Sem 6, Revision Week: Revision?

OK, in a few hours time, I will be taking my third paper, but let me get this post out so that everything is up-to-date.

With all the lessons done in week 13, what followed was the revision week. However, I didn't do much revision for that week, as I try to get back to normal work - as normal as possible.

In the previous semester, I would had taken leave from revision week onwards (or a week before the first paper) to start my revision. However, what I found was that this arrangement was not effective. I found myself spending most of the time lazing around, doing everything except revision. It's just a waste of of my leave, and left me doing a lot of catch up at work. So, in the previous semester, I decided to only take leave on the week(s) of the exams itself. Such an arrangement turned out well last semester, so I decided to do it again this semester.

So, there I was, back at work during revision week, and only doing the revision in the evening. The progress wasn't as good as expected, but I have the whole of next week (which I would be taking leave since it's the week of my exam) to do my revision, so I wasn't that worried.

That's all for revision week actually, as far as I can remember. Now, I will get back to my revision and post about my exam next time.

Sem 6, Week 13: The Defense

I am in the midst of revising for my third (and final) paper of my exams, which will be held tomorrow. However, if I don't get this post down, I will not be in time to get all the MSc post up to date. So here goes...

Week 13 was the final week of the semester, which is also the final week of my MSc. The main event of course was my thesis defense, which was on Thursday (10 Nov). Before that could happened, there was a minor scare. Initially I was told I only needed one examiner for the defense, and as such I invited only one lecturer to be my examiner. Then, just a couple of days before the defense, I was told again that I needed two. That put me in an embarrassing situation, cos my boss ZB all along insisted that I should get my co-sup to attend, whom can double as my examiner. I found ZB's insistence quite a bother, as it put me in a difficult situation, and it took me quite some effort to make him agreed to only invite one examiner. So upon hearing that I needed two examiner, I braced myself and told ZB about it. Bracing myself was indeed necessary, though ZB was quite cool about it, his smirk comment was enough to let me know how he felt about "my" mistake.

In such a short notice I definitely could not get another lecturer to be my examiner. Luckily, my unit head PS agree to stand in as my examiner. In retrospect, that was kinda a good move, cos I got to introduce my examiner to PS and ZB, and got some conversation going between them, so hopefully that might open up some opportunity in the future.

As for the defense itself, knocking together the slides was easier then thought. I did a rehearsal in front of my fellow colleagues and got very good review, though the presentation was too short and there were some refinement needed. Once those refinement was made, the actual presentation went smoothly and was better than I thought (the whole of the actual day was spent on practicing the presentation). I thought I stumbled a bit on the questions and answers, but overall I think I left the examiner impressed. ZB told me that I should be getting a distinction. I do hope so...

So with the main event for the sem - and perhaps the whole MSc course - coming to a close, it was like a big load of my shoulders. The last piece of business for the week was to attend the lecture of Advanced Organic Materials, as it was my turn to ask question during the presentation. After that as done, the instructional period for this semester finally come to an end for me. The final act will be the exams, which I will post next time.

Sem 6, Week 12: All The Fuss...

Having completed the second paper, my exams are nearing the end. So let me take a bit of time off my revision to give a recap on week 12.

The Monday of week 12 (31st of October) was the deadline for the submission of my Thesis. I was all ready to make the trip down to NUS when I received an email from the Unit Head, wanting to give some suggestions about my Thesis. I was all ready to submit, but then how could I decline suggestion from my Unit Head? So down I went to the Unit Head's office, expecting to spend another whole day working on correcting my Thesis. Luckily, it was just some minor adjustment, and after those are made, I was able to head down NUS as planned, and submitted my Thesis as planned.

Submitting the Thesis marked the end of an important task, but it's also the beginning of another. Turned out, my co-sup was unwilling to nominate examiners for my thesis defense (he had his reasons, I understand...), and he was too busy to attend the defense itself too. Therefore, I had to make all the arrangement myself - with the department office, my boss ZB and my examiner (whom was selected by ZB and whom I liaised with by myself). The whole arrangement for defense was an episode by itself - partly due to the requirement by ZB - and by the end of everything, I am quite sure the whole department office knew who I am because of my constant communication with the course manager (and a couple of other admin staff for other admin matter).

