My mistake during the System-based Weeks

Stage 3 of my MBBS course at NUMed consisted of three parts. It was the System-based Weeks, followed by the Hospital-based Weeks, and then the Essential Junior Rotations.

During the System-based Weeks, I was placed in Clinical Group 3 (CG 3). All students in CG 1 to 4 were posted to Hospital Sultanah Nora Ismail in Batu Pahat. We travelled to Batu Pahat together and stayed in the same hotel every week, and occasionally we also had large group outings. Therefore, every one in CG 1 to 4 were often together. However, during the teaching sessions, I was with CG 3 and 4 only.

Coincidentally, my best friend in NUMed was placed in CG 3 with me, and I was definitely very glad about that. However, I didn't know most of the other students in CG 3, and this was the case for CG 4 as well. On the other hand, I had known many of the students in CG 1 and 2 even before starting Stage 3. At the start of the System-based Weeks in September 2016, I quickly became close friends with those in CG 1 and 2.

However, I didn't attempt to get to know those in CG 3 and 4, so I wasn't close to them (apart from my best friend in CG 3). As time went on, nothing changed. I kept staying in my comfort zone by only talking to my friends in CG 1 and 2, while I hardly talked to my CG 3 and 4 group mates. Whenever I joined outings that involved CG 1 to 4, I seemed to be a very sociable person, but whenever I was with just CG 3 and 4, I became very quiet.

My CG 3 and 4 group mates were actually quite nice, but I didn't appreciate them. On 29 September 2016, it was my first formative clinical assessment in Stage 3. Due to lack of preparation and experience, I performed very poorly in the assessment. One of my group mate in CG 4 then approached me and offered to give me some guidance for the assessment. However, I just told her coldly that I didn't need any guidance.

My best friend also didn't know anyone in CG 3 and 4 earlier. But unlike me, he took the step to get to know them. Pretty soon, he became very close to them and they liked him a lot. For sure, if I was willing to do the same, I too could have a good relationship with them. Unfortunately, I never realised that throughout the System-based Weeks. Instead, I only cared about my friends in CG 1 and 2.

On 25 October 2016 which was during the final week of the System-based Weeks, every one of us in CG 1 to 4 went to Old Street Commercial Centre in Batu Pahat. It was a very beautiful place and many of my friends were taking photographs there. I could have taken photos with my CG 3 and 4 group mates and that was the last opportunity for me to have some good memories with them, but I didn't bother to do so.

27 October 2016 was the last day of the System-based Weeks. During the journey back from Batu Pahat to NUMed, my best friend was sitting at the back of the bus and surrounding him were a few of our CG 3 and 4 group mates. He was talking to them throughout the journey and obviously he would miss them a lot after the System-based Weeks. Looking at his close relationship with them, I suddenly felt envy.

I began to think, why my best friend was so close to them while I was not? At that point, I finally realised that I had been making a mistake throughout the System-based Weeks, the mistake of not getting out of my comfort zone to get to know my CG 3 and 4 group mates and be friends with them. Although I did enjoy the System-based Weeks, I was missing out on a friendship that I shouldn't have missed. I really regretted the mistake.

Sadly, it was already too late at that time. For the Hospital-based Weeks, I was placed in Hospital Based Group B1 (HBG B1) and none of my CG 3 and 4 group mates were in HBG B1. Since I was no longer in the same group with my CG 3 and 4 group mates, I couldn't correct the mistake. All I could do was to not make the same mistake again during the Hospital-based Weeks. I made sure to be friends with my HBG B1 group mates.

Soon after the Hospital-based Weeks started, I heard rumours that the grouping for the Essential Junior Rotations would be the same as the grouping for the System-based Weeks. I felt quite hopeful about that and I told myself that if I could ever be in the same group with my CG 3 and 4 group mates again, I would definitely put in my effort to build a good relationship with all of them.

On 2 December 2016, the group list for the Essential Junior Rotations was released. The rumour earlier turned out to be true to a certain extent. The Essential Junior Rotations grouping was largely based on that of the System-based Weeks, but there were changes for a few students, and unfortunately I was one of them. While most of my CG 3 and 4 group mates were placed in Group 1, I was placed in Group 2 instead. 

I immediately requested the lecturer in charge for a switch from Group 2 to Group 1. Unfortunately, the lecturer said that it wasn't possible to switch groups because the grouping had already been finalised. Therefore, I couldn't be in the same group with my CG 3 and 4 group mates. I felt very upset about that. Just as I thought I would be getting another opportunity to correct the mistake, I lost it once again.

Initially, I was unwilling to accept Group 2 as my group for the Essential Junior Rotations. However, I later reminded myself not to repeat the same mistake with this group. After the Essential Junior Rotations started in January 2017, I put in my efforts to get to know every one in Group 2. Soon, I had a very good relationship with them, even though I didn't know many of them previously. As a result, I liked Group 2 a lot.

The 1st semester of Stage 4 of MBBS started in September 2017. The grouping for this semester turned out to be largely based on the grouping for the Hospital-based Weeks previously. I was placed in Group 4, together with most of my HBG B1 group mates, so I really liked Group 4. However, I still wasn't in the same group with my CG 3 and 4 group mates. At that time, it seemed that I would never get to correct the mistake again.

Semester 2 of Stage 4 consisted of three Student Selected Components (SSC). The SSC 3 could be done either in Malaysia or in UK.

In September 2017, I made the decision to go to UK for my SSC 3. Then in February 2018, NUMed confirmed that I had been offered an SSC at James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough, UK. My best friend as well as a few CG 3 and 4 group mates would also be doing their SSC 3 at the same hospital. With that, I was once again hopeful of being able to correct the mistake. I travelled to UK on 13 April 2018.

One day when I was in UK, my best friend told me that he and our CG 3 and 4 group mates were planning to have a one-day trip on that weekend, and he invited me to join them. I gladly accepted the invitation and I prepared to use this opportunity to correct the mistake. On 28 April 2018, we had the one-day trip to Whitby. During the trip, I initiated conversations with my CG 3 and 4 group mates.

Soon enough, we were having quite a lot of conversations and they had become my friends. Thanks to that, the trip with them was really enjoyable. At that time, it had been 18 months since the end of the System-based Weeks. After so long, I finally had the opportunity to correct the mistake that I made during the System-based Weeks. The Whitby trip was a good start, but I knew I wouldn't stop at that.

On 12 May 2018, I had a one-day trip to Durham with my best friend and my CG 3 and 4 group mates. In this trip, I became even closer to them. Once again, I enjoyed the trip very much. After that, we had another one-day trip to Newcastle on 30 May 2018. I then returned to Malaysia on 2 June 2018. I was really glad that I chose to do my SSC 3 in UK, otherwise I wouldn't get to correct the mistake.

I definitely learnt a valuable lesson from the whole mistake, and I will never repeat the same mistake with any of my future group mates.

If you liked this story, you may want to read this too:

http://daniellimjj.blogspot.com/2017/08/bonding-vs-comfort-zone.html

18 November 2016 incident

Here, I would like to write about an incident that happened on 18 November 2016.

At that time, it was my Hospital Based Weeks for Stage 3 of MBBS. On that week, my group was posted to Batu Pahat hospital. As my group was quite large, we were divided into several subgroups for the hospital sessions. There was a seminar room specifically for NUMed students at Batu Pahat hospital. The key of the seminar room belonged to the hospital. They handed it to us but we had to return it before leaving.

The group leader was holding the key initially. She then passed the key to me as my subgroup was using the seminar room on 15 and 16 November. After the hospital sessions on 16 November, I returned the key to the group leader and I didn't hold the key thereafter. On 17 November, we returned to Johor Bahru.

On 18 November, there were lectures at NUMed. On that morning, the group leader received a call from Batu Pahat hospital. They were asking for the whereabouts of the seminar room key, as it wasn't returned to them. The group leader wasn't the last person holding the key as she had passed it to someone else. She asked everyone in our group about it, but no one was having the key.

BG then said that the key might be with me, as she saw the key on my chair in the seminar room right before she left on the previous day. My group mates began questioning me about the key, and that made me panicked a bit. I was in a rush when leaving the hospital on the previous day, so I might have overlooked the key on my chair, which would be a mistake on my part.

However, I definitely didn't put the key on the chair as I wasn't the one holding the key. Someone else must have placed the key there with the intention of passing it to me, but without telling me about it. If I held the key, I wouldn't have left it unattended. Later, my close friend from another group told me not to worry about the incident, as he had found out the truth.

As a matter of fact, OG was holding the key on 17 November. As his subgroup finished the hospital sessions earlier, he wanted to pass the key to me so that he could leave. OG was the one who placed the key on my chair. He didn't inform me about that, probably because he forgot. Consequently, I didn't know that the key was on the chair.

It was largely OG's mistake that the key got lost. Not wanting to be blamed for his own mistake, OG tried to push the blame onto me. OG and BG had a very close relationship, so BG was helping him by telling our group that she last saw the key on my chair, to make it look as if I was the one who lost the key.

When OG and BG were discussing this among themselves in the lecture theatre, my close friend who was sitting near them overheard their conversation. That was how he knew what happened. He then confronted OG and BG, making it clear that he wouldn't allow their plan to succeed. I felt so relieved after my close friend told me what happened.

Later that day, Batu Pahat hospital informed us that they found the key on the floor in the seminar room. The key must have fallen off from my chair. With that, the issue was resolved. BG then told our group that she was the one who placed the key there and she apologised for that. I too apologised to my group for not noticing that the key was on my chair.

