ULBS 2019

Our English oral test for this year was confusing, at first. In the start it was an oral test. The topics were about our past year English SPM questions for Dear Mr Kilmer. Prepared fancy power point and stuff, got the scripts ready, then we took the presentation as serious as we're battling in the field during SPM. In the end when almost all of us had finished, Pn Monica said it's just an answer sharing session for the upcoming mid terms exam– the real ULBS starts when everyone had made amends for their answers and we have to present it again.

Uhm...so why are we doing it like it's end of the world again?

Anyways, I'd learnt a lot during those English lessons. I have to admit the question sharing sessions we had for the past few weeks are fun because I get to listen on variety answers based on SPM questions, listen to feedback from my teacher (and friends) on how to improve it and indirectly had the story branded in my mind (I mean I've been listening to the same answer for 4 questions, you can't blame me). Overall, Pn Monica wasn't really satisfied with our answers because most of us couldn't give concrete and strong opinions to convince her. It tells me– us we've to know the story very well so we can take a firm stand for what we think is correct (and to make our answer believable/convincing cause the examiners are pretending they know nothing about Dear Mr Kilmer though they'd read the story more than we do).

Besides that, this year's ULBS also taught me I should be more careful when granting the question's demand. There is this one particular session I remember the most. "One has to struggle to improve one's life." With close reference to the text, how far is this true of the novel you have read? Like the pair (Heng & JH) that worked on this question, I also thought that we've to write about how character A had struggled to improve character B's life. They wrote about how Richard had improved Hannah's life. The answer was almost flawless. There are sufficient explanations and evidences but Pn Monica rejected their answer immediately because their answer is totally out from what the question asked. "One has to struggle to improve one's life." Turns out the question was trying to say how character A had struggled to improve it's own life.

Questions can be tricky and misleading sometimes.

Shouldn't let my guard down.

Last but not least, I had lots of fun. Hey, showmanship is really important too, okay? Imagine all 28 of us are deadass monotone, no jokes, no laughter, no awkward smiles, no sudden comments from the crowd that cracks everyone up, what would it be like? I swear I couldn't live in a class like this. I would rather jump off a building (just kiddin') than facing kiasu-kiasi people with deadpanned manners.

🐯 Rawr 🐯