Anyway, while all these were going on, there was issue of the presentation for Advanced Optical Spectroscopy and Imaging running in the background. Initially, I set a timeline of completing the draft slides by the previous weekend (week 11) with my partner. However, I failed to keep to that timeline. Luckily for me, the partner was busy too. Nonetheless, I was able to knock together the slides by mid-week, which only left me with one day to prepare for the presentation. Usually, I would take a week to prepare for my presentation, but this was not the case for this semester: 2 days of preparation for the presentation of Advanced Organic Materials and only one day for this presentation for Advanced Optical Spectroscopy and Imaging. I was still going through my slides and references minutes before it was or turn to present. Fortunately, everything went as well as it can get, and I was somewhat amazed I was able to get away with it.

The presentation marked the end of lesson for Advanced Optical Spectroscopy (for me), and was the last bit of notable action for week 12. The following week, week 13, was marked by the thesis defense, which I shall update before my exams end.

Sem 6, Week 11: All About The Thesis

As I am writing this post, I have just completed the paper of the exams. I wished to bring my post up-to-date before the end of the exams, but there's still revision to be done. So here goes...

Week 11 was all about the Thesis. There were rewrites, modifications and changes. In the end, it took until the fifth draft before the Thesis was finalized.

After reviewing draft 1, my boss ZB pointed out several changes to make (rephrasing, changing chemical structure format, etc) and it took the whole day at the desk (during work) to get draft 2 done. Still unsatisfied with draft 2, ZB pointed out more suggestion to the Thesis. These changes, along with some admin work, kept me at my desk for another day. Nonetheless, draft 3 was completed and I thought it will do the job. By this point in time, I really wanted to go back to my lab work (there were some reactions that I really wanted to get going). However, within half an hour of stepping into the lab after being stuck at the desk for so long, I was being called back out again by ZB to make further changes to the Thesis, which if I didn't remember wrongly, involved some agony over how a table was presented. To modify the table according to ZB's suggestion involved re-numbering the all the chemical structures, something which I was reluctant to do. I really wanted to keep the Thesis as just that and go back to work in the lab, but I also want to have as perfect a Thesis as possible, so I got back to the desk and work on my Thesis again ("writing a Thesis is a draggy process", remarkedZB in Mandarin). Draft 4 was done relatively quickly, but still there were some small details to improve on. By then, I really wanted to get the whole Thesis over and done with, so I just make the changes without re-checking, and sent it to ZB to vet. That didn't do down well with him, and I was told off. So in the end, I sat down in front of my desk again, and spent the time to get draft 5 out, which with a little bit of help from the looming deadline, was the final draft. ,P> So in the end for the whole of week 11, I spent the whole week in front of the desk (again) and finally completed my Thesis, but did little bit else. That theme of doing little bit else actually continued into the following week, which I will elaborate next time.

Sem 6, Week 10: High Anxiety...

Another long overdue post. But still I wanted to get it down for the sake of completeness.

The problem about writing things that happened weeks ago was that I couldn't remember all the details about what happened, so I guess this would be a very short post.

Week 10 was all about one thing: writing the thesis. Initially I thought the first draft would be completed the week before over the weekend. However, that didn't happen. So for the whole of the week at work, I just sat in front of my desk, typing away to get the thesis done. It wasn't easy. Initially, I thought I could get it done by Tuesday or so. However, it took longer and the first draft was only late on Thursday night, where I labored at my desk till around 10pm. By the time I was done, I was drained.

Of course, needless to say, I didn't attend any lectures, except for Advanced Optical Spectroscopy and Imaging, where there was a test. I was late for the test (because I was editing my thesis, if I didn't recall wrongly), which turned out to be a disaster (I guess that's 20% overall gone). I also got to finally meet my presentation partner, whose appearance and behavior reinforced the "ghost partner" impression I had of him - he was pale, thin and had wavy long hair halfway down his back. He was also very quiet, unresponsive and was not engaged in the discussion at all.

Looking back, it wasn't an enjoyable week at all. The following week wasn't any better either and that I would write about next time.