OG remained silent and never revealed the truth that it was him who put the key there. Right from the beginning, he should have admitted his mistake and apologised. I am sure it wouldn't be a great issue and I would have been willing to share the responsibility with him. However, OG was too egoistic to do so. In the end, BG shouldered all the responsibility for OG.

BG had been my friend since Stage 1 of MBBS. OG was my housemate but I rarely communicated with him due to our very different personalities, although I did have a high regard for him. I had never expected that BG and OG would do such a thing. This incident really changed my perceptions towards them. On the other hand, this incident proved that my close friend is a true friend.

My 2nd year of MBBS course at NUMed

The 2nd year of my MBBS course at Newcastle University Medicine (NUMed) Malaysia lasted for about 9 months from 29 September 2015 to 8 June 2016. In NUMed, 2nd year is known as Stage 2. During Stage 2, I lived in Horizon Residences, Bukit Indah which is accommodation managed by the university. Here, I am writing about my experience when I was in Stage 2.


September 2015:

On 26 September, I moved into Horizon Residences. My parents drove me from Subang Jaya back to Bukit Indah. My housemates also moved in on the same day. Then on 27 September, I and my housemates had dinner together at a Chinese restaurant in Skudai. Stage 2 of Medicine course began on 29 September. It was about a week later compared to the previous years. This marked the end of my 4 month summer break. At that time, I felt that the summer break seemed to pass so quickly and I felt sad because I would not have any more 4 month break in the future. For the 1st semester of Stage 2, I would be studying Thoughts, Senses and Movement (TSM) which comprises the nervous system and musculoskeletal system. For Stage 2, I was assigned the same seminar group as during Stage 1. All my group mates also remained in the same group. I was very happy about this.

October 2015:

In early October, I was still in holiday mood so I did not start doing any revision. My next examination would be the Progress 1 examination in January 2016 which was still a long time away. On 6 October, NUMed distributed the assignments for Stage 2 which are Patient Study and Student Selected Component (SSC). The SSC had 2 parts, Literature Review and Oral Presentation. I expected that the SSC would be quite difficult while the Patient Study would be easier. I planned to do a part of the assignments in November and continue with the rest after the Progress 1 examination. I and my friends went to the EduCity Stadium near NUMed to play badminton on 7 October. As NUMed students, we could access the stadium for free. I was quite poor at badminton and I knew only the basics, but I still enjoyed playing badminton with my friends. This was my 2nd time playing badminton.

I and my friends celebrated the birthday of someone in our group on 12 October. We went to AEON Bukit Indah to buy the ingredients, then we prepared the food for the celebration at Horizon Residences. Since I do not know how to cook, I only helped with the preparation of the drinks. The birthday celebration was held beside the swimming pool of Horizon Residences. We surprised our friend with the celebration. During the celebration, we entered the swimming pool. It was really an interesting birthday celebration. On 14 October, I and my study partners visited our patient for the Patient Study assignment. Then, I submitted my proposal of my choice of topic for the SSC assignment on 18 October. On 19 October, I started creating the notes for AS Level Physics, Chemistry and Biology based on the 2016-2018 syllabus, after receiving numerous requests from my blog readers. I finished creating the notes and uploaded them to this blog on 22 October. On 23 October, I was informed by my lecturer that my proposal for the SSC had been approved.

Around that time, I was thinking back of Stage 1 and I realised that I had not obtained excellent results in examinations ever since the Stage 1 Progress 1 in November 2014. I felt sad about it and as a result I set myself the target of getting at least 80% for the Stage 2 Progress 1 examination. To achieve it, I decided to start revising very early. This got me out of my holiday mood. I began my revision for the Progress 1 examination on 26 October. On 28 October, I and my study partners followed our patient to visit his GP as part of the Patient Study assignment. We had to skip a few lectures in the morning for that. After returning to NUMed, I was very tired, causing me to fall asleep for a few minutes during a lecture. One of my friend took a photo of me sleeping and sent it to our WhatsApp group with the words 'Thug Life'. On that afternoon, there was a formative anatomy practical test. I and my friends decided to not write our names on our answer sheets, instead we all wrote someone's name. However, our lecturers were upset when they knew about that. They said that if we didn't want to write our actual names, we could use our initials, but we should not use another student's name. We eventually apologised to our lecturers over this incident.

November 2015:

Throughout November, I was doing revision for the Progress 1 examination. A large proportion of TSM is anatomy, which was my weak point at that time. Therefore, I put in more effort to revise anatomy in greater detail. Soon, I began to feel that anatomy isn't that difficult actually. Because there was still a long time until the Progress 1, I did not study very long hours every day, so I was not too stressed. Earlier, I had planned to do a part of the Patient Study and SSC assignments in November. However, I changed the plan and decided to do the assignments only after the Progress 1, because I wanted to focus on revising for the Progress 1 and there would still be a lot of time to do the assignments after the Progress 1. On 13 November, I and my study partners carried out our 3rd visit to our patient for the Patient Study assignment.

December 2015:

In early December, I started feeling more stressed and I revised longer hours daily, because the Progress 1 examination was approaching. On 4 December, there was a cultural fest at NUMed and I attended it for the first time. The fest presented several cultures, particularly food and games, from different parts of the world. It was quite interesting. I and my study partners carried out our 4th visit to our Patient Study patient on 5 December. On 10 December, it was the 1st Hospital Visit for Stage 2. We went to Hospital Sultan Ismail. At the hospital, I and one of my friend clerked 2 patients. We also had a discussion and conversation with our Stage 3 seniors. Then on 14 December, I and my friends visited Diabetes Malaysia at Hospital Sultanah Aminah as part of the Patient Study assignment. The 2nd formative anatomy practical test was on 17 December. This time, I and my friends wrote the initials of our names on the answer sheets.

The winter break started on 19 December and it lasted for 3 weeks. The break used to last for 4 weeks in the previous years, but it was shortened to 3 weeks for this year. I could not enjoy the winter break at all, due to the fact that the Progress 1 examination would be immediately after the break and I had to revise for the examination during the break. This is something that I really dislike, because I think that breaks should be for students to rest and relax. Unfortunately, many students preferred to have the break to study, which was why NUMed scheduled the Progress 1 after the break. My parents fetched me back to Subang Jaya on 20 December. I had dinner with my Taylor's College friends on 22 December. Then, I had lunch with them again on 23 December. On 26 December, I went to Kulim for 1 week. During that time, I was very busy revising for the Progress 1 and I felt very stressed.

January 2016:

On 2 January, I returned to Subang Jaya. I met one of my Taylor's College friend again on 7 January. We watched the Hong Kong movie Anniversary at GSC Cinema in IOI Mall, Puchong. Then, my parents drove me back to Bukit Indah on 8 January. On 11 and 12 January, it was the Progress 1 examination. The examination questions were very difficult because they tested on a lot of fine details, some of which I did not pay attention to during my revision. As a result, I could not answer well in the examination despite having done a lot of revision. After the Progress 1 ended, there were about another 2 weeks of break. I relaxed for a few days before starting the Patient Study assignment. On 14 January, I and my friends went to Cat's Cafe in Johor Bahru for lunch. I drove my friends there. In the cafe, there were many cats walking around. They were very cute and were always kept clean by the staffs. It was truly an interesting experience. I and my study partners visited our Patient Study patient for the final time on 16 January.

On 17 January, I started writing the Patient Study assignment. This assignment is similar to the Family Study assignment in Stage 1. I had to write a report based on the information gathered when I and my study partners visited our patient previously. I referred to the assignments done by my seniors as a guide. Most students wrote the assignment by dividing it into several subheadings. However, I wrote the assignment as a single continuous essay because I preferred it this way. Just like what I had expected earlier, the Patient Study was not difficult and I did not feel stressed doing it. On 18 January, the results for the Progress 1 examination was released. My score was 71.86%. Although I did not reach my target of 80%, I was still happy because it was still a good score and there was a slight improvement compared to the Stage 1 Progress 3 examination. The 2nd semester of Stage 2 began on 26 January. For this semester, I would be studying Clinical Sciences and Investigative Medicine (CSIM) which comprises pathology, immunology and microbiology. The lecturers told us that CSIM would be quite difficult.

February 2016:

The deadline for the Patient Study assignment was on 12 February. However, I had completed and submitted the assignment on 5 February. With this, I could celebrate Chinese New Year without having to worry about the assignment. This was the first time where I submitted an assignment before its deadline. The Chinese New Year was on 8 February. NUMed had 4 days of holidays from 6 to 9 February. I decided to skip classes on 10 to 12 February so that I could have one whole week of holidays. On 6 February, I took a flight back to Subang Jaya. I flew by Malaysia Airlines and it was the first time I flew alone. Then, I and my parents went to Kulim on 7 February to celebrate Chinese New Year. My cousins' family also went to Kulim and we all stayed in my grandparents' house. It was an interesting Chinese New Year. I and my parents returned to Subang Jaya on 11 February, then my parents drove me back to Bukit Indah on 12 February.

I relaxed for a few days before I started writing the Student Selected Component (SSC) Literature Review on 15 February. This assignment is similar to the Critical Appraisal and Literature Review assignment in Stage 1. I had to find relevant articles for the title I chose, then write a review of the articles followed by a conclusion. I again referred to my seniors' assignments as a guide. Contrary to my expectation earlier, I did not find this assignment difficult or stressful. Unlike the Stage 1 Critical Appraisal and Literature Review, this assignment was not boring because I chose the topic that I was interested in. On 18 February, there was a wet teaching session on microbiology. We had the opportunity to produce bacteria cultures and look at specimen of bacteria using microscope. On 24 February, when I was sleeping, I had 3 strange dreams. The 1st was about me trying to find a burger shop in SS2, the 2nd was about me and my cousins going to Pakistan for holidays while the 3rd was about me experiencing ear pain while taking a submarine ride.

