My A2 Level Examination

I sat for the A2 Level examination in the May 2014. A2 Level is the second half of A Level. I studied A Level at Taylor's College Subang Jaya. The A2 Level examination contributes half of the marks for the overall A Level results. The other half comes from the AS Level examination which I took in October 2013. I took 4 subjects for A Level, which were Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics and Physics. My A2 Level examination was from 9 May 2014 to 22 May 2014.

This is my diary during the A2 Level examination.

2 May 2014 (Friday):

This was my last day of normal college before the A2 Level examination started. After college, I had lunch with my friends at Ha Ha Pan Mee Shop. After returning home, I did revision for the examination.

3 May 2014 (Saturday) to 7 May 2014 (Wednesday):

There were no college during the 5 days. I spent most of my time doing revision for Biology Paper 4 and Chemistry Paper 4. I did past year questions for Biology Paper 4 and Chemistry Paper 4. I also revised my teacher's notes and the notes that I took down myself while in class.

8 May 2014 (Thursday):

I went to college on that day because my Biology teacher held an extra class for Biology Paper 5. The extra class was in the afternoon but I went to college in the morning. Before the extra class started, I went to the learning hub of my college and did revision for Biology Paper 5. Later, I met a few of my friends. I had lunch with them at Good Friends Cafe before going for the extra class. After the extra class ended, I continued revising Biology Paper 5 at home. I went through the past year questions and the mark schemes on the internet. I also revised the Practical worksheets, my teacher's notes and the textbook.

9 May 2014 (Friday):

It was the first day of my A2 Level examination. The subject tested on that day was Biology Paper 5. The questions were extremely difficult, much more difficult than what I had expected. The style of the questions was very different compared to the questions in the past few years. For the question on planning experiment, it was about genetic fingerprinting, which I did not revise much before the test. I could not answer many of the questions. I was not at all confident of this paper and I estimated that I would score only about 10/30. Many of my friends also felt that the paper was very difficult. After returning home, I revised Biology Paper 4 and Chemistry Paper 4.

10 May 2014 (Saturday) and 11 May 2014 (Sunday):

There were no examination during the 2 days. I spent most of my time doing revision for Chemistry Paper 4. I revised my teacher's notes.

12 May 2014 (Monday):

The subject tested on that day was Chemistry Paper 4. The questions were not difficult and were easier than what I had expected. However, there were a few questions that were a bit difficult and I did not answer them well. I also made a few careless mistakes. I was confident of scoring above 80/100 for this paper. After returning home, I revised Biology Paper 4. I did not revise for Mathematics Paper 4 although it was also tested on the next day because I did not have enough time.

13 May 2014 (Tuesday):

Mathematics Paper 4 and Biology Paper 4 were tested on that day. Mathematics Paper 4 started first in the morning followed by Biology Paper 4 in the afternoon. For Mathematics Paper 4, the questions were moderately difficult. However, I made careless mistakes in a few questions. Also, there was a question which stated that I had to solve it using energy method, but I solved it by calculating the acceleration and then using F=ma because I did not read the question carefully. Therefore, I was confident of scoring only about 40/50 for this paper. For Biology Paper 4, many of the questions were extremely difficult, just like Biology Paper 5. Most questions tested on application instead of just knowledge and understanding. There were several questions that tested on the topic of Gene Technology which was the topic I disliked most. I did not revise much for that topic because I thought that not many questions would test on it since Biology Paper 5 already tested on that topic. So, I could not answer many of those questions. I also did not have enough time to finish all questions and I had to leave some questions blank. Therefore, I screwed up this paper. Since both Biology Paper 4 and Paper 5 were very difficult, I was not at all confident of getting A* and I was confident but not 100% confident of getting A. I was quite worried of Biology.  Many of my friends were also quite worried. That day was my most stressful day throughout my A2 Level examination.

14 May 2014 (Wednesday) to 18 May 2014 (Sunday):

There were no examination during the 5 days. On 14 May, I spent most of my time relaxing and I studied very little. Then from 15 May to 18 May, I did revision for Physics Paper 4. I did past year questions for Physics Paper 4. I also revised my teacher's notes.