Sem 6, Week 9: What Happened...

Yes, this is a long overdue post. I am supposed to write this post 3 weeks ago. So things are a bit fuzzy and I am struggling to recall what really happened on week 9.

One thing I remember quite clearly is that I completed my assignment for Advanced Optical Spectroscopy and Imaging on time - I mean, literally on time. I spent the whole of Thursday night and the whole of Friday at work just to complete the assignment. By the time I was done, it was already 5.30pm, just in time for me to make my way to the lecture to submit the assignment. Coincidentally, It was also the first time I was attending the lecture for Advanced Optical Spectroscopy and Imaging. Was supposed to meet my presentation partner too. However, I was unable to reach him by phone.

It was about this time that I seriously wondered whether my presentation partner was a ghost: he admitted that it was unreliable to reach him by phone. We had been keep in contact through email and - except for one occasion - he always replied in the early morning hours. I was the one who was always taking the lead to keep things going, while he seemed disinterested. We had arranged to meet during the lecture and yet he didn't 'appear'. I was fine if he was just a ghost; I hoped he was not a sleeping partner as well.

As for the two other modules, I decided to stop attending the lectures. I was done with the presentations for both modules, and except for Advanced Organic Material, where I was required to attend the lecture in the final week to ask question during the presentation, I did not see the need to attend any more lectures. Anyway it's time to focus on Advanced Optical Spectroscopy and Imaging, which there was a test coming up in the following week.

As for the Thesis, I originally planned to get it going over the weekend. However, very little was done, especially on Sunday, after the Real Run, which I did the half marathon. The end result of this was that the following week was really stressful, which I would talk about it in my next post.

Sem 6, Week 8: I Have No Time...

Ok, so the week that went by was the e-learning week, so there's no need to go for lectures. There were learning materials uploaded onto the IVLE, but I had not touch them yet. I have more pressing issues at hand.

The most pressing of all issues is the thesis. It is due by the end of this month, and I'm only about a third through with the writing. I initially expected to knock out the first draft by the end of this week (i.e., today), but obviously that's not going to happen. It seems more likely that the first draft is going to be out by next weekend, and that is not a good situation, because that will leave only two weeks for all the editing (by my boss and co-sup) and vetting (by the patent attorney, before sending it to my co-sup for editing). However, keeping to this new timeline is the only thing I can do now, as the alternative (i.e., delaying the completion of the draft further) will be more disastrous.

To complicate the matter - and to add more stress to an already stressful situation - is the CA of Advanced Optical Spectroscopy and Imaging. Turns out the lecturer's style is to finish teaching the whole syllables before dishing out the homework (10% overall), test (20% overall) and presentation (30% overall). It was just my luck that when he talked about it in the lecture last week, it was at the final bit of the lecture that was edited out in the recording. So, it was only on last Thursday, via the email from the lecturer, that I found out we have to submit the presentation topic and the names of the group members by next Monday, and that the test is the Friday after next. To top it all off, the homework is due next Friday. I had not been following the module very closely, so I can say I know next to pretty much nothing about what is taught. So now having to do the homework and taking the test within the next two weeks is like dropping a bomb on me, because basically it means I'll have to do catch up for the whole of next week. Then there's the presentation.

The first thing I did after receiving the lecturer's email about the presentation, was to request to do the presentation individually. The reply I got from the lecturer was that he recommended me to pair up with another student who was also looking for a group to join, which I did. And somehow, without knowing much about what is being taught, I have to come up with a presentation topic (my team-mate has no idea for presentation topic either, and basically delegated that duty to me. Sign of how the partnership is going to be?). I did come up with a very general topic just now, and is waiting for my team-mate to OK it. I guess that is one thing settle. For now.

Looking forward, there is still the thesis presentation, which will be on the first week of November (within a week after the submission of my thesis). Then there's the exam at the end of November, which means the revision will have to start as soon as I am done with the test for Advanced Optical Spectroscopy and Imaging. I have no idea for the date of the presentation for Advanced Optical Spectroscopy and Imaging, but seeing that it's a small class size and that the semester will be over soon, I am guessing it will be the week after the test. Laying everything out like that, it becomes quite apparent that I am heading for a very busy October. If only I had see it coming earlier.