March 2016:

The deadline of the SSC Literature Review was on 10 March. By 6 March, I had largely finished writing the assignment. Then, I submitted it on 9 March ahead of its deadline. I decided to fully relax for 2 weeks before I start revising for the Progress 2 examination. There was a solar eclipse on 9 March. Strangely, the sun seemed to look normal, except that the sky was not as bright as usual. I sent my Acer laptop for repair at the service centre in AEON Bukit Indah on 10 March because it broke down shortly after I completed the assignment. I was told that the hard disk was damaged so it had to be replaced. Therefore, I would lose all personal data and programs in my laptop. Luckily, I had backed up my personal data to the cloud. On 14 March, my laptop was ready and I went to collect it. After that, I started reinstalling the important programs on my laptop.

On 15 March, it was the 2nd Hospital Visit for Stage 2. Once again, we went to Hospital Sultan Ismail to clerk patients. On 17 March, I had an outing with my friends. We had lunch at Indian Kitchen which is located not far away from NUMed. After that, we went to Puteri Harbour. There, we had desserts at Starbucks. We took a look at Jen Hotel, where the NUMed Prom Night would be held in the following month. When we came across a Toy'R'us store, we decided a get a toy car for every one of us as a symbol and memory of our friendship. This outing with my friends was really interesting. I went to Columbia Asia Hospital on 18 March to get vaccination for chickenpox which is compulsory for all medical students. This was arranged by NUMed because my health report showed that I was not vaccinated against chickenpox.

On 20 March, I played the video game Braid and successfully completed all levels for the first time, with the help of a walkthrough on the internet. On 21 March, my HTC One E8 mobile phone received the upgrade to Android Marshmallow, which I had been waiting for months. Later on that night, I watched the launch of the iPhone SE and 9.7 inch iPad Pro live online. My 21th birthday was on 23 March 2016. Many of my friends wished me through the internet. I had dinner at Nando's which is my favourite restaurant, then I had cake at Secret Recipe. On 24 March, I decided to create a 2nd Facebook account specifically for keeping in touch with my close friends, while my 1st Facebook account would still continue to be in use. NUMed had an Easter break which started on 26 March and lasted for 2 weeks. On 26 March, I took a flight back to Subang Jaya. I flew by Firefly this time. My parents then drove me to Kulim on 27 March. At that time, I started revising for the Progress 2 examination which would be in May. However, as I was in holiday mood, I did not put my full attention in the revision.

April 2016:

On 2 April, my cousins came to Kulim. On that night, I watched the movies Bad Neighbours and Interstellar with my cousins. Then on 3 April, my parents drove me back to Subang Jaya. However, in the journey my father's car broke down due to a problem with the alternator. Luckily, that happened when we were at Tapah rest area. We called a tow truck and had to wait hours for it to arrive. We then sat the tow truck to Subang Jaya. On 5 April, I met up with one of my Taylor's College friend. We went to watch Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice at GSC Cinema in IOI Mall, Puchong. I flew back to Bukit Indah on 9 April. NUMed reopened on 11 April. On that day, the results for the Patient Study assignment was released. My score was 37/50 for Skills and 38/50 for Knowledge. Although not as good compared to the Stage 1 Family Study, it was still a good score and I was quite satisfied. At that time, I started preparing for the Student Selected Component (SSC) Oral Presentation, so I temporarily stopped my revision for the Progress 2 examination. For the oral presentation, I had to present on a topic of my choice using PowerPoint slides.

On 15 April, it was the NUMed Prom Night which was held at Jen Hotel, Puteri Harbour. I drove one of my friend there. When I arrived there, the prom night had not yet started so I walked around the hotel. Many Stage 2 students and some lecturers attended the prom night. 7 out of 10 of my group mates attended it. I was in the same table as many of my friends. During the prom night, food was served and there were many performances on the stage. The food was quite tasty and the performances were interesting to watch. There were also lucky draws, but unfortunately I did not win any of them. Towards the end of the prom night, I and my friends began taking photographs. I took group photos with my group mates and with my friends who sat in the same table. I also took two-person photos with many of my friends. There was also a dance but I did not take part as I do not know how to dance. We spent more than an hour taking photographs before leaving. The prom night was really interesting, especially taking photographs with my friends.

I finished preparing the PowerPoint slides for the SSC Oral Presentation and submitted it on 18 April, one day before its deadline. I practised the oral presentation with my friends quite often at that time. The GP Visit for Stage 2 was on 20 April. I and my group mates went to Klinik Kesihatan Mahmoodiah. There, we observed the patients' consultation with the doctors. On 21 April, it was the SSC Oral Presentation. I performed quite well in the oral presentation, due to the fact that I had practised a lot. I felt that this was the easiest assessment in Stage 2. After that, I relaxed for a few days. I went to Columbia Asia Hospital on 22 April to get a booster dose of vaccination for chickenpox. On 25 April, I started my revision for the Progress 2 examination. I had forgotten most of what I had revised a few weeks earlier since I wasn't revising wholeheartedly, so I needed to revise them again. I expected that the revision would be stressful. There was a formative anatomy practical test on 28 April. That was also the last anatomy session for Stage 2.

May 2016:

On 6 May, it was the last lecture for Stage 2. There was a formative OSCE on 7 May. I performed poorly because I was not well prepared for it. On 9 May, there was a clinical skills revision session. After that, we had a 3 week study break. There was a clinical skills session on knee examination on 20 May. This session should have been scheduled previously before 6 May, but our lecturers forgot about it. This was the final clinical skills session for Stage 2. Throughout May, I was very busy revising for the Progress 2 examination. I had to revise very long hours every day and I felt extremely stressed. There was a lot that I had to revise because the examination would test on both semester 1 and 2 topics. The topics for CSIM were also quite difficult. I was worried that I would not have enough time to finish the revision. To save time, I ate just 2 meals every day, one of the meals being instant noodles. I always longed for the examination to end and for the summer break to begin. I was definitely just hoping to pass Stage 2 and nothing more than that.

On 22 and 23 May, I temporarily stopped my revision for the Progress 2 and I practised the OSCE with my friends at Horizon Residences. The End of Stage OSCE was on 24 May. During the OSCE, I could not perform well in the first few stations, even though I thought that I prepared well for the OSCE. It affected my confidence, causing me to not perform well in the remaining stations too. I felt that I had screwed up the entire OSCE and I was really worried that I would fail it. I was prepared for having to resit the OSCE, but I told myself that I must try my best to pass the Progress 2 examination. After the OSCE, I continued my stressful revision for the Progress 2. The Progress 2 examination was on 31 May and 1 June. It turned out that the Progress 2 was actually not very difficult because the questions were quite direct. After all my hard work, I could answer it reasonably well and I was confident of passing it.

June 2016:

After the Progress 2 examination, it was the summer break which would last about 3 months until 28 August. I could finally relax after more than 1 month of stressful revision. However, I was still quite worried because of the the OSCE. On 2 June, I and my friends went to TGV Cinemas in AEON Bukit Indah to watch X-Men: Apocalypse. My parents drove me back to Subang Jaya on 4 June. I left some of my personal belongings at Horizon Residences because NUMed allowed me to do so with no extra charges. On 8 June, the Stage 2 Pass List was released, along with the results for SSC assignment, Progress 2 and OSCE. I was so nervous that I dared not check the pass list first. Instead, I checked my SSC results first, followed by the Progress 2 and finally the OSCE. For the SSC, my score was 44.5/60 for Skills and 38/50 for Knowledge, while for the Progress 2, I obtained 64.65%. I was quite satisfied with the results. Then, I was so happy to know that I passed the OSCE, though it was really a narrow escape. My percentage was 74.28 while the pass threshold was 73.12, and I failed 3 out of 10 stations which was the maximum allowed. With that, I passed Stage 2 successfully and could continue on to Stage 3. This marked the end of Stage 2.

Conclusion:

Overall, Stage 2 was less interesting compared to Stage 1. I am glad that I no longer had problems with the assignments during Stage 2, unlike in Stage 1. The most stressful thing about Stage 2 was doing revision for the Progress 1 and 2 examinations. My greatest weakness for Stage 2 was the OSCE, which I performed badly and nearly failed. This is definitely something that I need to work to improve on in Stage 3.

If you find this story interesting, you may want to read these too:
http://daniellimjj.blogspot.com/2017/08/my-3rd-year-of-mbbs-course-at-numed.html
http://daniellimjj.blogspot.com/2015/09/my-1st-year-of-medicine-course-at-numed.html

For information about the MBBS course at NUMed, go to this link:
http://daniellimjj.blogspot.com/2017/07/information-about-mbbs-course-at-numed.html

My 2016 summer break

In 2016, I had 3 months of summer break between 1 June 2016 which was the last day of my 2nd year of MBBS course at NUMed and 29 August 2016 which was the start of my 3rd year of MBBS. Several interesting events happened during that 3 months. Here, I am going to write about those events.

Before the break, I was already longing for it to begin. Throughout May 2016, I experienced extreme stress while I was revising for the Progress 2 examination as there was a lot to revise. The break allowed me to fully relax myself after having gone through so stress. This was the last long break in my life. In 2017, my break would be only 1.5 months; in 2018, my break would be only 1 month.


