I actually decorated this room much more after this photo was taken, but I 'm too lazy to take a new picture.
It's 10pm now and I still got one more chapter to read for biology AP class. So anyway, the past 2 days of school are pretty hectic. The main cause of this is because I chose to study really difficult topics. I'm taking honors precalculus, biology AP (advance placement - which is university level), Astronomy (really advance), English II and Asian Civilization. The first three topics are killers. There are some things in honors precalculus that I haven't learn like calculating with imaginary numbers. I'm probably the youngest in honors precalculus, biology AP and Astronomy. So that's why I slept at 12.30am last night - doing all those advance work. But at least I wake up at 7am :) ;)
Anyway, if I were you Singaporeans, I will get jealous. Classes here are FAR more interesting. The teachers don't just teach for the sake of exams and they add some humor in class. The weather is great - I remembered sweating in class when I was in Singapore which is pretty annoying. Here in Deerfield, we balance work and play. We study hard and we play hard which is totally different from how I was in Singapore. In Singapore, we have supplementary classes and because students study almost continuously for many hours, students don't usually work hard during school hours... I mean comon, students aren't robots right? Here in Deerfield, we start classes at around 8.30am and end at around 2.30pm. There is lunch for 35 minutes at 12pm. And because the school is huge, there is a 5 minute 'free-time' for students to move from one building to the other so that serves as a break.
Basically, in my opinion, the arrangement here in Deerfield is much better than in Singapore... We are given ample time for breaks but when it's class time, students put their brains into overdrive... So although school time in Singapore is longer than here in Deerfield, I learnt much more in Deerfield. It's not about how long you spend in class but it's about what you do in class.
And at around 3.30pm, it's time for sports - everyone plays sport. I might say that students in Singapore are deprived of their childhood cos they are expect to study in the expense of their exercise. In Deerfield, we are treated like adults in class but we play like children after school while in Singapore, we are treated like children in class but we work like adults after school. Well, get jealous people! Adapting to life here is definitely OUT OF MY COMFORT ZONE but it's worth it.
So let's talk about classes... In Singapore, we just do composition exercises and comprehension exercises but you have to agree with me that we don't really 'learn' much ENGLISH. Here in Deerfield, I learn different way of writing - how to express myself in different ways to make my story interesting and we are taught how to comprehend certain phrases.
In my history class (Asian Civilization), we actually LEARN and not MEMORIZE... something that I have never done before. I don't have to memorize the exact year and the number of deaths in Hock Lee Bus Riot (when I was in sec 2 in singapore), rather, I was exposed to the different cultures and history of Asian countries.
For my biology class, my teacher has a PHd. We learn so many interesting stuffs in great depth.
PS: Americans are great at soccer - they are so darn fit.
PPS: Disclaimer - I'm not trying to say that Singapore is bad, it's just a comparison from my personal views. Singapore has an excellent education system - why do you think I move there when I was 8 years old. I simply moved to some place better when I'm 16 years old.
