Journal 14

     We had a math test this morning. I thought that I didn’t take it seriously, so I only got 680. I hoped that I could get 750 on the real test. This week was a good one for seniors because I could focus only on SAT stuffs without school works pressure. To postpone camp to this week was a wonderful choice. The daily schedule for this week was to do some practice test, but there were not many of them. Sometimes did too many tests right before the real test was not a wise choice because we might mass up the whole things. In school, I did what teacher told us to do; at home, I reviewed the vocabulary list. SAT vocabularies were difficult and hard to memorize, so I had to continue to review in order not to forget them. Melissa and I hoped that majority vocabularies would come from Paolo’s vocab list. I tried to relax myself this week that I went to bed early and woke up early. The test on Saturday was quiet important because I partly decided my future. I kept telling myself to calm down and caring when I did each question. Good night! It’s time for bed.

 

Journal 13

     There were only four days left for the test on this Saturday. I went to bed early this week because I needed to get more energy. My emotion was kind of down today, but I didn't know why. I just felt some people were too expedient. They wouldn't care whether the things they did were sincere or not because they only cared about whether they got what they want or not. What kinds of people were good students? People who got over 2400 on SAT test, 120 on TOEFL test, 4.0 on GPA, and used some shamelessness ways to get what they want could be called as good students? Why some people would think that good students were only for high-academic people? Although some students didn't show their works in front of you, they did all the works what teacher told them to do. On the other hand, some students tried their best to flatter you and behaved very fake. Every person should get even chance because no one said that high-academic students could have more opportunities than any other students. I really didn't like people who thought they know you very well, but they, however, didn't understand you at all.

 

Journal 12

     Surprise! I got 1910 on SAT Reasoning practice test today. I should get this high score because I took it before. I could kind of remember the questions but not the answers. I still needed to spend time figuring out the correct answer. For this test, I got 540 on critical reading, 650 on writing, and 720 on math. How a wonderful score huh! I was so surprised that I only got 3 wrongs for the questions I did on critical reading. I knew the general idea of each passage, so I could quickly spot the correct answer. Today’s score was even higher than my dream score, which was 1850. For my dream score, I had to get 450 on critical reading, 650 on writing, and 750 on math. The most important thing was that I should avoid making careless mistakes, which would affect my score a lot! In this week, Ms. Pamela didn’t want us to do too many practices. We only needed to review the tests we did before and focused on the wrong questions. In writing section, I noticed that the questions I usually did wrong were the same type of questions. Before the real test day, I should relax myself and sleep well in order to have enough energy on the test day.

Journal 11

     I could get good grades on practice tests, but why I couldn't also get such good grades on real test. There were only five days left for the coming SAT Reasoning test. Majority people were nervous, but they still could show their potential on the real test while I couldn't. I didn’t do well on real tests was because I was too nervous. The universities wouldn't know this face. They just wanted to see our scores. I kept telling me that I must calm in order to see the key words for each question. The biggest problem was that I made lots of careless mistakes when I was too nervous. “Being too nervous won’t help me at all.” I thought that I should keep this sentence in my mind. I disappointed today’s score. I failed writing and math sections. I wasn't good at critical reading, so I needed to gain more points on the other two sections to balance my total score. Unfortunately, I failed my math and writing sections. I couldn't stop worrying because the REAL test is coming soon. Today’s test result would be very close to the one on this Saturday because today’s test was the real one in May 2011. There is another test tomorrow. I hope that I can do well on that test.

Journal 11

     I felt the pressure was getting heavier. The pressures on tests were the heaviest, especially the results of those tests. I told myself that this was my second senior year, so there was no reason for me not to get good grades. I could tell that I improve my math and writing sections, but reading was very limited. It was hard to improve reading a lot in only one year. I wanted to get at least 450 on critical reading. Although this score goal might seem very low to many people, I could get a high total score if I really reach this score. I kept memorizing vocabularies everyday because I would forget them quickly if I didn’t review them daily. I could felt that my parents also worried about my situation, but they didn’t ask me. Maybe they didn’t want to put more pressures on me. I had a plan that I wanted to give my score report as a birthday gift to my mother in November. It would probably be one of her most meaningful present. She must be very happy when she a good grade on the report card and she would definitely proud of me. Go Pamela Chang! You can do it.

Journal 10

     I had three quizzes today, so I went to bed late last night. For History of American Music class, we needed to review what teacher said during classes. Actually, it was not a big and hard quiz. It should be very easy, but I spent more time on other two quizzes. I probably didn't get a good grade on this quiz. AP Human Geography class, I had to memorize all the provinces in India. It contains 27 of them. I didn't hear most of them before I saw them yesterday. Words of these provinces were hard to pronounce and spell them correctly. I thought that the best way to memorize them was to read out loud first and later filled them into a blank India map. After few time practicing, I finally memorize all of them. I got these provinces all right on the quiz. The biggest quiz was British Lit’s one which I spent approximately 2 hours to study, but the quiz was not that hard. Majority of the questions were not at difficult level. I hoped that I could get at least 90 percent questions correct. I want to go to bed early today, however, I still have to study tomorrow’s quiz.

 

Journal 9

     Today Mr. McCool gave us an interesting topic to write. The topic is "What do you think people like to hear the details of a story, and not just a synopsis or summary?" I think that the biggest missing part of a summary is detail. Details are very important to a story. They are like a frame of the story, so a story can’t form without it. Summary is to conclude the main point and grab the big idea from a story. On the other hand, details are descriptions or examples of the story. People tend to hear the details of a story, and not just a synopsis or summary because it is hard to completely understand and involve to it. For example, the story of “Three Little Pigs” is about how they build different houses to protect themselves and prevent the big bad wolf’s coming. We can’t feel anything by hearing this brief description of the story. However, we might have more pictures in our heads if there are more details, such as how these pigs build their houses, how their personalities different from others, and how their actions when face with the wolf. Those details provide more information about the story, so we can quickly understand what the story is talking about. Storyteller and writer can use some exaggerated words to attract readers. Therefore, to make a story interesting is to add more details.