1 June 2016 (Wednesday):
- Completed Paper 2 of Progress 2 examination
- Had dinner at Nando’s, AEON Bukit Indah

2 June 2016 (Thursday):
- Watched X-Men: Apocalypse with my friends at TGV Cinema, AEON Bukit Indah
- Had lunch with my friends at Stonegrill

4 June 2016 (Saturday):
- Went back to Subang Jaya

8 June 2016 (Wednesday):
- Passed 2nd year of MBBS successfully

11 June 2016 (Saturday):
- Went back to Kulim
- Had dinner at Fettes Park, Penang with my parents and grandparents

14 June 2016 (Tuesday):
- Watched Apple WWDC Keynote online

26 June 2016 (Sunday):
- Returned to Subang Jaya
- Had dinner at The Ship with my parents

27 June 2016 (Monday):
- Went to a book fair at One City Mall with my mother
- Learnt new attack strategy for Clash of Clans - GoVaHo

28 June 2016 (Tuesday):
- Uploaded notes for A2 Level Physics based on the 2016 syllabus to this blog

30 June 2016 (Thursday):
- Uploaded notes for A2 Level Chemistry based on the 2016 syllabus to this blog

2 July 2016 (Saturday):
- Had lunch with my friends at Home Made Restaurant, SS15
- Had desserts with my friends at Fatbaby Ice-cream
- Played board games with my friends at Meeples

3 July 2016 (Sunday):
- My 1st Clash of Clans account upgraded to TH10
- Had buffet dinner at Melting Pot, Concorde Hotel with my parents

5 July 2016 (Tuesday):
- Tried to renew my passport but had to give up as there were too many people

6 July 2016 (Wednesday):
- Had lunch with my friends at Archana Curry House, Klang
- Played board games with my friends at Meeples, SS15
- Had dinner at Sri Petaling with my relatives

7 July 2016 (Thursday):
- Had dinner at Red Lobster with my parents

8 July 2016 (Friday):
- Took the LRT for the first time with my mother

9 July 2016 (Saturday):
- Uploaded notes for A2 Level Biology based on the 2016 syllabus to this blog

10 July 2016 (Sunday):
- Had lunch at Yut Kee Kopitiam with my parents

11 July 2016 (Monday):
- Successfully renewed my passport

14 July 2016 (Thursday):
- Had lunch with my friend at Raj’s Banana Leaf, Bangsar
- Went shopping with my friend at Reliance Optical Centre

15 July 2016 (Friday):
- Had dinner at Plan B with my parents

16 July 2016 (Saturday):
- My 2nd Clash of Clans account upgraded to TH9
- Had dinner at Cheras with my family

17 July 2016 (Sunday):
- Had dinner at Pavilion Mall with my family

19 July 2016 (Tuesday):
- Had dinner at Sri Petaling with my relatives

21 July 2016 (Thursday):
- Watched Bad Neighbors (2014) online

22 July 2016 (Friday):
- Went to IPC Mall with my mother
- Met my friend there by chance

25 July 2016 (Monday):
- Uploaded e-books for A Level Mathematics to this blog

29 July 2016 (Friday):
- Updated my Acer laptop to Windows 10 Anniversary Update

30 July 2016 (Saturday):
- Had lunch at Nandos, USJ Taipan with my mother

3 August 2016 (Wednesday):
- Went to a sports fair at USJ 19 Mall with my mother

5 August 2016 (Friday):
- Had dinner at Fatty Crab Restaurant with my parents

6 August 2016 (Saturday):
- Attended my grandfather’s birthday dinner in Penang
- Went back to Kulim

8 August 2016 (Monday):
- Joined NUMed confession page

11 August 2016 (Thursday):
- Reached Arena 7 in Clash Royale

12 August 2016 (Friday):
- NUMed confession page was shut down

14 August 2016 (Sunday):
- Retuned to Subang Jaya
- Had dinner at The Ship with my parents

17 August 2016 (Wednesday):
- Watched Captain America: Civil War online

18 August 2016 (Thursday):
- Created a fixed deposit account at my bank

19 August 2016 (Friday):
- Had dinner at Morganfield’s with my parents

17 August (Wednesday) – 21 August 2016 (Sunday):
- Watched Rio 2016 Olympics

24 August 2016 (Wednesday):
- Watched Nerve movie with my friend at GSC Cinema, NU Sentral
- Had dinner with my friend at Chili Espresso

27 August 2016 (Saturday):
- Played badminton with my friends at Taman Megah Badminton Hall
- Had lunch with my friends at Ming Tien Food Court
- Had dinner at Fuego, Troika Sky Dining with my parents

28 August 2016 (Sunday):
- Moved into Horizon Residences

29 August 2016 (Monday):
- Began 3rd year of MBBS at NUMed


If you find this interesting, you may want to read this too:
http://daniellimjj.blogspot.com/2016/08/the-4-eventful-months-after-my-1st-year.html

My 2015 summer break

In 2015, I had 4 months of summer break between 27 May 2015 which was the last day of my 1st year of MBBS course at NUMed and 29 September 2015 which was the start of my 2nd year of MBBS. Several interesting events happened during that 4 months. Here, I am going to write about those events.


27 May 2015 (Wednesday):
- Had lunch with my house mates
- Sat for Paper 2 of Progress 3 examination
- Had dinner at Nandos in AEON Bukit Indah

30 May 2015 (Saturday):
- Went back to Subang Jaya

1 June 2015 (Sunday):
- Had dinner at Burger Factory in SS15 with my parents and grandparents

3 June 2015 (Wednesday):
- My Clash of Clans Town Hall upgraded to level 9

4 June 2015 (Thursday):
- Passed 1st year of MBBS course at NUMed Malaysia

6 June 2015 (Saturday):
- Went back to Kulim

7 June 2015 (Sunday):
- Collected my SPM 2013 certificate at Kedah State Education Department in Alor Star
- My cousins came to Kulim

8 June 2015 (Monday):
- Had a food trip to Penang with my family
- Visited Snake Temple in Penang
- Watched Fast and Furious 7 at home with my cousins

9 June 2015 (Tuesday):
- Watched The Avengers: Age of Ultron at home with my cousins

28 June 2015 (Sunday):
- Returned to Subang Jaya

29 June 2015 (Monday):
- Had dinner at Thai Thai Restaurant in Sunway Pyramid with my friends

4 July 2015 (Saturday):
- Watched Terminator Genisys at GSC Cinema in IOI Mall with my friends
- Had dinner at Sakae Sushi with my friends

5 July 2015 (Sunday):
- Had dinner at Souled Out in Sri Hartamas with my parents

8 July 2015 (Wednesday):
- Spent time at Taylor’s College

9 July 2015 (Thursday):
- Attended my relative’s wedding

11 July 2015 (Saturday):
- Had a weird dream which seemed to remind me about the importance of my family

12 July 2015 (Sunday):
- Had lunch at Yut Kee Kopitiam with my parents
- My all Dragons strategy in Clash of Clans no longer effective
- Had dinner at Fatty Crab Restaurant with my parents

16 July 2015 (Thursday):
- Had lunch at Sri Ganapathy Mess with my friends
- Had desserts at Weng Kee with my friends

17 July 2015 (Friday):
- Had dinner at KLCC with my family

18 July 2015 (Saturday):
- Had lunch at KLCC with my family
- Watched Ant-Man at GSC Cinema in IOI Mall with my friends
- Learnt new strategies in Clash of Clans: GoWiPe and GoWiWi

19 July 2015 (Sunday):
- Completed Escape Room challenge at Berjaya Times Square with my cousins
- Had lunch at Pavilion Mall with my family
- Had dinner in Sri Petaling with my family

24 July 2015 (Friday):
- Tested Windows 10 in virtual machine

25 July 2015 (Saturday):
- Upgraded my Acer laptop to Windows 10

26 July 2015 (Sunday):
- Went to Ipoh with my parents
- Had dinner at The Ship with my parents

30 July 2015 (Thursday):
- Spent time at Taylor’s College
- Met one of my friend at college

31 July 2015 (Friday):
- Obtained my Competent Driving License

6 August 2015 (Thursday):
- Spent time at Taylor’s College

9 August 2015 (Sunday):
- Went to Penang with my parents
- Went back to Kulim

12 August 2015 (Wednesday):
- My uncle came to Kulim

13 August 2015 (Thursday):
- Went to Sungai Petani with my grandparents and uncle

15 August 2015 (Saturday):
- My parents came to Kulim
- Attended my grandfather’s birthday dinner in Penang

23 August 2015 (Sunday):
- Returned to Subang Jaya

29 August 2015 (Saturday):
- Had lunch at Shukaku Shabu-Shabu with my friends
- Had desserts at Fruity Bakery with my friends
- Attended the 1st birthday celebration of my mother’s friend’s granddaughter

4 September 2015 (Friday):
- Had dinner at Tony Roma’s in Citta Mall with my parents

10 September 2015 (Thursday):
- Watched Apple Hey Siri event online

11 September 2015 (Friday):
- Joined my friend’s birthday celebration at Fa-Ying by Rama V in Paradigm Mall

13 September 2015 (Sunday):
- Bought 16GB SD card for my HTC One E8 phone
- Had dinner at Fatty Crab Restaurant with my parents

17 September 2015 (Thursday):
- Upgraded my iPad Air to iOS 9

19 September 2015 (Saturday):
- Had dinner at Souled Out in Sri Hartamas with my parents

20 September 2015 (Sunday):
- Had lunch at Face to Face Noodle House in SS15 with my friends
- Played board games at Meeples with my friends

24 September 2015 (Thursday):
- Attended my father’s friend’s Hari Raya Haji open house

25 September 2015 (Friday):
- Had dinner at Bubba Gump in Sunway Pyramid with my parents

26 September 2015 (Saturday):
- Moved into Horizon Residences

27 September 2015 (Sunday):
- Had dinner with my house mates

29 September 2015 (Tuesday):
- Began 2nd year of MBBS course at NUMed Malaysia


If you find this interesting, you may want to read this too:
http://daniellimjj.blogspot.com/2016/09/the-3-eventful-months-after-my-2nd-year.html

By RuRu?

