"My tree bag is too heavy!"
Andre's SA1 results have been a hodge podge mixed bag. First, the good parts - he did well for his maths and English papers. In fact, he actually nearly gave me a heart attack for maths, coming home after his exam and wailing "so hard! I'm going to fail!" I was so concerned as maths is his best subject. False alarm, he scored 92/100, second highest in class. Woohoo! He did quite well for his English as well, except for composition. For doing well in these two subjects, he earned a McDonalds Happy Meal from his very generous form teacher.
Then the not so good parts. He missed his target of 80/100 for science. We were quite forgiving since this was the first time he'd sat for a science exam, but when I saw his paper, I was just baffled by some of the mistakes he made. Like this 3-mark giveaway question where he just had to look at the picture and fill in the labels:
When I asked Andre incredulously, "how is it you couldn't see that Plant A was IN the water, not floating on the water?", he replied, "I thought it was floating under water." Like huh?
But the subject that he scored lowest in was Chinese. I'm not sure if he even managed a Band 2. I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised, even though he came home and told me the paper was "a little bit easy" (he's completely off in his approximation!) He speaks Mandarin like an ang moh, the intonation seemingly random even for the simplest of words and phrases. For instance, instead of "吃鱼" (eat fish), he'll say "吃雨" (eat rain). My kids watch the Channel 8 Chinese drama 书包太重 but Andre will habitually say "树包", prompting me to ask, "what? you carry a tree bag?"
I was quite hopeful when he told me he got third for Chinese listening comprehension. He had scored 8/10.
"You mean no one scored 10/10?" I asked
"Have, some got 10."
"Huh? Then how did you get third?"
"Some got 10, some got 9. I'm the only one who got 8. One other boy got 7."
(Sound of me slapping forehead) "Alamak, so you didn't get third lah! You got second last!!"
During Chinese tuition, I've seen Andre place his head on the table like he's totally weary or stare gloomily at his book. His Chinese tutor is one of the nicest and most patient human beings I've ever met but lately, I've noticed that an edge sometimes creeps into her voice, possibly when she's explaining something to Andre for the thousandth time.
I don't envy her job. She's currently in China for a holiday, I think I'll spare her the bad news of Andre's results until she returns.
Then the not so good parts. He missed his target of 80/100 for science. We were quite forgiving since this was the first time he'd sat for a science exam, but when I saw his paper, I was just baffled by some of the mistakes he made. Like this 3-mark giveaway question where he just had to look at the picture and fill in the labels:
When I asked Andre incredulously, "how is it you couldn't see that Plant A was IN the water, not floating on the water?", he replied, "I thought it was floating under water." Like huh? But the subject that he scored lowest in was Chinese. I'm not sure if he even managed a Band 2. I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised, even though he came home and told me the paper was "a little bit easy" (he's completely off in his approximation!) He speaks Mandarin like an ang moh, the intonation seemingly random even for the simplest of words and phrases. For instance, instead of "吃鱼" (eat fish), he'll say "吃雨" (eat rain). My kids watch the Channel 8 Chinese drama 书包太重 but Andre will habitually say "树包", prompting me to ask, "what? you carry a tree bag?"
I was quite hopeful when he told me he got third for Chinese listening comprehension. He had scored 8/10.
"You mean no one scored 10/10?" I asked
"Have, some got 10."
"Huh? Then how did you get third?"
"Some got 10, some got 9. I'm the only one who got 8. One other boy got 7."
(Sound of me slapping forehead) "Alamak, so you didn't get third lah! You got second last!!"
During Chinese tuition, I've seen Andre place his head on the table like he's totally weary or stare gloomily at his book. His Chinese tutor is one of the nicest and most patient human beings I've ever met but lately, I've noticed that an edge sometimes creeps into her voice, possibly when she's explaining something to Andre for the thousandth time.
I don't envy her job. She's currently in China for a holiday, I think I'll spare her the bad news of Andre's results until she returns.
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