19 May 2014 (Monday):

Physics Paper 4 was the subject tested on that day. The questions were a bit difficult, but were easier than what I had expected. There were a few questions that I could not answer. I was confident of scoring above 70/100 for this paper. After returning home, I revised Mathematics Paper 3. I did past year questions for Mathematics Paper 3. I also went through the examples in my teacher's notes.

20 May 2014 (Tuesday):

The subject tested on that day was Mathematics Paper 3. The questions were quite easy. I could finish all the questions within the time limit and I even had time to recheck all my answers. I was confident of scoring very high marks and maybe full marks for this paper. I was very sure of getting A* for Mathematics. After the test, there was a briefing in my college for all students who were sponsored by the MOE Bursary and I attended it. The briefing lasted for 1 hour and they told us the steps that we had to do in order to be sponsored by the JPA scholarship. My friends waited for me outside the venue of briefing until the briefing was over. After that, I had lunch with my friends at a Korean restaurant near my college. After returning home, I revised Chemistry Paper 5. I went through the past year papers and the mark schemes on the internet.

21 May 2014 (Wednesday):

Chemistry Paper 5 was the subject tested on that day. The questions were a bit difficult. There were a few questions that I did not answer well. I was confident of scoring above 15/30 for this paper. I was very sure of getting A* for Chemistry. After returning home, I revised Physics Paper 5. I went through the past year papers and the mark schemes on the internet. I also did some past year questions for Physics Paper 5.

22 May 2014 (Thursday):

It was the last day of my A2 Level examination. The subject tested on that day was Physics Paper 5. The questions were quite easy. I was confident of scoring above 25/30 for this paper. I was very sure of getting A* for Physics. After the test, I went to Sunway Pyramid with my friends. There, we watched X-Men: Days of Future Past and then had dinner at Bubba Gump Restaurant. After that, I returned home. Even though the A2 Level examination was over, I still could not relax because I had to prepare for my IMU interview on 29 May 2014 and write my personal statement for my application to NUMed Malaysia.

In my opinion, this is the ranking of all papers from the most difficult to the easiest:

1. Biology Paper 5

2. Biology Paper 4

3. Physics Paper 4

4. Chemistry Paper 5

5. Mathematics Paper 4

6. Chemistry Paper 4

7. Physics Paper 5

8. Mathematics Paper 3

My A Level results was out on 12 August 2014 at 1PM. A few days before the results was released, I felt worried about my results. I was very confident of getting A* for Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics, but I was not 100% confident of getting A for Biology. The conditions of my offer from NUMed Malaysia was AAA including Chemistry and Biology. So, if I did not get A in Biology, my offer from NUMed Malaysia would be withdrawn. If that happened, I could still study Medicine at IMU and be sponsored by the JPA scholarship, but it would be very disappointing for me. At that time, my greatest hope was that I could get A for all subjects including Biology, and I was willing to give up my A* in exchange for that.

On 12 August 2014, just before the results was released, I was very nervous. I was at my house in Subang Jaya at that time. In order to make myself feel less nervous, I kept playing the song 是我在做多情种 at high volume using my iPad. It is a very nice song, and I knew the song just a few days before that. At 1PM, I checked my results at the Cambridge International Examinations website using the username and password provided by my college. I was so happy to know that I got A* for all 4 subjects including Biology. I could not control myself and I shouted 'Yes!', even though there was no one in my house at that time. I then informed my grandparents and parents about my results and they were very happy about that.

However, on that day after I got my results and on the following day, my body did not feel well, maybe because I was too stressed before that. I sent my A Level results to both NUMed Malaysia and IMU. Both universities then converted my conditional offer to unconditional offer. I also submitted my A Level results to JPA. On 29 August 2014, my A Level Statement of Results was out and I went to my college to collect it. 

This is my A Level results:

Biology: A* (92%)

Chemistry: A* (93%)

Mathematics: A* (94%)

Physics: A* (95%)

The interesting thing about my results is that my percentage uniform marks for the 4 subjects are in an ascending order.

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http://daniellimjj.blogspot.com/2014/01/my-2013-year-end-examination.html