[Life] A levels and no life.

So this whole year...like, 2013 Sept. to now, has been full of studying for my A level exams because guess what; A levels ACTUALLY is a huge huge jump from O levels.

I did the CIE board, which is different from the Edexcel one that I completed my O levels in, and boy, was that hard.

Let me tell you a story about studies.

So, studying in Sharjah since forever, I was enrolled in an academically competitive school, and- although I'm not boasting- I was always at the upper middle rank to say. Not extremely smart to get As in all classes, but had a fair share of As to Bs...maybe Cs in between. I stopped studying long ago, but still scored comparatively well by just reading and such.
In O levels, I went for maths tutions because I was horrible at maths, but that was the only tough thing I did. I never completed past papers too. Yet I got an average of A in my 10 Edexcel O levels.

It was only natural when I went to another school in Dubai, that I disregarded the head of senior school teachers' words "it is a big leap, your As will fall to Cs. And it'd Edexcel to CIE, you'll have it tough" because I thought it was those things the they tell you to scare the shit out of  you. I decided to change myself from the boring girl to an active, cheery girl that time, and found many wonderful friends. And the studying went out of the window. We had two mocks in a school year, and all of our friends of 7 or so , save two, used to get Es and Us which for us was a laughing matter.

Except when the actual AS exams came rolling, it stopped being a joke.
Especially during my Chemistry paper 2, which is of structured kind, my mind went blank and kept thinking of the Us I got in mocks.

In my AS year, I got ccdd in English, Maths, Physics and Chemistry respectively.

When I had my results staring at me from the mobile phone, I was in shock. I was sure I would not do worse than one C, based on the years when I felt my exams were horrible but came back with As. I was disappointed beyond anything, and my friends did worse than me. They got Us and Es like in the mocks, and that was when I realized I had no rights to bemoan my own shortcomings.

And I retook all the four AS subjects along with A2 Maths, English and Physics, dropping my eternal enemy Chemistry.

During my A2, I can't remember a single moment when I didn't have exams and results on my mind. All the friends had gone, joining universities (in U.A.E getting admission in unis are a petty matter; they take you with whatever you get), while it was only my friend and I from our group who stayed to complete high school, so I had only one friend who was as desperate to pull up a grade and supported me.

Despite all the studying, during mock exams I was constantly brought back to reality that I am not as smart as I made out myself to be, pathetic I know. I still couldn't get better at my AS ones, let alone surpass Cs and Ds in them.

The first day of exams, I had three subjects, English, Physics and Maths. That was how packed my timetable was.

Cutting more depression with studying and shunning animes and friends for a year, I got ACC, in English, Physics and Maths, and a b in Chemistry. I don't know if I slacked off and couldn't improve much, but I am fine with the results. Not as good maybe, but still better than what I would have gotten had I not studied like a madman and continued with the way I was.

But again, by doing so I sacrificed the last year I could have been with my friends before coming back to Japan. I can't tell if my grades were good enough to compromise with the time I could have spent with them. I don't know, but I worked hard and studied so I don't have any regrets either.

A true story of an average girl who almost flunked her exams, yours truly.

[Random] Rant of a Kikokushijou; returnee, of Japan

*bows* let me apologize once again for the very inconsistent updates, but, as usual, I will be putting all the blame on the studies and the tedious schedules of the school life.

Firstly, let me describe a typical school day in Dubai. Since I live in Sharjah, I wake up at 5 am to catch the bus at 6.10am so that I can reach the school by 7.10am. IT TAKES AN HOUR, YESSIR. Anyways, the school bell rings at 7.30 and home room begins.

At 10am there is a 20 min long break, and then studies re-commence. At 1pm there is a 10 min long break again, and finalllllllly at 2pm the school ends. I reach home by 3.15, being the last one to get dropped off.
So you can tell me, does this leave me any time to do anything? I'm as tired as a cat without enough sleep, and can more or less just dramatically fall on the floor and snooze. Hence, at the end of the day it's either studying or watching animes, and you can obviously tell, it's the latter I choose.