Actually, I brought all these upon myself - the stress and all. If I had been a bit more studious and more consistent in following the lectures and doing up my thesis, I will not be in such a panic state now. Most likely I will be handling everything with much more ease. It's a lesson I should had already learned, as it is not the first time I am in such a situation, and I had also witnessed it happened to others. I do hope by the end of this episode, I would have finally learned my lesson, because it will do me a whole lot of good in the future. If not, I will be doomed to repeat this same mistake again - with more dire consequences.

Sem 6, Week 7: Presentations...

OK, so this is the mid-term, and I had managed to get through two presentations rather unscathed.

The first presentation was on Thursday, for Advanced Organic Materials. Up till last Sunday afternoon, I was still unable to come up with topic to present. Somehow, by Monday, I was able to come up with a topic and knock together my slides. It was a rush job no doubt. Usually, my slides will more or less be done a week before presentation, and I will be practicing on my presentation throughout the week. This time round, I only practiced for two days and there I was in front of the lecture group presenting. It wasn't the best presentation I gave and there were some mistakes made (diagram too big covering the slides, unable to answer the lecturer's questions). Fortunately I was still able to pull it through, thanks to my past experience.

Second presentation was on Friday, for Bioanalytical Chemistry. This is a group work, so luckily, I just needed to prepare 5 slides. Even more lucky, the topic was assigned and it was a familiar one, so I was able to get away- more or less- with last minute work. It almost didn't happen because the lecturer wanted to postpone our presentation to the following week (we are the last group for the day, and it was getting late). Fortunately, our insistence to go ahead with the presentation paid off (we promise to keep within the time) and it is now behind us (not much Q&A on this one, because the lecturer wanted to wrap up on time. the questions are still quite ok too).

With the presentations over, it practically means I am done with the CA of the two modules above. So it's really time to focus on my thesis (due the end of the month), and on Advanced Optical Spectroscopy and Imaging. Both are worrying me quite a bit. For my thesis, I am really trying hard to complete at least the first draft by the end of the coming week, having written nothing down yet - and there's the presentation that follows. As for Advance Optical Spectroscopy and Imaging, I had not been attending the lectures and had not been catching up on the webcast. From what I watched so far, there's nothing about CAs, but I really don't know. Therefore, from now on, I will attending the lectures. Let just hope I had not miss anything important.

Sem 6, Recess Week: It Will Happen...

OK, so the recess week is over. In fact, it has been over for a week already. I should have wrote this post last week, but maybe it's really 'cos I'm busy, or just simple procrastination, or both, that I am writing this now. The thing is, I don't really recall why.

So there are times when I know I have a lot of things to do, and I absolutely have to get them done. I had even got it all planned out - the schedule and all. However, when it comes to getting down to doing it, it's quite a different thing. There's a lot of procrastination, dilly-dallying, lazing around before I finally drag myself to get the things done. There always seem to be this great inertia and restlessness to overcome before I can settle down and get things going (especially on weekend). Recently I am thinking that's because I am tired. Mentally tired.

I had always believed that I had unexpended energy and can keep going on and on. Now I am starting to doubt this. There are times in the past when I thought I still have energy left after going-through some strenuous, physical activity (e.g., kayaking, soccer, even route march). It is only after I try to exert myself after the activity that I realized my tank is empty. It is the same case now: I might feel like I can still go on, but mentally, I am already exhausted.

Maybe that's why I'm not as productive and not as focus during the weekend. Maybe, after a whole week of work and studies, all I want to do in the weekend is to laze around and recharge.

So that's why instead of working on my presentation slides and thesis on this recess week's weekend (after spending all the weekdays hours at work), I ended up procrastinating mostly and achieving very little.

But, as past experience goes, I will still be able to come up with something before the presentations in the following week. I don't know how, but it's going to happen.

It will happen.

Sem 6, Week 6: Whirlwind

OK, so this post is a full week late. What happened?

Quite a few things in fact. There was a packed weekend and then a big rush throughout the past week, but I will update that in the next post.