There's this Chinese song 美丽心情.

I first heard of this song on radio in 2011. I liked the song but I didn't know its title, so I tried using TrackID on my phone to identify the song. TrackID is a music recognition service like Shazam. I still didn't know about Shazam at that time. TrackID identified the song title as 'By RuRu' and its artist as 'Harley and others'. The radio DJ also said that the song title is 'By RuRu'. Despite searching extensively on Google at that time, I couldn't find anything about 'By RuRu' or 'Harley and others'.

In 2014, I heard of the song again on radio. Once again, I used TrackID and it gave the exact same results. This time, I could remember a small part of its lyrics. I tried searching on Google for the lyrics, but I still couldn't find the song because the part I remembered was too short. Later in 2015, I came to know about Shazam which is better than TrackID, but I never heard of the song again.

In August 2016, I suddenly thought of the song and I was determined to find it this time. I tried searching for 'By RuRu' on Baidu instead. Then, I arrived at a Chinese forum where someone was also trying to find the same song. A person suggested that the song may be 美丽心情, but his answer didn't get any upvotes so I wasn't quite convinced about it.

Still, I searched for 美丽心情 on YouTube and I tried listening to it. Then, I realised that it's indeed the song! The singer of this song is 本多RuRu, so that's probably what 'By RuRu' is referring to. The TrackID team must have mistakenly recorded the song title as 'By RuRu'.

However, when I now use TrackID on this song, it correctly identifies the song as 美丽心情 instead of 'By RuRu'. Despite that, I am very sure it's the correct song, since I can still remember that small part of it when I heard it previously. It's a very nice song and I really like it. I'm glad to have finally found it after 5 years!

How I Feel About Assignments?

Assignment is a common form of assessment used in academics, just like examinations. In some cases, both assignment and examination are used together, while in other cases, only either one of examination or assignment is used. If you have the choice, do you prefer to be assessed through assignments or examinations? Personally, I prefer assignments, but my thoughts about assignments changed from time to time in the past.

When I was in primary school, I never had any assignments. Examinations were the only form of assessment. Then, in lower secondary school, there were assignments for the History and Geography subjects. In Form 1, since that was my first time doing assignments, it was very daunting for me. I did not have any idea how to do the History assignment, so I had to ask my mother to do most of it for me. The Geography assignment was a bit easier because my teacher gave us samples of it, but I still had to do it under my mother's guidance. At that time, I hated assignments a lot. In Form 2, since I had the experience of doing the assignments in the previous year, I did not find them so difficult and I was able to do them without help from my mother. I also worked with my friends on some parts of the assignments. I no longer hated assignments, although I still did not enjoy doing them. In Form 3, I no longer felt that the assignments were difficult, due to the experience I had from the past 2 years. In fact, I began to enjoy doing the assignments. The reason was because at that time, my grandparents limited my usage of the Internet because they were concerned about my studies, but I could use the assignments as an excuse to go onto the Internet, since the assignments were done using computer.

In upper secondary school, there was no more assignment for History. Instead, there were assignments for ICT, Additional Mathematics and Moral Education. The ICT assignment was quite easy and I enjoyed doing it. However, it turned out that my teacher himself offered to do some parts of the assignment for every student. I preferred my own work, but unfortunately my teacher did not like my work and he insisted that I use the one provided by him. The Additional Mathematics assignment was also quite easy and I enjoyed doing it too. I eventually scored 8/10 in that assignment. The Moral Education assignment was not difficult, but I did not enjoy doing it because it involved writing essays which I disliked. Worst of all, unlike other assignments, the Moral Education assignment must be handwritten and cannot be done using computer.

After finishing my SPM examination, my parents took me to attend the Taylor's College open day in December 2012. There, the counsellor introduced Cambridge A Level and South Australian Matriculation (SAM) which were the pre-university programmes offered at Taylor's College. He explained to us that A Level is fully accessed by examinations while SAM is assessed by 30% examinations and 70% assignments. Thinking back at secondary school, even though I did enjoy doing some of the assignments, I was more accustomed to examinations compared to assignments as most of the subjects in secondary school were fully assessed by examination. So, I decided that A Level which is fully examination based is more suitable for me.

In January 2013, I started studying A Level at Taylor's College. There was no assignment at all for the A Level subjects. However, I had to study the MPW Moral Education and Malaysian Studies subjects which were made compulsory by the Ministry of Education. Both assignments and examinations were used in the assessment of the MPW subjects. Therefore, I still had assignments to do. The Moral Education assignment was a group assignment. At that time, I was quite antisocial in college and I was not close to any one in my assignment group. As a result, I refused to participate in that assignment and I thought I could pass by just scoring well in the examination. It turned out that I failed the MPW Moral Education because I had no mark for the assignment. After discussing with the lecturer, he gave me an alternative 20 page assignment with the title 'The Dumping of Babies in Malaysia'. I definitely did not enjoy that assignment, but I was able to do it reasonably well, so I managed to pass the Moral Education in the end. As for the MPW Malaysian Studies, there was also a group assignment. Unlike the Moral Education, the lecturer allowed us to choose our group members. I chose to be in the same group with my few close friends and I participated in the assignment. In this assignment, we had to do a drama about pickpockets and I acted as the victim. It was quite easy and interesting.

In September 2014, I started studying MBBS at NUMed. For Stage 1 and 2 of MBBS, there are 3 forms of assessment which are Single Best Answer (SBA) examinations, OSCE and assignments. In order pass a year, students need to pass all 3 forms of assessments; a good performance in one cannot compensate for a poor performance in another. In the beginning, I thought that examinations would be much easier than assignments because examinations consist of just multiple choice questions, while assignments require writing long essays. In addition, I previously studied A Level which is fully examination based. I also knew that university assignments would be very different from and much more difficult than assignments in secondary school. Therefore, I wished that there would be only examinations but not assignments.

There were 3 assignments in Stage 1 of MBBS. The 1st assignment was distributed just 2 weeks after the start of the course. In this assignment, I had to write a newspaper report about folic acid supplementation and spina bifida, and a reflection about my first 4 weeks at NUMed. I found this assignment very difficult, as I had never written a newspaper report or a reflection before. Worst of all, its submission deadline was just 3 days after the Progress 1 examination. I had to do half of the assignment during my revision period before the examination, and I left the other half for the 3 days after the exam. I was able to finish and submit the assignment on time, but I had no idea whether or not I did the assignment correctly. I eventually got a borderline pass for this assignment.

The 2nd assignment was critical appraisal and literature review. This assignment was even more difficult than the 1st so I decided to get a sample of the assignment from one of my seniors and use it as a guide. With the guide, I had the idea how it should be done. However, this assignment was extremely tedious, because I had to read several long journal articles in detail, and that made me feel very stressed. Worst of all, for my batch, a new instruction was introduced for the first time, where the journal articles should be reviewed in an integrated manner rather than 'one after another'. Reviewing them 'one after another' is definitely easier and that was also what my senior did because it was allowed during his batch. Amid the stress, I took the risk and did the review 'one after another', ignoring the instruction. I also did not make any citations which was required because I found it troublesome to do so. In the end, I once again got a borderline pass for the 2nd assignment, but my score improved slightly compared to the 1st assignment. I was not deducted any marks for reviewing the articles 'one after another', but I lost several marks for not making citations. The difficulty of the 1st and 2nd assignments made me hate assignments even more.

Then, the 3rd assignment was the Family Study. I was required to write a detailed report after visiting a pregnant mother 4 times with my study partner. This assignment was the longest and it contributed the most marks compared to the others, so it was given particular attention by the lecturers. However, unlike the 1st and 2nd assignments, I felt this assignment was easier and more interesting. I was able to complete it without much stress and difficulties, and I didn't even get a sample from my seniors. I also learnt how to use EndNote at that time which made citations much easier. I was very confident that I would pass it. At last, I scored 85% for the 3rd assignment. It was an excellent score and a very huge improvement compared to my 2nd assignment, and I was very proud of it. Because of that, I no longer hated assignments.

After completing the 3rd assignment, I was relieved that there would be no more assignments in Stage 1. Since I found the assignments most difficult, I thought that the remaining of Stage 1 should be easy. However, I soon realised that I was too naive to think that way. It turned out that my revision for the Progress 3 examination was very stressful as there were a lot to revise and I started the revision too late. At that time, I no longer felt that examinations are easier than assignments.

In Stage 2 of MBBS, there were only 2 assignments, unlike Stage 1. The 1st assignment was the Patient Study. In this assignment, I had to visit a patient with a chronic illness 4 times with my study partners and then produce a report about the patient. It was quite similar to the Family Study in Stage 1. Before I started doing this assignment, I had expected that it would not be too difficult since I did not find the Family Study difficult previously. This assignment turned out to be a little more difficult than the Family Study because it required more knowledge. Still, I did not feel stressed doing it. In fact, I completed and submitted it one week before the deadline. I eventually scored 75% in this assignment. Even though not as good as the Family Study, it is still a very good score.

