20210926: 2 days out and as per Chmel tradition, I'm here to encapsulate my thoughts before the actual paper itself. 😉
Some mumbled thoughts I'd synthesis into a proper post after the paper
the importance of timed trials including:
1. environment, what do you need around you? eg, water, mouse, how your surrounding is organised
2. notes and exam paper to be organised to optimise efficiency eg, use of highlights and color coding to see keywords. I don't have a second screen so everything is done on 1 screen and space needs to be optimised too (I use windows+left/right)
3. state of mind. doing timed trials (and I make sure do it during the actual exam timing (4.30-8pm sgt)) allows you to understand what could go wrong and improve on them before the exam. eg, how you struggle with brainstorming more points and think of ways to better optimise.
4. also made me realise I need to time my coffee (currently still optimising, but timing it to be at 330pm later on) to optimise energy and focus
5. it's really simple: a dancer will never perform before having several "dry runs", on the actual stage, with the actual costumes and the actual lightings with the whole crew. why would you keep practicing the dance move (when you've alr spent a good 3 months/200h on it alr), but neglect the potential operational risks you may face on stage? eg, costumes entanglment (actually happened to me before 🥺), not used to stage light, not used to stage size, keep bumping into a fellow dancer? personally, I squeeze in as many dry runs as possible. for SP9, 11 so far and 2 more to go before the actual exam. that's almost 1 timed assignment a day, every day for 2 weeks at 430PM.
6. and you may think that's easy, but the most most tedious and excruciating part is...... *drum rolls* marking. I take an average of 3h to do a paper, and slightly more than 4h to mark it 😱😱😱. why? you may ask?.
marking is the single most painful and brain consuming thing to do for my exam prep. I gotta:
- do a low level glance on what points I got right and give them marks (this will take less than 1 h)
-usually at this stage, it's like studying notes again and refreshing on the points you have missed.
- then for each question, do a gap analysis of the difference between my points and the model answer.
-not only that, on a higher level, understand the difference in *thought process* between my answer and the model answer
- next, try to align myself closer to the thinking of the examiner (based on the model answers). eg, what are they expecting, why are they expecting what they are expecting, their choice of (key) words, reference to preemble. eg, if they ask for the risk management cycle, you need to refer the last step back to the first.
- all these so that I can be better prepared (with a more aligned thought process) to tackle the actual paper.
it's freaking draining tbh. like I wish I can skip this part and outsource the learning and marking but growth usually comes when we're doing things that are not the most comfortable with 💪🥺
I usually have no energy to mark after the paper ends at 8pm, so I wake up at 7am and do the marking.
7. on content, SP9 content is not as broad as CP1, (but there's still pension uwu). and I'm rlly glad I took it after CP1. I'd say there's a good 25% overlap, particularly on the risk management and modelling portion of CP1. there were some papers that could easily pass off as a CP1 paper (see 201904).
8. the irony of how when you accept the non-0 probability of failing, your probability of failing will actually decrease. take it with a growth mindset and seek to learn new things and gain knowledge above passing (ofc the ideal situation is to have both 😀 )
9. others - time distribution, post it notes
If you're taking SP9 this diet too, and reading this RN, all the best. 🤞
More tips from my CP1 post in 2021 Apr
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