So, let's get back to what happened in the recess week. There was supposed to be a meeting with my co-supervisor, to update him about my MSc project, but that didn't happened. The date was tentatively agreed, however a day before the meeting, he had second thought and find it more efficient that I just sent him the draft of the thesis once it is done. The reason for that my project is not his project, and he just wanted to help by agreeing to be my supervisor. Well, that's fair enough, though somehow I don't feel so good. I guess that is related to another event relating to the Chemistry Department Office.

 There is an administrator for the MSc program and she is a really wonderful person, always there to help and answering all the queries (except for those that I sent when I was in a desperate attempts to land a supervisor - more on that next time). However, the same can't be said of her colleague. I emailed the administrator mid-week, asking a few questions. She, efficient as usual, was able to answer all of them except one. That one she referred me to her colleague, who asked me a few follow-up questions and then went silent. Since then, I had not heard anything from her (the colleague), even though I had emailed her a reminder and called her twice. Just to be fair, maybe she can't answer that question on her own, and she needed to forward it to someone else, and it's that someone else that's holding things up. Then again, the question I asked is a rather simple one, and I am sure I am not the first one asking it, so for it to take so long to get a reply - in fact, I am not sure I will even get a reply - doesn't really leave a good impression on me of the department office.

 Oh well, enough complaining. Good things did happen throughout the week. One of them is the poster presentation during the UK-Singapore Symposium. I was out of my depth sometimes, but I think I winged it. So I am happy. As for studies, finally got a little bit of things down. Not much, but it's still progress.

Sem 6 Week 5: Still Clueless...

So another week went by and I found myself thinking: what's going on?

Seriously, I think I had not been following the lectures (especially Advanced Optical Spectroscopy and Imaging) and am having trouble catching up. It is normal to feel clueless about what's going on in the lecture as it had happened before. Usually the reasons is that I don't understand the lecturer (applicable for all modules this semester), or I have been slacking in revision (also true for this semester). For the previous semesters, eventually in the end, the situation will be resolved, usually by some very painful cramming and mugging.

This semester, however, I am rather worried that I can't see any head or tails for all three modules. The reason is actually very simple: I am not familiar with the subject matter of the modules. Analytical chemistry and macromolecules are just not my stuff. Not that I am not interested in them (I do actually), but having to study something unfamiliar, and to get a good result out of it will always be difficult. Extra effort will be needed, which so far I had not been putting in...

The week past had presented a good opportunity to set at least some things in motion, but self-inflicted bad luck (shouldn't had leave the headlights on...) and the bad, old habit of procrastination robbed away those precious time I could had used to brush up on my studies. I'm having two presentations coming up at the end of this month, plus a meeting this coming week with my co-supervisor about my project. I can ill afford to waste anymore time.

 No point looking back. The only way forward is to get my act together and get things going. Being optimistic, I am quite sure I can pull myself together and push things through.

 On the other hand, I am getting back to work on my project next week, which I am quite sure some positive result will come through. Still not started on my thesis yet, but I should be able to crank out something by the end of the week - which, by then, I should be less clueless.

Sem 6 Week 4: Time to Get Serious...

Remember what I said about Bioanalytical Chemistry? That it is non-examinable and there's really no need to study the lecture topics? Well, that's not the case anymore.

Now it turned out that, the lecturer's request to cancel the exam was denied by the administrative office because his submission of the request was late. So the exam is back on, and will account for 50% of the total mark. The other 50% will come from the presentation. There's no more small quizzes, no more class participation, and (most importantly) no more essay.

I had never come across such "unpredictable" module before, where the mode of assessment is so on-the-fly and seems to change week by week. Considering a quarter of the semester is already gone, and the mode of assessment is really bare minimum now, I think it is more or less fixed. But I won't be surprise if there are changes again.

Going by the current situation, it seems that I will be better off attending Advanced Optical Spectroscopy and Imaging on Friday instead. There's no more small quizzes during lecture for Bioanalytical Chemistry anymore, so there's no real need to attend the lecture. Plus, more importantly, I am lagging behind in viewing the recorded lecture for Advanced Optical Spectroscopy and Imaging. Also, the lecturer seems to do some drawing and calculation during lecture, which is not captured in the recordings. Thus it is really a very good idea I start to catch up by attending the lectures.