The 2nd assignment was the Student Selected Component (SSC). This assignment had 2 parts, literature review and oral presentation. For the 1st part, I had to choose a topic that I was interested in and do a literature review about the topic. It was similar to the 2nd assignment in Stage 1. I chose the topic "Is mirror therapy an effective treatment option for phantom limb?". I first heard about phantom limb during one of the lectures in NUMed and I was interested to explore further about it. Before I started doing this assignment, I expected it would be quite difficult since the 2nd assignment in Stage 1 was very difficult. However, it turned out that this assignment was not that difficult after all. Even though I had to read several journal articles, I did not feel too stressed this time, probably because I had gained experience from Stage 1 and the topic which I selected myself was more interesting. For the 2nd part, I had to present to an audience about a topic of my choice. I chose the topic "Treatment of phantom limb". I considered this to be the easiest among all assessments in the MBBS course. Back in Stage 1, when I first knew about the existence of this oral presentation, I thought that it would be quite difficult for me, but my thoughts on that had since changed. I felt that I performed quite well during the oral presentation. I scored 75% for the SSC in the end, which is the same score as the Patient Study.

After completing the 2nd assignment, I started revising for the Progress 2 examination. Just like what I had expected earlier, the revision was extremely stressful because there were a lot to revise and the topics were quite difficult. Since then, I feel that examinations are actually much more difficult than assignments. Writing essays for the assignments may not be easy, but it is definitely not as difficult as having to understand and remember a lot of information when revising for the examinations. This is definitely in contrast to what I thought in the beginning of Stage 1.

In Stage 3 of MBBS, there was no assignment. Instead, Stage 3 was assessed by SBA examinations, OSCE and MOSLER's. I faced great difficulties with the MOSLER's, and I nearly failed Stage 3 because of that. I really wished that there would be assignments rather than the MOSLER's. In the 1st semester of Stage 4, there was no assignment as well. The only assessment in this semester was SBA examinations.

The 2nd semester of Stage 4 of MBBS consisted of three Student Selected Components (SSC) and the first two SSC were assessed by assignments. For SSC1, there was an oral presentation of an interesting topic. It was similar to the SSC oral presentation in Stage 2. During SSC1, I carried out a research project about the perception of medical students on the SBA examinations in NUMed. I then presented to the audience the findings of my research project during the oral presentation. I did not find the oral presentation difficult, but there were several areas which I felt I did not perform very well. This made me feel a bit worried about my results.

For SSC2, there was an abstract and poster presentation of an audit or research project. During SSC2, I carried out an audit on clinical monitoring and care of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus patients at Klinik Kesihatan Mahmoodiah. After that, I produced an abstract and a poster summarising my audit. I tried to do my best in order to compensate for what I did not perform well in the SSC1 oral presentation. I found this assignment quite easy and I was rather relaxed, just as I had expected. In fact, I felt that this assignment was much easier than the assignments in Stage 1 and 2, since the abstract and poster were only one page each. Eventually, I scored 70% for the SSC1 oral presentation and 85% for the SSC2 abstract and poster. I was very happy of my SSC2 results, while I was still satisfied with my SSC1 results.

My next assignment will be the Elective assignment in Stage 5 of MBBS.

My Lost Glory in Academics

In the past before I entered university, I used to get excellent results in examinations. I obtained 9A+ 1A in SPM and 4A* in A Level. I also achieved straight A's in every single school and college examinations from October 2009 until August 2014, a 5 year record. In September 2014, I started studying MBBS at NUMed Malaysia. At that time, I was hoping that I could continue my academic excellence in university.

On 22 September 2014 which was my first day at NUMed, there was an English language proficiency test. During the test, we had to write an essay on "The advantages and disadvantages of shopping on the Internet". I felt that I did not write the essay well and therefore I thought I would not pass the test. When the results of the English language proficiency test was released, I was so surprised to find out that I passed it. Only 18 out 120 students in my cohort passed the test and any student who failed had to attend English language classes throughout the first semester. This was obviously a good start for me in the MBBS course.

For Stage 1 and 2 of the MBBS course, there are 3 forms of assessment which are Progress examinations, OSCE and in-course assignments. In order pass a Stage, we need to pass all forms of assessments. A good performance in one form of assessment cannot compensate for a poor performance in another. I was aiming for a score of 80% or above in every assessment because it felt like getting grade A, even though in NUMed there is actually no special grade for that.

It all went well at first. Many of the topics in the beginning of Stage 1 were quite similar to those I learnt in A Level. Thanks to my previous knowledge, I was able to understand those topics quite easily. On 3 November 2014, it was the Stage 1 Progress 1 examination which was the first assessment in the course. I felt that this examination was more difficult compared to A Level as many of the questions required a lot of thinking. There were also a few questions on anatomy which I found very difficult. Despite that, I successfully scored 84.5% in the examination and I was ranked the 9th in the whole cohort. It was really an excellent result and I was very happy about that. It also greatly boosted my confidence in studying MBBS. Many students began to know me as an excellent student. I definitely hoped to maintain the same results in the next examination.

However, things started going downhill from that point onwards. Immediately after the Progress 1 examination, I had to do the Assignment 1 and the submission deadline was just 3 days later. Due to the fact that I previously studied A Level which was fully examination based, I had no experience in doing assignments. As a result, I faced great difficulty in doing the assignment and I felt really stressed. Although I was able to complete the assignment in time, I had no idea whether or not I did it correctly. I was just hoping that I could pass the Assignment 1. After submitting the assignment, I decided to fully relax myself for a few weeks. During the few weeks, we started learning more topics on anatomy and there were several anatomy practical sessions. We were required to do some preparation before attending those sessions, but I never did so because I did not see a need for that. As a result, during the anatomy practical sessions I was often quite confused and could not contribute my ideas to the discussions. In fact, most of the time I could not understand anything. This also affected my personal image as an excellent student.

In early December 2014, the results of the Assignment 1 was released and my score was a borderline pass. This was the first time where I did not score well in an assessment. I was still quite satisfied with my results, considering that I didn't even know how to do the assignment correctly. I told myself that my strong point was the Progress examinations and I should just focus on getting excellent results for that. Around that time, I started my revision for the Stage 1 Progress 2 examination. While revising, I did not put in any effort to improve my knowledge on anatomy which I had identified as my weak point, because I had the impression that anatomy was not important since only a few questions on it appeared in the previous examination. Instead, I simply skipped a few of the more difficult anatomy topics. Later, there was 4 weeks of winter break. During the break, I did not do my revision wholeheartedly because I was in holiday mood.

Unlike the Progress 1, the Progress 2 examination had 2 papers. On 12 January 2015, I sat for Paper 1 and I felt that it was about as difficult as the Progress 1 examination. Once again, there were a few anatomy questions and I could not answer most of them. After Paper 1 ended, I went back to the university accommodation together with a few friends. During the journey, I discussed with them about the examination questions. They said that they did not find the anatomy questions difficult. Besides, there were a few questions which I was already very confident that I answered correctly, but my friends had different answers and they were also very sure that they were correct. That affected my confidence in Paper 1, and I felt I did not answer it as well as I did in the Progress 1. I was hoping that I could do better in Paper 2 to compensate for that. The really annoying thing was that one of my housemate kept saying that the anatomy questions were easy and that his "love on anatomy is beginning to grow".

However, it turned out that Paper 2 on the next day was much more difficult than Paper 1. Paper 2 had many questions on anatomy, most of which I could not answer. After answering Paper 2, I knew I could no longer score 80% or above in the Progress 2 examination. Worst of all, when my housemate (who said the anatomy questions were easy) knew about that, he mocked me by saying "How are you going to be a doctor when you don't know anatomy?" I was quite angry with him over that. Coincidentally, on that day I accidentally dropped my iPad on the floor which permanently damaged its SIM card reader, so 13 January 2015 was really an unlucky day for me. Eventually, I scored 72.9% in the Progress 2 examination. I was quite disappointed that my score had dropped a lot compared to the Progress 1 examination. This was also the first time where I did not get excellent results in Progress examinations which I always thought was my strong point.

I had to start doing the Assignment 2 immediately after the examination because 2 weeks later it would be the deadline for the submission. Just like the previous assignment, I found the Assignment 2 very difficult. In fact, this assignment was really tedious which caused me to be extremely stressed. I felt that even the Progress 2 examination was definitely easier than the assignment. Luckily, I was able to get a sample of the assignment from one of my seniors. With that as a guide, I could at least know how to complete the assignment. Once again, I scored a borderline pass for this assignment, but there was a slight improvement in my score compared to the previous assignment. Soon after completing the Assignment 2, I had to begin on the Assignment 3. Out of my expectation, this assignment was easier compared to the previous assignments. At that point, I also had quite some experience in doing assignments. Therefore, I was able to complete the Assignment 3 without much difficulty. This was the last assignment in Stage 1. After completing all the assignments, I decided to relax for one whole month.

In mid April 2015, I started revising for the Stage 1 Progress 3 examination. Initially, I aimed to regain a score of 80% or above in this examination. However, I soon realised that I had started my revision too late. There were a lot to revise for the examination since it would test on everything learnt in both semesters of Stage 1, and time was limited. The 2nd semester had quite many topics on anatomy but I did not have time to try to improve my anatomy knowledge. I felt very stressed and as a result, I had to give up on my target of getting 80%. The Progress 3 examination was on 26 and 27 May 2015. Paper 1 had many anatomy questions and I could not answer many of them. Paper 2 also had many questions on anatomy, but I was able to answer some of them. On 4 June 2015, the final results for Stage 1 was released. I scored 68.3% for the Progress 3 examination and 85.5% for the Assignment 3. I passed Stage 1 overall. Although I was a bit disappointed about my Progress 3 results, I was really happy with my excellent score in the Assignment 3, especially that it was a huge improvement compared to the Assignment 2. Since I had passed Stage 1, I decided not to think about my results anymore. Instead, I enjoyed myself throughout the summer break at that time.

