Journal 21

     I finally Skype with Jack Sung today. This was the first time we met on Skype. I wanted to go to bed at 24:00. I went to Taipei on Sunday and came back at around 21:30, so I want to go to bed early. I logged out when I finished my homework, but Jack said that he wanted to Skype with me. We Skype from 24:00 to 1:30. I thought that we hadn’t seen each other for a long time, so I spoke loudly and excitedly. My mother and father were disturbed by my voice. I turned off my computer right after my mother came to my room. In the morning, I continued the homework which I hadn’t finished. I spent majority of time searching my admission essay topics for each school. For some schools, I had to create account first and then was available to see the essay topic. I had to write around 10 essays, but I only finalized 2 of them. I had a weird homework for AP Human Geography that each group needed to prepare a debate which was about immigration. I thought that my topic was not difficult to prepare, but I was afraid how to debate with other groups tomorrow.

Journal 20

     Wow lovely weekend. Next Monday is Taiwanese holiday, so that day is day off. We don’t need to go to school. I had a busy weekend. Originally, I had an appointment with Ms. Pamela on Friday after school, but someone’s parents came first. Some students and my schedule would be delay. Melissa and I waited until 18:30. Finally, Ms. Pamela’s office door was open. It was time for our appointment, but Ms. Pamela said that she had an appointment at 19:00. We couldn't talk to her on Friday. She told us that she would stay at school on Saturday for whole day, so I went to school at 10:00. Unfortunately, another student’s parents came too. I waited for two hours and finally was my turn. I really wanted to finish the appointment because it was too late if I still didn't get my school list. I want to apply UC’s schools. On my school list, there were five UC schools and others were at east coast such as Massachusetts, New Jersey, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Michigan, and Texas. I needed to retake TOEFL in Oct, 22th. I hoped that I could get at least 95 on the test. I will make it.

 

Journal 19

     OMG! I just checked my veracross and I found I failed the History of American Music class. I’m a senior now, so GPA is extremely important to me. It shouldn't be any score below A- on my score report. Each week we had a small quiz about what we learned in a week. There were only four to five questions for each test, so it was totally hurt my grade even I only got one wrong. The teacher for this class also didn't assign any homework. Our grades were all coming from weekly quizzes. I couldn't believe that I got this kind of low score in my life. I wanted to ask teacher about what could I do to improve my grade. I am willing to do any kind of extra assignment. Beside this course, I did okay on other courses. My mood was low now because of this low grade. I worried that if there was no way to fix my grade. In fact, I didn't really want to take this class when I filled the schedule, but there were no classes I could take. All senior only could have two study hall classes. That was why I had to take this course.

 

Journal 18

     I started to prepare for math 2 after taking SAT on last Saturday. I hadn't study for math 2 since 3 months ago. I was afraid that I forgot almost every formula and tip. When Ms. Liu said that we had a one hour test during the class, I was nervous because I thought that I might not get a good score. I calculated fast and skipped the questions which were more complex and did them later. I found that I had around 15 minutes after I went through all the questions. I went back to those questions which I just skipped. I left 5 blanks and got 9 wrong. My raw score was 34 which equaled 700. I was surprised that I got at least 700. Although it was not a bad grade, I thought that I should get at least 750. I figured out the questions I got wrong after the test and I found that this test was not that hard. I did some practices everyday. Actually, my goal for math 2 was at least 750. I went home at around 5:30 p.m. My father and brother didn't eat dinner at home, so my mom and I could start our dinner early.

 

Journal 17

      “All seniors please come to the office.” I heard this announcement right after the bell rang. Ms. Pamela was very upset that we didn't meet the deadline which she set. She said that we should follow what she said. After I went home, I did my homework first and then sent an e-mail to Ms. Pamela. I told her about my current situation that I list some important things and gave her some brief description. My job was to get a good grade on my TOEFL test. I needed to take SAT math level II in November and TOEFL test two weeks later. Actually, TOEFL’s reading should be easier than SAT’s, so I hoped that I could get a high score on TOEFL’s reading part because my SAT’s reading was weak. My listening was weak too. Sometime I couldn't catch the main point what did the professor mentioned. The most important time during these two months was to manage my time. I started to do homework right after I went home. If I could, I would try to finish my homework before dinner time, and then I could have more time to do college stuffs. I hoped that I could reach my goal.

Journal 16

    I thought that shouldn't be too emotional. You couldn't decide whether to do things or not depending on your emotion. It was totally not fair to other people. The basic attitude was that you shouldn't treat people well because you were in good mood, and treat people badly because you were in bad mood. After the test on last Saturday, I started my new plan. I focused more on TOEFL within the next three weeks. My goals was to get at least 95, but I needed to work extremely hard. In November 5^th, I needed to take SAT math level II test. I kind of regretted a little bit that I didn't take math test in May because I was very familiar about all the tips at that time. However, someone told me that I could have more time to prepare the test if I took it in November. Unfortunately, I was wrong. I will become busier in the next two coming months. After some many things happened during this summer, I realized that I should decide my own “DECISION”, instead of let other to decide for me. I should be brave to show my opinion. No matter how everything is going on now, I hope that I can do everything well.

 

Journal 15

     The SAT test in October was finally over! I knew that everyone wanted to ask me “How did you do on that test?” I would say that math sections were not very hard. I did all the questions except one question I left it blank and I hoped that this section was experimental one. For reading sections, I couldn’t say that I did a great job on this part, but at least I felt that I could understand majority passages except one or two which I didn’t really know. There were two writing sections. I thought that one of them was hard and the other one was easy. During the test, I did super fast on the last section which was the writing one. I could spot the error quickly. If I didn’t make any careless mistakes, I would probably gain at least 12 points. I was totally exhausted right after I took the test because I was headache. I didn’t sleep well at the night before the test. It was the third time that I couldn’t have a good sleep before taking SAT test. Although I kept telling myself that I shouldn’t be too nervous because I did prepare and worked so hard before the test, I was still very nervous. I hoped that I could get a better score this time.