Advanced Organic Materials needs a bit of catching up too. The same goes for my MSc project. particularly the thesis part of it, which I had not started. This weekend was another weekend wasted as no serious work was being done. I had a good rest though, and ran my first half-marathon in 10 years, so it had been a good weekend, But it would had been perfect if I got some work done in between. I can't really procrastinate anymore. It's already 4 weeks of the semester gone, and with time running out, it's time to get serious. Really.

Sem 6 Week 3: Funny But Good

Bioanalytical Chemistry is a funny module. Not funny in the amusing sense, but in the weird kind of way.

First of all, the lecturer (we heard) was only informed he's taking this module three weeks before the start of the semester. Then, over a hundred students registered for this module (a normal class size for a graduate module is lesser then forty; I was surprise went I walked in late to a packed lecture theatre). These led to the lecturer being rather overwhelmed. At least for the first lecture, he had no idea how he's going to conduct his assessment.

The lecturer is apparently an anti-exam/quiz/test type, preferring to have presentation, essay and project as the mode of assessment. However, with 100+ student, there's no way he can conduct presentation sessions for everyone in the way he wants (3-4 per group, and not too early into the semester so as to be fair). Then there's the issue of assessing class participation for such a big group.

Thus, for the first lecture, a good part was spent on discussing how to resolve the issue, with the lecturer rambling on and on most of the time, about what he wanted to do and why so, when it is obvious it can't be done with such a big class size. Even when offered suggestions (e.g. have quiz and exam instead), the lecturer insisted on what he wanted to do, and gave lengthy explanations.

Now, three weeks into the semester, with the class size reduced to a comfortable level, the lecturer is rolling out his plan for assessment (one presentation, one essay, small quizzes), though it's still feel pretty much like a plan-as-we-go thing, as the lecturer repeatedly state he will see how the class participation component -i.e. small quizzes - goes. (Yes, the lecturer is a long-winded type).

With the situation above, I think I can be forgiven for feeling a bit confused about this lecture. However, that doesn't really matter because of the good bits: I'm being grouped with people I know for my presentation, and the subject (which is also the essay title) was already selected. On top of that, the lecturer did away with the exam (which was originally planned), making this a non-examinable module, and the essay has a generous dateline of the supposed exam date. What this all means is that, I do not need to study anything from the lectures, I just need to remember them long enough to do the occasional quizzes at the end of the lectures.

Furthermore, I can spend more time on the two other modules, and also on writing my thesis, which I should really get started and stop all procrastination already.

Sem 6, Week 2: The Going is Kinda Tough...

The three modules I am taking this semesters are:

Advanced Organic Materials
Bioanalytical Chemistry
Advanced Optical Spectroscopy and Imaging

As can be seen above, these module are not really related to my work/area of specialization. It's still ok 'cause I seeing it an opportunity to expose myself to other areas of research.

The tricky part here is that there's a timetable clash for Bioanalytical Chemistry and Advanced Optical Spectroscopy and Imaging (to be called Adv Spec from now on...). Both have their lectures on Friday evenings. So far for the past two weeks, I had been attending lectures for Bioanalytical Chemistry. As for Adv Spec, I planned to catch up by watching the recording of the lectures. So far I had only got as far as downloading the lectures into my iPad. Guess I need to get things going with the lecture recordings; More discipline needed in this department...

As for the other two modules, I still have not much idea what the lecturer for Advance Organic Materials is talking about, but I have to give a presentation in three weeks. time. Also, I haven't figure out what the mode of assessment will be for Bioanalytical Chemistry (in fact I think the lecturer himself hasn't figure it out yet).

Two weeks in, and I can see a tough road ahead. This has always been the case for every semester, so I am not really surprise. But the thing is, I am not familiar with the subjects of the modules, so it'll be a bit tougher this time round. I think I can oly do my best and see how things unfold...

At least there's some good news on the thesis side: the scale-up of intermediate is complete, and the key reaction is better understood. Now, if I can just get myself to start on writing my thesis...

Sem 6, Week 1: The Heat is On...