On 29 September 2015, I began Stage 2 of MBBS. At that time, I felt that the 4 month summer break seemed to pass so quickly. I was still in holiday mood and I could not immediately get myself back to study. One day in October 2015, I looked back at Stage 1. I realised that in the beginning of Stage 1, I was an excellent student just like before I entered NUMed, but later on, my examination results had declined by a lot and thus I had lost my excellence in academics. The Stage 1 Progress 1 examination was the last time ever where I obtained excellent results. Although I scored very well in the Stage 1 Assignment 3, this wasn't the case for the Progress examinations which was supposed to be my strong point. Thinking about that made me feel sad. Then, I told myself that I must make a comeback by regaining my academic excellence. I set myself the target of scoring 80% or above in my next examination which would be the Stage 2 Progress 1 examination. That got me out of my holiday mood and back to study. I started my revision quite early, in late October 2015 which was more than 2 months before the Progress 1 examination.

It turned out that achieving the target was easier said than done, as vast majority of the topics in the 1st semester of Stage 2 were about anatomy which was my weak point. To address my weak point, I tried putting in my efforts to revise anatomy in more detail. I also made sure to do preparation before attending every anatomy practical session, not wanting to repeat the same mistake I made in Stage 1. However, the problem was that I found anatomy very boring. Anatomy largely had to be studied by memorising rather than understanding, but I really hated memorising things. I could not study anatomy for long hours, because I would get so bored that I had to stop and do something else. I kept trying to remind myself of my target in the examination, but this did not help. As a result, I was not consistent in my studies. Despite the early start in my revision, I was not well prepared for the Progress 1 examination, but I was still hoping that somehow I would be able to score 80%.

The Stage 2 Progress 1 examination was on 11 and 12 January 2016. To make matters worse, this examination was very difficult as it tested on a lot of fine details, much of which I did not cover during my revision. As such, I definitely could not answer well in this examination. On 18 January 2016, the results of the examination was released and my score was 71.9%. I did not reach my target of 80% and this meant I failed to regain my academic excellence. I felt quite sad and disappointed about my failed efforts. However, later on the same day, I heard of the news that the JPA scholarship had been suspended for Bursary students who would be entering university from January 2016 onwards. Although it did not affect me and other students who were already offered the scholarship, I felt sad for those students affected. Then, thinking of my own situation, I tried to make myself feel better by telling myself that my disappointment of not getting 80% in the examination was nothing if compared to the disappointment of those students who might be unable to further their studies due to the suspension of the JPA scholarship. I decided to be grateful of the fact that I still passed the Progress 1 examination and thus could continue the MBBS course under the JPA scholarship.

After the examination, I started doing the Assignment 1 for Stage 2. This assignment was not difficult as it was quite similar to the Assignment 3 in Stage 1. Thanks to my previous experience, I did not have much problems completing this assignment. However, compared to the previous assignment, the examiners expected us to demonstrate more knowledge and skills in this assignment. Therefore in this assignment, I did not score as well as I did in the Stage 1 Assignment 3, getting only 75%. Then, I began doing the Stage 2 Assignment 2. It was quite similar to the Assignment 2 in Stage 1, but I did not find this assignment too difficult due to the fact that I had quite a lot of experience in doing assignments. Eventually, I scored 75% in this assignment which was the same score as the previous assignment. This was the last assignment in Stage 2. Although I did not score 80% or above, I was still quite satisfied with my results considering that assignments used to be my weak point previously.

I initially planned to start revising for the Stage 2 Progress 2 examination early because I did not want to repeat the same mistake I previously made for the Stage 1 Progress 3 examination. However, I just could not get myself to revise for the examination while doing the assignments at the same time. It was only after I completed the Assignment 2 in late April 2016 that I could start my revision for the Progress 2 examination. At that point, there was only 5 weeks remaining until the examination. Worse still, this examination was considered by many to be the second most difficult examination in the entire MBBS course. Compared to the 1st semester, I felt that the topics in the 2nd semester of Stage 2 were easier because there was no anatomy. However, the problem was that the Progress 2 examination would test on topics from both semesters of Stage 2. In such a short time frame of 5 weeks, I had to revise so many topics including those tedious anatomy topics of the 1st semester.

Consequently, I felt extremely stressed throughout my revision and I was worried that I could not finish the revision in time. Amid the stress, I was definitely just hoping to pass Stage 2 and nothing more than that. I dared not even think about scoring 80% as I knew that would be impossible. The Stage 2 OSCE was on 24 May 2016. Due to stress, my performance in the OSCE was adversely affected. I was really worried that I might fail the OSCE. On 31 May and 1 June 2016, it was the Stage 2 Progress 2 examination. Luckily, after all the hard work I was able to answer reasonably well in the examination. The final results for Stage 2 was released on 8 June 2016. I scored 64.7% in the Progress 2 examination and got a borderline pass for the OSCE. I passed Stage 2 overall and I was so relieved to know that. Even though my Progress 2 results was worse compared to the previous examinations, I did not feel disappointed this time and I chose to be grateful of the fact that I passed.

I lost my excellence in academics during Stage 1 and my attempt to regain it during Stage 2 was a failure. However, I have since come to the realisation that whether I scored a borderline pass or 100% or anywhere in between, I will still be graduating with the same MBBS degree as my examination results will not be stated on the degree certificate, so academic excellence serves no real purpose. In addition, it is the clinical years from Stage 3 onwards. Unlike Stage 1 and 2, in the clinical years most of the learning is done at clinical sites and there is greater emphasis on critical thinking and self-directed learning, so the clinical years are more difficult. If I continue to aim for 80% or above in the examinations, that would just add to my stress unnecessarily and I definitely won't be enjoying the course very much if I feel too stressed. Enjoying the course is definitely much more important than academic excellence. Therefore, I will just aim for a pass in every assessment since then. I most probably will never regain my academic excellence, but that doesn't matter to me anymore now.


If you liked this story, you may want to read these too:
http://daniellimjj.blogspot.com/2017/08/disasters-in-my-3rd-year-of-mbbs.html
http://daniellimjj.blogspot.com/2014/09/august-2009-tragedy.html

My pickiness in eating

If you know me well, you surely know that I am quite picky when it comes to food. There are certain food that I don't eat. As a matter of fact, I have been a picky eater since childhood. Back then, my pickiness was actually far worse compared to now.

It didn't start off that way though. Since shortly after I was born, I had been living with my grandparents in Kulim, as both my parents were working in Kuala Lumpur. In the beginning, my grandparents fed me with many different types of food, and I always ate them without any issues.

When I was 1 year and 6 months, my grandparents brought me to Australia to visit my aunt and her family. There, I was often praised for being a good boy, especially that I never complained about or refused to eat any food that I was given. 

Subsequently at 3 years old, my grandparents planned to bring me to Australia for a second time. I had agreed to go and my grandparents had bought the flight tickets. My parents came to Kulim to bring me and my grandparents to Kuala Lumpur, where our flight would be departing from.

On the night before travelling to Kuala Lumpur, fatefully, I asked my father a question "How does an aeroplane fly and how does a rocket fly?" My father tried to explain it to me in a simple manner: A rocket flies straight up to the sky, while an aeroplane takes off horizontally before it slowly goes up to the sky.

However, I had a terrible misunderstanding about my father's explanation, particularly the "slowly goes up" part. I thought he meant that aeroplanes fly vertically upwards just like rockets, with the difference being that aeroplanes turn upwards gradually rather than going straight up from the start. That sounded so scary to me!

I started feeling very scared about taking a flight to Australia. Although I had previously flewn to Australia before, I had no memories of it due to my young age. I didn't voice out my fear to my parents or grandparents as I felt there was nothing they could do about it.

At that time, my parents who hadn't been living with me tried to persuade me to stay in Kuala Lumpur with them while my grandparents go to Australia. To avoid going on an aeroplane, I quickly agreed to stay in Kuala Lumpur with my parents.

No matter how my grandparents tried to convince me, I refused to go to Australia with them. They were of course very disappointed about that. I cannot remember exactly how long my grandparents' trip to Australia was, but my rough estimate is a few weeks.

In Kuala Lumpur, my parents took care of me for the first time. They pampered me a lot and I had a great time. However, there was an issue. The food my parents gave me was quite different from the food my grandparents fed me with, and I didn't like the change.

Seeing that I didn't like the food they gave me, my parents didn't force me to eat it. I only ate rice and soup, which were the only food in common with what my grandparents fed me with. That was the case throughout my stay in Kuala Lumpur.

After being pampered by my parents, I refused to return to Kulim with my grandparents after their trip to Australia ended. They still brought me back to Kulim, and I actually cried throughout the journey and refused to get down the car for 20 minutes after arriving in Kulim.

I then settled down in Kulim with my grandparents, but my eating was never the same again. My grandparents tried to reintroduce the food they fed me with previously, but I refused to eat it again after I stopped eating it for some time in Kuala Lumpur.

Literally, the only food I ate were milk, rice, noodles, soup, eggs, bread, biscuits and cakes. I refused to eat anything else, including any meat or vegetables. As you can see, my diet was so lacking in proteins, vitamins and minerals. Consequently, I was always quite thin. At one point, I became quite sick due to malnutrition, and my family GP had to give me some vitamins.

There were several occasions where my grandparents forced me to eat some meat and vegetables, but I always resisted violently. I particularly hated eating meat. In the end, my grandparents just couldn't change my eating habits.

At 6 years old, I became interested in trying pizzas. I had been seeing Pizza Hut's advertisements on the television and the pizzas looked so appetising. That was literally the first time in my life where I chose to try new food on my own will. Pizza Hut certainly did a very good job in advertising!