My AS level results? Two D's and Two C's, Ds' in chem and phy; Cs' in ENGRISH and maths.
It's extremely shocking, yes; but unexpected? Kind of no. I was always considered the 'smart' kind, never studying yet in the top some. Brought down to earth with this heavy result.

Coming to the heading, what is annoying me beyond belief at the moment is not my disappointing marks sheet; it's the Japanese University requirements. Can you guess the top most? Good grades, yes, but not the answer. High English req? Not exactly either.

It's being not Japanese- wholly nor partially.

Having lived in U.A.E my entire life, and my father being Bengali, my sister and I- although eligible for a Bengali passport- opted to a Japanese one since you have to choose between them when you hit 21 and never once thought about making the former. I speak fluent Japanese thanks to anime and J-Pop, and since mom helped me, can read and write...err, middle school level Japanese. So naturally, I need to go for the English-based courses, famously known as G30 (Global 30 bc they wanted 30 unis to participate but only 13 are currently innit. wut xD)
The first req is that I hold nationality, and then grades (of MIN B) and eng req follow.

There was only one out of the 13...mind you, ONLY ONE uni (Nagoya) that adressed returnees and gratefully mentioned that they fall into the International category if they have studied 12 years abroad. The rest, when I clicked the link that said 'returnees', took me to a Japanese website that my mother translated as stating the exam date. In Japanese. Exam in Japanese. I emailed almost all of them citing that I would be finishing 12 years abroad blah blah...Some unis were kind enough to link me back to the site without letting me know what I actually need to know.

Sigh, I actually expected Japanese unis to be a bit more flexible in communicating.

I was extremely surprised that Tokyo University, or the anime famous Todai, didn't have a proper section for Kikokushijou in the English site...it was in Japanese, yep. Only Nagoya and Waseda Dai had the proper categorization, and I was relieved that people are indeed aware that there are returnees who know zero Japanese.

Love Hina- protagonist studying to get in Todai

Tough luck I have, since the English courses are offered by these and similar unis- the 'elite 13' unis of Japan. Waseda Uni was also nice enough to properly explain things like since I'm eligible for a Bengali passport it would be better if I applied for it before trying to get admitted.

So now, even though financially our family is in a pinch, I have to force father to take me to Bangladesh for a passport so that I can apply as an international student who won't be expected to write the exam in Japanese.

Just imagine how it is for a person who is 100% Japanese and abroad, without the knowledge of Japanese language. I can almost see their teary eyes. If you can, fellow returnees, choose UK or other famous countries (educationally) if you can afford to.

Japan why you like this?!

[Random] a long, long hiatus

So I'm back after...well, almost half a year.

AND I HAVE LEGIT REASONS FOR THIS 'KAY?! And the reason is-

AS Levels; the ultimate freedom snatcher.

I normally don't study much, maybe half a day when exams are ongoing (yes I'm extremely lazy) and then forget everything I study the very next day after exams. Having said that, my grades aren't thaaaat bad, hopefully.

Or so I thought.

Ever since AS levels begun I haven been constantly reminded of how I have to study if I need to score better than Es, as compared to Bs without studying during the O'levels (mocks I'm talking about). However, being the typical lazy-good-for-nothing girl, I haven't studied even say 3 hours a day, an insult to both my parents coming from countries where academically people are extremely conscientious and hard working. But YOLO, right? (I happen to hate HATE this word but this seems appropriate for the situation I'm presenting) so I chose to enjoy my school life in my new school.

The result? my exams were HORRIBLE with double caps lock font size 24. Now all I do is pray to God to let me get more than I deserve, an act I had done last year as well, and promise I'll do better in A2. Methinks I know as much as Him that I won't, but I'm going to hope for the best obviously.

And yes, my anime marathons were assassinated by said studies. No, I didn't study, but for some reason I was scared that if I started with animes the little motivation I have for studies would dissolve. So i remained anime starved these past few (more like ages) months on mangas.

Anywho, it's done with and all, and I do feel bad abandoning this blog for so long, but hope you can understand. Sorry, okay?  *hugs*

Now, let's go to animes? yay~