Quietly, the new semester had started. And the first week had just concluded.

This is the final semester, so it's all about wrapping things up. For the coursework part, I had completed all the essential modules and secured a specialization (synthetic chemistry) by the end of the previous semester. Also having taken all the modules that are relevant to my expertise/job. Therefore, I am left with taking the 'filler modules' this semester - modules that I would otherwise not had taken if not for the sake of satisfying the coursework requirement.

Because I had taken so many modules in the past five semesters, choosing the modules this semester is literally a '4 choose 3' exercise, and it's made even easier when one of the modules are going to be taught by a visiting professor (the difficulty of the modules by visiting professors are known to be unpredictable, and rumor has it that this visiting professor's module is tough; I have a decent CAP, and is not really interested in the module subject, so let's not risk it...). Luckily though, I do have enough interest in the three modules, so I am not complaining.

Then there's the little problem of MSc project. After struggling for months, there is little to show. I finally got the key step to work in the model reaction. That's more than six weeks ago however, and since then there hasn't been any progress of note. The thesis is due by the end of October and I am seriously considering writing a failure analysis.

This is the last league of a three year MSc journey. Though it's not in an ideal setting for all that's described above, I'm not about to go out in a whimper. No no, I will give it my best shot and bow out with head held high. But given the situation and the short time frame, it would means lotsa stress and lotsa challenges.

So yah, the semester had barely begun, but the heat is on...

Sem 5, End of Semester: Aftermath

OK, so the semester had ended.

Actually it ended almost two weeks ago, on 3rd of May, with the end of the examination. So why do I take so long to update.

Well, there are more important things in life than just blogging isn't it?

The exam period was not an easy time to go through. Partly because the exams are never easy (if it is, I will always be able to finish the papers, with time to spare), and partly because the exam period itself is a tough period. All the time spent in isolation to revise for the paper (it's not undergrad yrs anymore; I am not even a full time student, I don't have big groups of friends/course mate revise together), all the stress, and all the uncertainties. Everything just row into one to make it an unhappy period.

So you can understand why I am not so eager to write about it.

Anyway, another reason why I didn't post immediately is that everything was a mess after exam. During term time, there is a certain work/study schedule to follow; a certain routine of life. Now that the semester is over, the exam is over, I am going to start a new routine. By right, I should have a plan of what I want to do for the term break. And I do. However, the plan doesn't seem to fit quite right with the real situation (I'm partly - ok, mostly - responsible for it), so a lot of adjustment are needed. Slowly and surely a order will emerge, but meanwhile, things are going be rather off-track.

I still haven't talk about how I did for my exam right? Well, all I can say is that for the amount of preparation I did for the exam, I am quite satisfied with how I did. But I won't know about the result until the end of the month.

As for this term break, it is going to be the most busy one I had, cos it will be all about doing my MSc project. A piece of good luck is that now I am able to do my project full time at work. So I can now fully focus on it without any distraction. Let's hope I can knock out something by August.

Sem 5, Revision Week: Did Not Revise

OK, so the revision week was just over, and I hardly did any revision.

Unlike the previous semesters, I didn't take leave for the revision week this time round. The reason is very simple: I will most likely not be using the time to do revision. From the experience of past semester, there will be a lot of procrastination, lazing around and slacking. Then the actual revision will be done a few days before the actual paper. If that happens, then it's just a waste of leave. Beside, I don't have so much leave this year, since I didn't carry a lot from last year. So I rather be going to work (especially now that I'm doing my MSc project at work) and do the revision at night and over the Good Friday long weekend. I will only take leave on the actual days of the exam.

At least that's the plan.

What actually happened was no revision was done at weeknights, and I wasted the long weekend away sleeping in, running errands, and doing tons of other useless stuff.

My first paper is on this Thursday, followed by the second paper which is on Friday. Then the last paper will be the following Tuesday (thankfully there's a long weekend in between). So now I'm taking another day of leave on Wednesday to salvage whatever I can. Let's hope I won't be wasting it away.

On a more positive note though, the result for CA2 of Advanced Topics in Medicinal Chemistry was out. I did very well for it and that somehow made up for the dismal CA1 (to a certain degree). So if I'm able to score for the exam, maybe there'll be someway back for this module afterall.

