Category Archives: Secondary 2

2017 Secondary 2 Week 17 Update

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For both the children mid-year exams have begun. It will go on for almost two more weeks and then chill for a month or so before the next term starts.

Last week, one night after the children had been to bed, I got out of my room for something and saw the light still switched on in BB’s room. He was playing some game on his laptop when he should have been asleep. So I had a good talk with him about what he wants to do and how he will get there. He needs to do well in specific subjects this year to allow him to take pure sciences. He says all the right things to me, but the execution, well that’s something else. This week he brought back forms for two space camp home and they look really interesting. The first one is a generic one, but in the second one, they’re going to have a space scientist from NASA who will come over to talk to them as well as talks on NASA’s mars rovers etc. I think I am more excited than him for these camps. I am so thankful that the school/govt subsidies mean that we pay little to nothing for these extra activities!

GG has also been busy in school with exams. She is much more focused than BB, but her stakes are also slightly higher this year!

They both got the Hindi exam marks yesterday and GG, surprisingly didn’t do well. BB, well, the less said the better! I am quite disappointed with both, more with BB than GG as he just doesn’t get it!

Have a wonderful Sunday people!

Secondary 2 Week 16 Update

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We’re almost a third of the year down and the countdown to the mid year exams. The exams start for both of them at the end of the week. The exams should end sometime in mid May and then we have to wait for the results and the parent teacher conference. 

My nagging mum mode is on these days, especially for BB since he has a lot more to lose if does not do well in his core subjects of English, Maths and Science. GG wants to do humanities, so its slightly easier for her. 

That’s pretty much this week for the two of them. Have a wonderful Sunday!

Secondary 2 Week 15 Update

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It was the usual sort of week for BB & GG. GG finally finished with her Singapore Youth Festival and so the stress of the past few weeks are finally over!

BB’s CCA has been stood down and they will restart after exams. GG has one more CCA to get through, where they are having an SYF finishing party as well as a farewell to her Secondary 4/5 seniors who complete their CCA for the year so that they can focus on their national exams.

Now, nagging mum mode starts as I start pushing them to study for their exams which start in 2 weeks time! As I have mentioned earlier, this is a critical year for them, and especially for BB as he wants to do science (I have mentioned before how obsessed he is about science). GG has it a bit easier because she wants to do humanities, which should be easier to get in!

So that was our week, have a blessed Easter people!

2017 Secondary 2 Week 14 Update

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GG had a very busy week what with the emceeing duty rehearsals as well as rehearsals for the SYF. She had to stay back after school every single day and came home quite late, especially the days when she had emcee rehearsals. When she’d come home, she would be tired and cranky and would want to just sleep, but homework would beckon. I felt this was a slice of adult life for her. But try explaining that to a cranky, hormonal 14-year old! Thank God all this ends next week with the competition sometime then. Hopefully she then gets time to study for the mid-year exams. 

BB’s week was quite mundane with his teachers racing to complete the curriculum before the mid year exams start at the end of the month. But as usual, he is quite gungho about the whole exam thing. He needs to score well to get into the course of his choice. Ah well, I can only keep nagging him about this. I also attended his school’s speech day representing the parent support group and it was quite an interesting experience. The function was a lot more formal as compared to what I’ve seen in their primary school. 

Anyways this was our school week. Have an amazing Sunday people!

Secondary 2 Week 13 Update

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Nothing really happened this week! 

It was a normal school week with GG coming home late every single day. One day she was out for more than 13 hours and when she came home, she was beyond exhausted. So much so, she reverted to becoming whiny and irritable – just as she used to be when she was younger!

On Friday, we went to BB’s school for the secondary 3 streaming talk. Initially it was just going to be me, but later I realised that students were encouraged to also come and this was also validated by the support group I belong to. So I strong armed BB to come with me. It was an informative talk and we understood the options BB has for next year. 

Given that he wants to do aerospace engineering, he has to take the science course. I prefer him to do a double science double humanities combination (physics, chemistry, history and a social studies with geography elective) and not do a triple science combo with full biology. I’ve heard that biology is very intense in terms of the time you need for it, so which is why we decided on the science/humanities combo. Also if he decides to go to junior college instead of the polytechnic, then his contrast subject can be history which then should not be too difficult. 

A big relief was that for science stream, they have qualifying marks for English, Maths and Science and only these marks will be taken into account when deciding who gets to go to the stream. The good news is that BB’s marks are not too bad in these subjects, but the bad news is that they are not spectacular too! He really needs to work hard and score as high marks as he can in these three subjects!