and Lim SK. Their books are of very high quality and the questions are very very challenging. Therefore, if you want to try challenging questions, go for Longman. If you can solve all the questions without difficulties, you're ready for STPM!

The notes for Longman appear to be sadly vague and insufficient. It gives you enough for answering exam questions but it doesn't provide thorough concepts.

Pelangi and Oxford have decent notes and scant examples. The notes are short and lack detailed explanation, but if you're hardworking and willing to twist your mind, the notes should be enough for you as you can interpret them yourself.

Since both are published by the same author, and since I've used both, I can tell you that the notes are mostly similar. Oxford lacks exercise. Pelangi has more but the problem with Pelangi is that the answers given are not complete. Some only show the final answers but never show the steps, so if you do not know how to solve a question, you're doomed. Whereas for Oxford all answers are given detailed explanation. Both books contain quite a lot of overlapping questions so please, save your money and don't buy both.

So Personally, I would highly recommend Longman. It might be better if you go for Pelangi for the notes, and then Longman for the exercise. I would strongly discourage you to try Pelangi's exercise on first try, you'll get extremely shocked especially since this is the first time you're exposed to STPM level Physics. Go for Oxford exercise first if possible, if not go for Longman. Pelangi might be too overwhelming on first attempt.

CHEMISTRY

For the first semester of Chemistry, you'll need a very good book because Physical Chemistry can be very abstract and the past year questions (or actual STPM questions) are quite tough.

Oxford, published by Tan YT, Loh WL, Lim MH and Ho SC probably has the best notes. The notes in it are very good and detailed but, like all Oxford books, it lacks exercise.

Longman is a bit unnecessarily long but very,very detailed, and both Longman and Pelangi contain a lot of exercise for you to do.

Personally I would recommend Longman. Oxford isn't a bad choice either. If you really can't decide which to buy - go for Longman.

*If you want the best notes, go for Pelangi Chemistry for the terminal system published by Loh YL and N. S . The notes are very very long but very detailed and the explanations are very good. Pelangi has terminated publications for the terminal systems, and the new books by Pelangi for Chemistry are written by different author: Peter Yip. So try searching for the books in libraries, highly recommended.

Be proud to for taking STPM Chemistry. I have not found a single pre-university programme that includes Phase Equilibria, one of the craziest topic you'll encounter, as part of its syllabus.

MATHEMATICS T

You're lucky you're not the first batch. Maths T has the most changes after they changed the syllabus and many of them are transferred from the old Further Maths.T. Because the new topics are tough and plenty, all books are published in a haste and there are either low quality notes or out of syllabus topics in all the books. And ergo, we, as the first batch, suffered from learning the wrong things and had no reliable reference.

Anyway, if you want good notes, go for Pelangi or Longman. They give quite detailed explanations but some of them are unnecessarily long-winded. Still, it's better than nothing. Oxford contains very vague explanation, a lot of the examples are wrong, and there are many out of syllabus topics like locus of complex numbers and distances between vectors.

If you want exceedingly challenging exercise, undoubtedly Oxford is the best. Some of the Oxford's exercise is beyond STPM standard and on par with university level. But do note that Pelangi and Longman too have great exercise. They are tough too, but not as tough as Oxford's. If you can complete Oxford's exercise, you should be ready for STPM. But personally I think Pelangi and Longman would be suffice if you think your Mathematics isn't very strong.

But there are a few problems: Oxford, like I have mentioned, contains too many out of syllabus topics like Gauss-Jordan Elimination Method (whereas Gaussian Elimination, which is in the syllabus, is not included), Locus in Argand Diagram, and Distances between vectors. Pelangi contains misleading notes such as wrongly teach Gauss-Jordan as Gaussian. Longman does not give answers for curve sketching.

Personally, because all three books are bad in some ways, to compensate them, I used both Pelangi and Oxford. But if I were to choose only one in the three, I'll go for Oxford for the exercise.

*Oxford has updated the first term book. Now with much more appetising front page and the topics which aren't in the syllabus have been removed, and Gaussian Elimination has been added in. So if you were to buy this book, find the version which has "Algebra and Geometry" and a huge "updated version" printed on the front page.

The new version has fixed all the problems previously are found abundant in the first version. Out of syllabus topics are removed, and those that are in the syllabus have been included, although on first glance I would say they're included in quite a haste and resulted in a rather hazy explanation that is likely to not contribute much. Anyway it's better than having no guidelines at all.

It is said to have been reviewed by an MPM officer, so I guess it should be the most reliable book. The exercise is tough as well, and much harder than university level Mathematics (well, at least the book 'University Calculus', for the topic of Vector and Functions). Do appreciate the book. 

Longman has some problems. I realised it omitted trigonometry in its chapter review exercise, and there are only a very little exercise on trigonometry. Trigonometry is very important as you'll still use it for second term, and would be extremely helpful to solve lots of calculus related problems. Since Oxford has fixed most of the book's problem, I will now strongly encourage Oxford Fajar.

MUET

MUET stands for Malaysian University English Test, and it is mandatory for you to sit for it if you study form 6. Contrary to what most people believe, MUET is not an easy exam, unless you speak English as a first language, are extremely functional in the language, and have been using it for your whole life. Even if you have one of the above, you're still likely to face difficulties scoring it.

MUET is a completely different exam from SPM/1119. There are four components in MUET: listening, speaking, reading and writing, and most of my friends, including me, found writing's the most challenging. There are two tasks to be completed, and the marking scheme oddly requires an extremely profound maturity most 18/19 years old have not attained and your language must be strong enough to relate the information given and elaborate on your points maturely and convincingly. Writing it like how you wrote for SPM is going to give you marks on points, but not task fulfilment.

Listening and speaking require repetitive training, while reading requires lots of exercise. Because MUET is a language test, there's no best reference books because it depends on your proficiency in the language. Contrary to the other subjects, this exam requires some alive and huge twisting and it allows your imaginations to run wild. So, make sure you have grasped basic grammar. Avoid tossing bombastic words because bombastic words are mostly too flowery for a factual essay, and frankly bombastic words do not impress your readers.

If you need at least a reference book, I'll say you go for past year papers. The reading part is really tough because the passages are taken from articles mostly meant for first speakers, the points are pretty vague and catchy, and the answers are very close to each other and a high analytical skill is required if you wanna score the paper.

My personal experience tells me that none of the reference books out there published reading exercise that are on par with the actual exam. The book published by Wayne WH is way too easy so save your money. Go buy past year papers. That's my only advice.

If you're curious what band I got: I got a band 5, merely grazed the border by scoring 220.
 


*All reviews above are solely my opinions. 

Recommended Books for STPM Second term 
Recommended Books for STPM Third Term