Another source of motivation for me to push through the revision.

Sem 5, Week 13: End (of the Lectures...)

OK, so the 13th and final week of lectures was just over, and it ended as peaceful as it can be.

The two main event last week had to be the CA2 for Advanced Topics in Medicinal Chemistry and the presentation for Graduate Organic Chemistry. Both were on the same day (Friday).

Took half day off on Friday to do some final revision for CA2. The preparation prior to that wasn't very ideal, but still I was able to go through all the notes. So for that half day off, just did some final brush up and went straight for the test. Luckily it was MCQ and I am able to answer all the question without much difficulty. Of course, whether my answers are right or wrong, that's another issue, but I do feel good after the test. Guess there's still some hope for this module.

I also felt quite good for the presentation. I had been practicing the whole week, memorizing and verbalizing every slides - even when I am in the lab (think the others might think I am weird talking to myself). So for the actual presentation, I think I gave a very confident performance. I would rate my presentation as one of the better ones in the lecture group. But I still fumbled on one of the key points (I was thinking A, but end up saying B). If not for that, I would say I aced the presentation.

Anyway, all that are over. Now is the revision week. Time to do some serious revision for the exams, and start shifting focus to my MSc project, which I had been neglecting for quite some time. It's going to be very fun...

Sem 5, Week 12: The End is Near...

OK, So the 12th week of the semester is just over. I can really feel the end is near.

One piece of good news last week was that there will be no problem set 2 for Contemporary Organometallic Chemistry. That really took a load of me, so now I can focus on the CA 2 for Advanced Topics in Medicinal Chemistry and the presentation for Graduate Organic Chemistry, both coming up on next Friday.

Another thing I should had known about Contemporary Organometallic Chemistry is that it's exam is open-book, but somehow I only heard it for the first time last week (or maybe I had forgotten about it?). So I guess that counts as good news too.

Haven't really prepared for the CA2. This is a test I need to do well so I can pull up my grades for the module. Not expecting to do well for it, but at least I want a decent grade. This time round, the CA2 seems easier then CA1 (the topics are easier to understand, and the paper is MCQ), but I am not taking anything for granted.

Still had not started preparation for the presentation too. Sat through the second round of presentation last Friday, and I think I can do well for it. The Graduate Organic Chemistry is one module that I have high hope for getting a distinction, so there must be no mistake for this presentation (it counts towards a sizable portion of the overall marks).

Then at work, the chemistry is winding down for the current project, so that means I will have some time to focus on my MSc project. I am seriously hoping to make some significant progress this coming week.

Looks like there are quite some work to be done in the week ahead. This is fun...

Sem 5, Week 11: No Complaints

OK, So the 11th week of the semester is just over. In two weeks time, the semester will come to an end. At least the teaching part.

With two more weeks to go, there are only three things left to do: the presentation for Graduate Organic Chemistry, the CA2 for Advanced Topics in Medicinal Chemistry, and the problem set 2 for Contemporary Organometallic Chemistry.

Presentation for Graduate Organic Chemistry is still two weeks away, and I had submitted the slides. For a presentation, two weeks is a lot of time to prepare. Plus after sitting through the first round of presentation by fellow course mates last week I have some idea how should I do my presentation. So I am quietly confident about this presentation.

CA2 for Advanced Topics in Medicinal Chemistry is the one that will give me some white hair. I totally flunked my CA1, so I need really need to do very well for CA2 and the exam at the end of the month. But I still don't really have a good grasp of what is taught in this this module. So yah, it's a bit of a worry. Which means lots of work required.

As for Contemporary Organometallic Chemistry, the problem set 2 has not been given out yet. But I also can't be sure of that because I skipped last week lecture to prepare for quiz 2 of Graduate Organic Chemistry last Friday. Had been skipping a few lectures of Contemporary Organometallic chemistry. I just hope this will not come back to bite me.

Oh yah, there was quiz 2 for Graduate Organic Chemistry last week. Think I did so-so. For the amount of revision I put it, I think I got away with it just right. So I am not complaining.

OK. so let's hope for a more fruitful week ahead.