My grandparents were delighted and they brought me to the nearest Pizza Hut. I really liked the taste of pizzas. Since then, I had been eating it regularly. When I was in Year 1 of primary school, my grandparents would buy a pizza for me almost every Sunday.

Later, I had an issue with pizzas. One night when I was in Kuala Lumpur, my mother ordered Pizza Hut delivery for me. However, the restaurant mistakenly brought a pizza with stuffed crust rather than the standard pan crust.

A stuffed crust pizza has thick mozzarella cheese in its crust. I liked the cheese so much. After that experience, I kept wanting pizzas with stuffed crust. However, I soon became only interested in the pizza crust, not wanting to eat the other parts of the pizza at all.

My grandparents were so upset when they knew about that. They banned me from ordering any stuffed crust pizza for some time and made sure I ate the whole slice of a pizza every time. Thankfully though, the issue was soon rectified without major difficulties.

At 7 years old, my grandparents introduced me to KFC. Even though they knew it isn't very healthy, at least the fried chicken was a good source of protein for me considering that I wouldn't eat any other meat.

As the fried chicken looked quite appetising, I didn't resist trying it. Quickly, I fell in love with KFC's fried chicken. My grandmother forced me to eat KFC's mash potato as well. While I hated it in the beginning, I was liking it a lot before long. My grandparents wouldn't let me have KFC too often, only once every 2 weeks at most.

The real change came when I was 9 years old. I had begun learning about the importance of balanced diet in school. Instead of forcing me to eat like they did previously, my grandparents took a new approach by telling me nicely. I started eating fish, meat and vegetables regularly. 

Within a year, my weight went up from 23kg to 35kg. My teacher was quite surprised about that. Despite that, I was still very picky in eating. As I only ate some of the food my grandmother cooked, she often had to cook some separate dishes for me.

While I had started eating many different types of food, there were even more types of food which I didn't want to eat. I was always quite reluctant to try new food, unless if it's similar enough to something which I liked to eat. Over many years, I only tried a few new food.

After I got into Taylor's College and NUMed, peer pressure from my friends ocassionally resulted in me trying new food. Usually, I would end up liking the new food I tried. With that, I became more open to trying out new food. However, there are still certain food I really don't like and I refuse to eat, a good example being tofus.

Despite my pickiness in eating, the good thing is that in almost any restaurant, I can find a food item that suits me. Therefore, I almost never had any problems when going out with my friends. I am also able to eat very spicy foods, in fact I love eating them.

When I was in MBBS Stage 5 2018/2019, my group mates were asking me how do I generalise the food I eat and the food I don't eat. I couldn't think of a good way to explain it, but I tried to explain by saying that the food I eat generally has a well-defined taste. My explanation left my group mates even more confused and they got annoyed.

When I was a Teaching Fellow at NUMed, one of my friends who has a great interest in cooking stated that based on her observations, the food I eat are generally the more mainstream foods. I found her explanation quite accurate. I appreciate that she made an effort to get to know me better, unlike my group mates in Stage 5 2018/2019.

Now, after so many years, I am still picky in eating, though it has very much improved. I am eating a wide variety of food. I eat most of the food my grandmother cooks every day. There are still certain food liked by many people which I don't eat. I try out new food regularly, but only if I can be sure that I will like it.

Looking back, the whole issue that led to me becoming so picky in eating started all because of my misunderstanding about how aeroplanes fly. It's crazy to think how such a small incident would end up changing my whole life.

Why I Like College and University More Than School?

Personally, I think that college life and university life are much more interesting compared to primary and secondary school life. There are several reasons for that. One of the reasons is highlighted in this poem.
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The Little Boy
By Helen Buckley

Once a little boy went to school.
He was quite a little boy
And it was quite a big school.
But when the little boy
Found that he could go to his room
By walking right in from the door outside
He was happy;
And the school did not seem
Quite so big anymore.

One morning
When the little boy had been in school awhile,
The teacher said:
"Today we are going to make a picture."
"Good!" thought the little boy.
He liked to make all kinds;
Lions and tigers,
Chickens and cows,
Trains and boats;
And he took out his box of crayons
And began to draw.

But the teacher said, "Wait!"
"It is not time to begin!"
And she waited until everyone looked ready.
"Now," said the teacher,
"We are going to make flowers."
"Good!" thought the little boy,
He liked to make beautiful ones
With his pink and orange and blue crayons.
But the teacher said "Wait!"
"And I will show you how."
And it was red, with a green stem.
"There," said the teacher,
"Now you may begin."

The little boy looked at his teacher's flower
Then he looked at his own flower.
He liked his flower better than the teacher's
But he did not say this.
He just turned his paper over,
And made a flower like the teacher's.
It was red, with a green stem.

On another day
When the little boy had opened
The door from the outside all by himself,
The teacher said:
"Today we are going to make something with clay."
"Good!" thought the little boy;
He liked clay.
He could make all kinds of things with clay:
Snakes and snowmen,
Elephants and mice,
Cars and trucks
And he began to pull and pinch
His ball of clay.

But the teacher said, "Wait!"
"It is not time to begin!"
And she waited until everyone looked ready.
"Now," said the teacher,
"We are going to make a dish."
"Good!" thought the little boy,
He liked to make dishes.
And he began to make some
That were all shapes and sizes.

But the teacher said "Wait!"
"And I will show you how."
And she showed everyone how to make
One deep dish.
"There," said the teacher,
"Now you may begin."

The little boy looked at the teacher's dish;
Then he looked at his own.
He liked his better than the teacher's
But he did not say this.
He just rolled his clay into a big ball again
And made a dish like the teacher's.
It was a deep dish.

And pretty soon
The little boy learned to wait,
And to watch
And to make things just like the teacher.
And pretty soon
He didn't make things of his own anymore.

Then it happened
That the little boy and his family
Moved to another house,
In another city,
And the little boy
Had to go to another school.
This school was even bigger
Than the other one.
And there was no door from the outside
Into his room.
He had to go up some big steps
And walk down a long hall
To get to his room.
And the very first day
He was there,
The teacher said:
"Today we are going to make a picture."
"Good!" thought the little boy.
And he waited for the teacher
To tell what to do.
But the teacher didn't say anything.
She just walked around the room.

When she came to the little boy
She asked, "Don't you want to make a picture?"
"Yes," said the little boy.
"What are we going to make?"
"I don't know until you make it," said the teacher.
"How shall I make it?" asked the little boy.
"Well, anyway you like," said the teacher.
"And any colour?" asked the little boy.
"Any colour," said the teacher.
"If everyone made the same picture,
And used the same colours,
How would I know who made what,
And which was which?"
"I don't know," said the little boy.
And he began to make pink and orange and blue flowers.

He liked his new school,
Even if it didn't have a door
Right in from the outside!
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In the poem above, the boy's first school represents my primary and secondary school, while his new school represents my college and university. Hope you understand the poem.

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Why I have two Facebook accounts?

On 24 March 2016, I created my 2nd Facebook account. Why did I do so?

I created my 1st Facebook account in September 2009. Since then, I had been making a lot of friends on Facebook. I used to think that the more friends I have on Facebook, the better it is. Whenever someone sent me a friend request, I would always accept it, even if I didn't know the person. My family members also became my friends on Facebook. I never liked to let my family members know my activities on the internet, I prefer to keep it secret from them. Initially, I hardly posted anything on Facebook, so it wasn't a problem.

In August 2012, I took photos with a group of girls in my school. They then posted the photos on Facebook and tagged me. I thought my family members wouldn't be able to see those photos, as they were not friends with those girls on Facebook. It turned out that I was terribly wrong, as the photos that I was tagged in were visible to all of my Facebook friends. My family members saw all those photos and they asked me about it. That made me feel quite uncomfortable.

Since then, I added all my family members to the Restricted list of Facebook. Anyone in the Restricted list is unable see my Facebook posts, except for the posts that I set to Public. I thought that had solved the problem. In 2013, I became more active on Facebook and I posted on it more often. Occasionally, when I posted something that I didn't mind my family members seeing, I would set it to Public. In that way, my family members wouldn't suspect that I added them to the Restricted list, since they could still see some of my posts.

However, I later realised that while those in the Restricted list are unable to see my Facebook posts, they can still see if I liked or commented on someone's post that is set to Public by the person. Worse still, my family members added me to their Close friends list. As a result, whenever I liked or commented on a post, it would appear on top of their News Feed. Moreover, if I accidentally set a post to Public, they would automatically receive an e-mail notification about my post. The only way to stop this is to unfriend or block my family members, but then they would know about it when they try to open my Facebook profile.

Every now and then, my family members would say to me 'I saw your friend's photo that you liked', 'I saw your comment on that news article' and so on. I really disliked that and I told them to stop stalking me, but they would say 'I didn't stalk you, it just appeared on my News Feed!' Sometimes, after seeing my comment, they would tell me not to mind other people's business or waste my time.

In March 2016, I wrote a post on Facebook where I mentioned about my brother and cousin getting A+ for English in the SPM examination. Out of my expectation, my brother could see the post and he told my parents about that, even though I had blocked him on Facebook. It turned out that one of his friends was my Facebook friend which I didn't add to the Restricted list. He saw my post and showed it to my brother. That was the consequence of me accepting friend requests from everyone without even trying to find out who they are.

After that incident, I decided that the best way to stop my family members from seeing my activities on Facebook is by creating another Facebook account. In my 2nd Facebook account, I will only add my close friends. I won't add my family members or anyone I don't know personally. I created my 2nd Facebook account one day after my 21st birthday on 23 March 2016. The fact that I have now reached 21 years old justifies my decision to keep my activities on Facebook secret from my family members.